Water is a very important ingredient in the "Quality of Life" we have here in Tioga County. The critical aspects of this water ingredient are quantity and quality. Today, Tioga County has an abundance of good clean drinking water, easily accessible. This water comes from the Clinton Street Ballpark Sole Source Aquifer, one of four such aquifers in upstate New York.

 The "sole source" part of the name means that should the aquifer no longer be a viable source of clean drinking water, there is no other economically viable alternative for drinking water.

 With the application by Twin Tier for an electrical generation power plant to be located at the Lounsberry Industrial Park, the issue of Tioga County's quantity and quality of water becomes critical. This plant is intended to be water cooled, using drinking water from the Clinton Street aquifer. The preliminary application previously filed indicated that the power plant would use 4.3 million gallons of water each day.

 A 1989 Hydrological Investigation for Campbell Soups involved a test well approximately 600 feet from the Susquehanna River. At the end of 72 hours pumping at 2000 gallons per minute, the aquifer had been drawn down by up to 6.42 feet. The report states that the ground water levels had not stabilized by the end of the test as the cone of draw down influence was still expanding to intercept adequate recharge to balance the test pumpage. This report also mentioned an overall declining trend of the ground water levels which replenish the aquifer. Campbell Soup declined to locate at Lounsberry.

 This raises this legislator's concern for the quantity of water for Tioga County.

 Twin Tier's power plant plans to return approximately 800 thousand gallons of cooling water to the aquifer via the Lounsberry water treatment plant. 

 This raises this legislator's concern for the quality of water for Tioga County. 

 This is not simply an Owego, Lounsberry, and Nichols issue. The chart from the Tioga County Soil and Water Conservation department illustrates that the affected aquifer includes the towns of Barton, Spencer, Candor, Newark Valley, Berkshire, and Richford as well.

 Let me encourage you to talk to your county legislators and Industrial Development Agency members about our water resource.