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Disabled Tank Tied To Fredonia Water Crisis

Pictured is the Fredonia water treatment plant.

For more than six months, the village of Fredonia’s water department has been operating without a back-up storage tank. At the present time, the Webster Road unit remains out of service — and is waiting for a key part that has been ordered before it can go back online.

That issue is what ultimately has led to the boil-water order for users, including those in the town of Pomfret, that was put in place by the Chautauqua County Health Department on Wednesday. Routine maintenance at the reservoir, which is feeding the village system, led to the breakdown that occurred during the afternoon.

For village officials, it is not a good look.

Less than four months ago, users faced a similar order that was due to a mechanical issue in the plant. That order lasted from Feb. 26 to March 1. This current order, if all goes accordingly, could be lifted sometime Saturday.

Though no stranger to the water crises — six since 2009 — the patience of village residents is being tested. In April, Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas offered a proposal to have the city of Dunkirk provide village residents with water through its newly refurbished and state-of-the-art treatment facility on Lake Shore Drive.

In the plan, Dunkirk would supply 1.3 million gallons of water per day to Fredonia. It would come through three connections: through the Vineyard Drive pump station the communities share, and two Route 20 linkups on either end of the village. The Route 20 infrastructure belongs to the North County Water District, but Dunkirk is the sole supplier of that. To even consider that option, a study was approved by a contentious 3-2 vote by the Village Board in May.

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