MAYVILLE – Work is underway to secure the needed funds to extend public sewers on Chautauqua Lake’s west side.

The County Legislature’s Public Facilities Committee recently approved a state environmental quality review (SEQR) report on the proposed sewer extension from the Goose Creek pump station along Route 394 to the Sherman Bay pumping station. The county and its sewer districts have been looking at the potential expansion of sewer services from Goose Creek to Prendergast Point and Midway State Park to Hartfield.

Map plans to sewer Chautauqua Lake were completed last year as the next challenge turns to finding funding streams. County Attorney Steve Abdella told the committee the environmental quality review is required for one of the “significant” grant applications the county is looking to submit for the west side extension.

“It’s required that the SEQR review for that potential extension be completed,” Abdella said. “The full environmental forms sent out for the extension proposed a negative declaration as to the environmental impacts of that potential project.”

A negative declaration is a determination that a project will not have a significant adverse environmental impact.

According to a project description provided within the SEQR, the anticipated construction start for the west side sewer extension is 2018. Phase one of the project involves the installation of a force main, which would extend Southeast from the existing Goose Creek pumping station along Route 394 to the existing Sherman Bay station. The county is also looking to modify the Goose Creek pumping station by adding new pumps to convey flows to the Sherman Bay pumping station.

Upon completion of phase one, installation of approximately 46,200 linear feet of pipeline would commence to serve parcels located north of the Goose Creek pumping station through and including the hamlet of Stow. Overall, the sewer project on the west side of the lake is looking to include 770 occupied parcels that are currently served by septic systems.

Sewering the north end of Chautauqua Lake is proceeding as a project within the town of Chautauqua is looking to convert the Chautauqua Heights District’s wastewater treatment plant into a pump station. The town-led project would allow the conveyance of effluent from the plant, which serves Chautauqua Lake Estates, into the North Chautauqua Lake Sewer District’s wastewater treatment plant in Mayville. Properties located between districts would be added to the sewer system.

The estimated cost for the project to decommission the plant, install a pump station and add lines is $3.2 million. Officials met earlier in the year to discuss funding opportunities.

In 2004, Chautauqua Lake was designated as an impaired waterbody by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation due to excessive amounts of phosphorus entering the lake. An official regulatory plan for reducing phosphorus inputs saw completion in 2012. The plan requires substantial reductions in phosphorus inputs by 2018.