Village of Red Hook SEWER OPERATONS REPORT
Late January/February 2026
We had operational meetings on Jan. 22, Feb. 5, Feb. 19 where we reviewed sewer operations. Present were Village Engineer Robert Flores, Sewer Operator Les Coon, DPW Foreman Jake Smith, Sewer Clerk Jen Cavanaugh, and Mayor Karen Smythe
SEWER OPERATIONS:
ODORS – Throughout February we had a series of odor complaints Feb. 5, 13 & 20 from Red Hook Estates, Feb. 15, 27 (2) from Smith Street. One from Kent Rd. appears to have been a private septic system issue; all the others appear to have come from our EQ tank. Last March 2025, a system to pull the air from the EQ tank into the odor control system was installed. On Monday, March 2, it was discovered that the blower fan that operated this system had failed. The operator thought they had confirmed it was working but it turns out it was not. A replacement fan was installed Monday (3/2/26) afternoon.
NY ALERT NOTIFICATIONS/NOTICE OF VIOLATIONS
On Feb. 20 & 24 there were NY Alerts and Notice of Violations submitted to DEC regarding partially treated discharge. 2/20 was both Plant 1A & 1B. 2/24 was Plant 1B. In both cases solids were lost through the clarifier causing the sand filter to clog and overflow into the clearwell – meaning that the full treatment didn’t happen prior to discharge. DEC issued a letter, attached. To simplify, the flow into the WWTPs was too much for the plants to handle. The design of the plant called for an EQ tank that is too small for proper operations. When the influent comes in all at once, without the extra EQ tank capacity, there is nowhere else for the influent wastewater to go. It is impossible to predict when these extra flows are going to occur. The interim solution prior to the expansion of our EQ tank capacity, is to set up a remote high-level event alarm system so the operator is alerted immediately to a high-level situation. A modem with cell service that will allow for internet access has been purchased and programmed. The full system with floats and sensors is scheduled to be installed and operational by 3/5&6. Once the ground thaws, Archtop will install underground fiber to supply the internet for the future. There is also a second temporary, above ground EQ tank waiting for back-ordered parts. Once these parts arrive, there will be additional temporary EQ capacity to help mitigate the extra flows.
Until we are able to permanently add additional EQ tank capacity, we are operating with several temporary solutions. The alarm system should help to catch these overflow events faster, thus preventing partially treated discharges to occur. This plant design has little if any margin for error.
In late February, we discovered that NYS’s NY Alert system was not distributing all our submitted alerts. We reached out to NY Alert and they did discover that DEC had made an error. From NY Alert:
- After a lot of digging, we have determined DEC made an error when creating the security role that had an incorrect setting preventing you from issuing alerts to the required group despite the template being set up properly. The setting has been corrected, and it should work properly going forward. NY Alert Support
COLLECTION SYSTEM – FROZEN PIPES
With the unusually extended period of temperatures below freezing this winter, we found that some of the pipes from the septic tanks connecting to the forcemains have frozen – the majority of these are tanks in parking lots leaving less insulation from the ground to protect the pipes from freezing. Unfortunately, the design did not call for adequate insulation or depth to ensure these pipes wouldn’t freeze. When the system
called for the pump to come on, the wastewater was not able to go through the pipe, causing the alarm to go off. These tanks must be pumped out by the Village waste hauler until the thaw. We are looking forward to the warmer weather and will be considering options for solutions for next winter.
REMAINING REPAIRS NEEDED
There are some repairs that still need to be made including replacing the return activated sludge valve in plant 1B (old plant) on the West side. When an attempt was made to replace the valve, the surrounding pipe broke. So further work needs to be done to replace the pipe as well as the valve. The UVs have been repaired. There is one sensor that is not reading correctly that needs to be fixed. One of the generators needs a new switch.
ENGINEERING AUDIT
Delaware Engineering has conducted an audit of sewer operations. We are waiting for the report.
WEBSITE UPDATE
The WWTP page under the Sewer Department on the Village’s website is updated regularly. There is a lot of information and documents on this page. Deputy Mayor Kjarval has completed a refresh of the page, reorganizing the data, making it easier to navigate and find information.