A massive flood from a broken pipe that would cost a million dollars to fix are among the things that keep Town Supervisor Mike Marnell awake at night.

The 100 year-old pipe is located somewhere behind the properties between Route 9 and Broad Street. That’s why there’s an informational briefing on Town’s Storm Water Run Off Grant on the agenda of the Schroon Lake Town Board tonight. Monday, March 13 at 6pm).

Besides avoiding a flood caused by the old pipe, the proposed project involves keeping Schroon Lake pristine. That’s because the project also invoked a system remove contaminants from the runoff water from the grounds of the Schroon Lake Central School and Route 9, before it flows from the gutters into a pipe that run almost 200 feet in an L shape into the lake near the Town Dock.

The town would like to use about $132,000 of the left over funds from Schroon Lake, Brant Lake, Horicon and Chester Watershed Master Plan to partially fund the project, which has an estimated cost of a little under $300,000, according to Mr. Marnell.

“Right now, after a storm or rain shower, everything from Route 9, and the Schroon Lake Central School gets flushed from the gutters into Scrhoon Lake,” Mr. Marnell told Scrhoon Laker today.

A plans for eliminating the contaminants involve drilling down 20 feet and drilling a series of 14 inch diameter holes  horizontally for new pipes. The water would go through a series of four swirlers, outfitted with baffles, which would use centrifugal force to separate the water from silt which contains many of the contaminants. Those are cleaned once a year.

“if we don’t do it now, the price to fix this later on could cost up to a million dollars, Mr. Marnell said referring to a potential flood.

It’s one of the projects where you can’t see the value of what it costs, but the benefits outweigh a lot of negatives. 

And how would the difference be funded?

“Because this falls under Highway Maintenance, we could get $50,000 from the Highway Fund and the rest from the General Fund.”

Mr. Marnell reviewing a plan for a proposed new drainage system.