Southern Chautauqua County has been blessed not to have issues with dependable water like our counterparts in the north county – but that doesn’t mean all is perfect.

Using wells and reservoirs mean times like the late summer and early fall drought that finally gave way to some rain this week can be a real pain if you live in a rural area that isn’t served by municipal water. That’s why towns like North Harmony periodically flirt with extending municipal water to populated areas like Ashville or why the town of Ellery is considering extending water service to Bemus Point and Greenhurst.

North Harmony officials recently decided against extending municipal water largely for one reason – cost. Extending water lines is an expensive proposition, especially since the North Harmony project would be coming on the heels of a sewer extension as part of the effort to install sewer lines around Chautauqua Lake to keep waste from private septic systems from ending up in Chautauqua Lake. But paying for the sewer project and the fees to hook up to it is a heavy lift for town taxpayers. We wonder if the same issue will come up for Ellery residents as the Ellery Town Board gauges interest in extending public water service.

There are pluses and minuses to these municipal water projects. On the plus side, dependable water service means opening up more land to development and brings an end to worrying about whether or not water will come out of the sink when we have a particularly stubborn dry spell. The minus is obvious – cost, particularly in a county with a high poverty rate and at a time when no one’s money goes as far as it used to.

Chautauqua County had to take the lead on sewers around Chautauqua Lake. Even before the 2012 DEC Total Minimum Daily Load document indicated sewers around the lake were needed to decrease phosphorus entering Chautauqua Lake county officials knew sewers around the lake were necessary. County officials, along with sewer district board members at various points around the lake, led what we feel is a necessary, though costly, effort to sewer the lake. In our view a similar effort is needed if we are to pursue municipal water service around the lake.

One place to start is a study of southern Chautauqua County so that we can have a regional analysis of the costs, benefits and drawbacks of municipal water. It would be helpful to have an idea how much the southern part of the county is likely to need to spend for municipal water and to possibly begin staging those projects. It’s a task for which the county is well suited.