Photo by Howard Owens
The city and town of Batavia have potentially come to an agreement about wastewater capacity, and HP Hood will be able to proceed with its $120 million expansion project that’s been halted since March, City Manager Rachael Tabelski says.
Hood’s project was, which involved a state environmental review, temporarily stalled when the city discovered that the town was in violation of a contracted wastewater capacity limit and had also taken on the lead agency role for the proposed expansion of process lines with no word to the city.
At that point, the city said the project cannot proceed, and it has been halted ever since. When asked about the project since then, Tabelski has said that “we are in active negotiations with the towns regarding a new purchase capacity agreement” and an agreement has now been reached.
“We will lift the SEQR challenge to the HP Hood project,” Tabelski said to The Batavian Monday evening, though the agreement still has to go through the official process of votes by the town board and City Council.
Tabelski reviewed the new purchasing terms during Monday’s conference session. The town’s total wastewater flows average 1.4 million gallons per day at four total pump stations, which exceeds the town’s current contractual limit, Tabelski said. The current sewer capacity limit of the town is 850,000 GPD as established in the wastewater facility agreement of Feb. 23, 2015 between the city and town of Batavia.
A new agreement means the town can purchase an additional 350,000 GPD of treatment capacity for a total of 1.2 million for $1,382,500. If the town goes past the 1.2 million, a higher rate of purchase kicks in — the penalty rate — which serves as incentive for the town to remain at that 1.2 million output, Tabelski said.
“We’re trying to incentivize them. We know they’re at 1.4, but we’re trying to get it down to 1.2,” Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said.
Councilman Rich Richmond said that he was looking at the overage rates and believes “that’s a pretty good incentive.”
“So I want to thank you for doing this because I know, I heard how long it took, you had infinite patience, and you negotiated very well for the city,” he said.
Jankowski asked if City Attorney George Van Nest reviewed the deal. He looked at it and worked with the city manager and assistant manager to ensure the numbers covered the city’s thresholds, he said.
“I'm very concerned about making sure that we're within our operating limits, that we’re not pushing it too far, or as much as I love to help out, we only have so much capacity,” Jankowski said.
Jankowski preferred to move the vote to a future meeting so the council could get more public input rather than vote immediately, he said. The town of Batavia is expected to discuss the agreement at its next meeting on Sept. 18.
At this time and until this agreement amendment is revisited, the town's total threshold will be 1,650,000 gallons per day max discharge. The city and town agree to meet every six months to review town flows to ensure that the town stays below the 1.65 GPD max discharge. If it is determined that the town has exceeded that amount, the city reserves all rights and remedies to protect the wastewater treatment facility permit.
Does the city have enough capacity to maintain this additional amount for the town long-term? Is there a future solution?
“Town and city (of Batavia) have plans to move forward with a wastewater treatment plant growth study to support future development,” Tabelski said. “There is remaining capacity reserved for O-AT-KA, other city industries, and housing in the city of Batavia.”
Given the uncertainty regarding the wastewater treatment plant draft permit limits, the town will be solely responsible for funding an expansion study, which will be initiated as soon as practically possible. The city will act as project manager of the expansion study with a professional engineering firm of its selection and will bill the town as invoices are received.
In 1983, the city and town entered into a wastewater facility agreement that outlined the ownership and operation of the new treatment plant. In February 2015, they entered into a wastewater facility agreement and a wastewater metering agreement. The city currently owns 84.55% of the total plant capacity, and the town owns 15.45%.
Due to ongoing development in the town, including the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park, the town’s sanitary sewer flows are exceeding the contractual limit of .85 million gallons per day (MGD) or 15.45% of the total capacity, Tableksi said.
Each city and town resolution in May 2023 identified the parties’ mutual concerns about potential increased flow resulting from the Kings Plaza pump station project, and the average sewer flow was 1.2 MGD. In fall 2023, the town advised the city that HP Hood was expanding but that it was only the warehouse and would not create additional demand for water or sewer capacity. Hood already discharges 1.1 to 1.2 MGD. By the end of 2023, the town’s average sewer flow had increased to 1.33 MGD, Tabelski said.
“This is well in excess of the town’s contractual limit of .85 MGD,” she said. “Consequently, the town has no capacity to allocate to expansion of HP Hood or any other facility at this time.”
The city also cannot permit increased sewer flows from the town of Batavia until the wastewater treatment plan expansion study is complete, she said.
“The city and town still need to enter into a proposed wastewater agreement that was circulated in January 2024. However, this agreement will still not allow for increased discharge beyond 1.2 MGD. This pending agreement will be the town’s limit for wastewater discharge.”
As for its objection to the town being lead agency for the Hood project, Tabelski said that “the town has failed to accurately and timely inform the city about the expansion of wastewater capacity demand at the Ag Park.”
“In addition, the town is in breach of the wastewater agreement with the city by discharging in excess of .85 MGD,” she said. “A lead agent under SEQR is responsible for thoroughly and accurately evaluating the potential environmental impacts prior to making a determination of significance on the action.
“The town’s excess wastewater discharge beyond contract limits threatens the city’s discharge limits and has the potential to exceed the city’s (State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit,” she said. “As a result, the city objects to the town’s lead agency designation for this action under SEQR.”
This has been a good week for Hood, which was named Dairy Plant of the Year. The Hood expansion is to be 32,500 square feet and pledges to create 48 new jobs while retaining 455 full-time equivalent jobs at the Genesee Valley Agri-Business Park. This project accommodates its automatic storage and retrieval system refrigerated warehouse. It will also include new batching and processing systems and other upgrades, which will allow the company to increase capacity and begin a new production line.
For prior coverage about this issue, go to wastewater.
