The North County Water District Board has approved funding for a study on linking with Fredonia’s water system.

The resolution approved last week authorizes contracting with LaBella — the engineering firm that did a study of Fredonia’s water system last year — “for the purpose of conducting additional evaluation and modeling of the village of Fredonia water system to evaluate the potential interconnection… at a cost not to exceed $69,900.

Fredonia Trustee Jon Espersen, a leader on the village side of efforts to connect with the district, was there for the vote. Espersen inquired how the study would be funded.

District Board Chairman Dan Pacos told him it would be from a combination of Chautauqua County’s American Rescue Plan Act funding and a state grant.

Pacos reiterated how the latest NCWD-Fredonia dance came together. In his role as Pomfret town supervisor, he “reached out the the village and basically said, ‘Last call. We’re going to be hooking up with the North County Water District, if you guys want to be a part of that.'”

He was referring to Pomfret’s long-running water infrastructure project, also known as Phases 2 and 3. The town plans to supply the new infrastructure with district water.

Pacos said he questioned the cost of interconnection between Fredonia and the district as laid out in LaBella’s study last year. That’s because Pomfret and Fredonia already have numerous interconnections, he said.

Pacos went on to criticize former Fredonia Trustee James Lynden, who is an advocate of water independence for the village. “One of our former trustees keeps insisting our connections are not operational,” Pacos said. “I don’t know where he gets that misinformation.”

Pacos said LaBella’s new study will essentially redo its 2023 look at Fredonia’s water but include a new option of connecting with the North County Water District through Pomfret. The 2023 study looked at connecting directly with the city of Dunkirk, which is the sole water supplier to the NCWD.

“The village doesn’t have the money to pay for” the new study, Pacos continued. He said state Sen. George Borrello and Assemblyman Andrew Goodell assisted in finding funding.

Pacos acknowledged that district users pay a higher water rate than Fredonia’s customers. However, the village is “going to save $17 million in construction costs” if it links up with the district rather than replace its own water treatment infrastructure.

Board member Tom Wik, the Sheridan town supervisor, wondered about keeping the Fredonia treatment plant open as a secondary source for the district.

“It would be nice but it would probably cost too much,” Pacos replied. Espersen said it would cost $30 million just to fully dredge the reservoir.

At that point, Dunkirk Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury asserted the city’s contractually assured status as sole water supplier. “Our plant is redundant at every level. We have a 40-year contract to commit to that,” he said.

Woodbury acknowledged that in an emergency, water officials want all the help they can get. However, he asserted, “It’s not a trivial thing to mix different water systems.” That’s because each water system has its own chemistry — for example, he said, the Erie County Water Authority, which supplies Silver Creek, adds fluoride to its water but the nearby North County Water District does not.

Pacos concluded, “Once that LaBella report comes back, we’ll see where this goes. I’m hopeful — it makes sense.”