WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Watertown won’t get Department of Defense funding this year to help the city pay for an expensive project to improve its drinking water.
Because Watertown provides Fort Drum with 800,000 gallons of water each day, the city could apply for what’s called Defense Communities Infrastructure Pilot, or “DCIP” funding.
The new Watertown YMCA project got $9 million in DCIP funding a couple of years ago. So this year, Watertown applied, hoping to get help on its $50 million project to reduce contaminants found in in the city’s drinking water. But Ken Mix, City Manager, says a list of projects that qualified from around the country was released and Watertown didn’t make the cut. It asked for $20 million.
The city’s water has elevated levels of disinfectant byproducts trihalomethane and halocetic acid. They’re released when chlorine is used to clean water. Although the amounts found in Watertown are below dangerous levels, the city is working to lower them below a threshold mandated by the EPA.
Because the project is so expensive, the city is diverting money from other work. Watertown’s city council voted to move money originally slated for Thompson Park to the water project.
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