McKownville
Improvement Association
McKownville sewer system and Sewer District
The Pitkin-Witbeck Realty Company system
The Pitkin-Witbeck Realty Company laid out the Country Club
Highlands development in 1912, and soon after had a combined storm
drain/sewer system installed for all the streets in that
development, mostly using the common alleys
for their location. According
to William Embler, each house had a septic tank; an overflow
pipe from each of these was connected to the combined drainage pipe
system. Most of these drains were connected to a main along the
north side of Western Avenue, crossing that between Arcadia and
Hillcrest Avenues, and then to a disposal field and outfall at the
east branch of the Krumkill south of the Helme Farm. Sewers on
Knowles Terrace, and on Arcadia, Hillcrest and Brookwood Avenues
also connected to this drain. For the time, this was a modern
system; most houses in McKownville on the streets that connected to
Western Avenue had indoor plumbing, and there were few outhouses!
However, the minutes of the McKownville Improvement Association in
the 1930's and early 1940's show that parts of the system were not
well constructed, with several quite expensive repairs and
extensions being necessary, funded by the homeowners, coordinated by
the Improvement Association. The Pitkin-Witbeck Realty Company did
not take reponsibility for such repairs, it seems apparent from the
surviving records, mainly these minutes of the Improvement
Association.
In 1946, residents were told in the report
of the Improvement Association Water and Sewer committee that the
existing sewer systems did not meet the State Department of Health
requirements, and that the Health Department was aware of this fact.
This report also states that ownership of the storm drain/sewer
overflow system was even then not clear, and that no one seemed to
be responsible for it.
The 1948 Decision
document of the NY State Water and Power Control Commission
notes that at that time: "Three privately owned sewer systems serve
parts of the hamlet and discharge their sewers into [the] Krum Kill
some distance below the [water] storage reservoirs. The remainder of
the hamlet is served by individual cesspools or septic tanks."
1950 map showing the McKownville Sewer District system;
this used the existing older installations of the original
Pitkin-Witbeck sewer system and later additions to that; the
connected Farley system from Providence, Mercer and Warren
Streets; and the separate system for Westlyn Court and Terrace,
and Ayre Drive, which had an outfall into the Krum Kill west
branch at the Ayre Drive crossing. Part of the western end of the
Pitkin-Witbeck system drained under Western Avenue near the end of
Elmwood Street, and through a pipe near and under McKowns Grove
Pond to an outfall also in the Krum Kill west branch near the
place where it crosses under McKown Road.
(click on the image for a larger version
- 2MB pdf file)
The McKownville Sewer District system
Starting in September 1944 the McKownville Improvement Association
appointed a committee to investigate and report on the possibilities
for improvement of McKownville's sewer and water system and the cost
of such improvements. A summary
report was released to residents in June 1946, based in part
on an engineering study done in 1945. A taxpayers petition to the
Town was passed, to form the McKownville Sewer District and to
replace all the existing system and install a treatment plant. The
Town Board tentatively approved this plan in April 1947, but the
State Comptroller declined to approve it due to the large debt
burden, additional to the costs for the Water District, that this
would have imposed on residents. The Town formed the McKownville
Sewer District using the existing systems. Despite not meeting State
Department of Health standards in 1946, improvement of this had to
wait until 1969, when a replacement plan similar to that proposed in
1946 was approved; construction was completed in 1973.
A public explanatory document issued by the Town
in 1969 outlining the replacement plan, its funding, and the tax
implications [1MB
pdf]
Two detailed plans showing part of the new sewer system:
Area of Arcadia Avenue to the Krum Kill east branch [3.6 MB pdf]
Area of the Krum Kill east branch to the confluence with the west
branch [4.4 MB pdf]
Photomap of the eastern part of the system (map ?about 2011) [0.45 MB pdf]
Guilderland Sewer District (successor to McKownville Sewer
District, and other predecessors in the Town of Guilderland)
Since 1973, when construction and installation of the new system was
completed, McKownville sewers and storm water drains have been
incorporated into the Guilderland Sewer District, operated by the
Water Department of the Town of Guilderland. McKownville sewers lead
to the pumping plant on the west branch of the Krum Kill between E.
Dillenbeck Drive and Wood Street. The Water
Department public web pages at present do not contain any
information on the system.
Generally this system is out of sight and out of mind, as long as it
works, but there was one notable incident causing significant damage
to the pumping plant; gasoline leaking into the sewer system from an
underground tank of a service station on Western Avenue resulted in an
explosion early one Sunday morning, 1st July 1984.
McKownville sewer, water, and storm drains in 2010, for the area
north of Western Avenue, and the drains running from there into
the area south of Western Avenue.
(click on the image for a larger version - 0.5MB pdf
file)
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