Effective May 15th, 2023 the Saratoga County Sewer District has agreed to accept the west side sewer system and assume maintenance and operational responsibility. The Town of Ballston has sent a letter advising this to both the west side and east side residents.
In accordance with the Town of Ballston Sewer Law, Ballston property owners have three years from July 25th, 2022 to connect to the new sewers. Exemptions are available.
Instructions and guidance for connecting to new sewers are available in the 16-page Connection Manual: Connection-Manual-6-15-22.1.pdf. After selecting your contractor and purchasing your grinder pump (if required), you will need to file two permits, with your town and with Saratoga County. Many of the contractors will do the applications for you:
Ballston: Wastewater Permit Application (townofballstonny.org)
Clifton Park: Building Permit Application (cliftonpark.org)
Please note that property owners are responsible for hiring their own contractor to complete construction of their final sewer connection. It is recommended that homeowners reach out to their own private contractor for details and questions regarding specific sewer requirements for their specific properties.
If you have any general questions on connection requirements, please feel free to reach out to the Saratoga County Sewer District.
Sewer construction is a messy process in the short term. Contractors are required by our written contract to remediate any damage, including property and roads. Initial remediation is temporary to ensure safety and protect from erosion.
Contractors typically install the main lines, manhole structures, pressure test and then come back and install individual resident connections last. Because of this process it doesn’t make sense to do the final remediation until all other work is done.
Westside Drive will be repaved because the sewer line must go down a cut in the roadway due to the locations of gas and water lines on opposite sides of the road. Other roads, public or private, will be evaluated after work is completed and appropriate repair or repaving done to return the road to equal or better than the initial condition.
Contractors are required to take “before” pictures (or videos) to document the conditions. This protects both the residents and the contractor. It’s perfectly fine for residents to take their own “before” pictures of their property.
“Retainage” is withheld from each payment to the contractor. This is a percentage of the payment retained by the Town and paid to the contractor at the end of the project. This is an industry practice to assure that the contractor satisfactorily completes the entire project including any required remediation.
A letter is distributed to each resident prior to work, starting in their area. It includes a contact number for the Project Manager, Adirondack Mountain Engineering (AME). There is also an AME inspector onsite monitoring each contractor. If residents have specific concerns, they should either discuss them with the onsite inspector or contact AME. Residents should refrain from discussing concerns with individual contractor personnel who may not be fully aware of the details of the contract. Residents should also be aware that contractors are not allowed to accept additional work from residents until after the sewer project is completed.
Town of Ballston Sewer Committee