McKownville
Improvement Association
McKownville water supply and Water District
The Pitkin-Witbeck Realty Co system
1927 USGS map showing the three
dammed ponds along the Krum Kill west branch in McKownville;
(west to east: Harrington's ice pond, the McKownville
Reservoir, McKown Grove pond)
The McKownville water supply was begun by William H Witbeck, and
developed by the Pitkin-Witbeck partnership, using the ponds on the
Krum Kill adjacent to the north side of Western Avenue, originally
dammed and piped by William McKown in the early 1800's.
The Pitkin-Witbeck partnership laid out the Country Club Highlands
development in 1912, and installed
water supply and combined storm drain/sewer systems to service
all the streets in that development. However, this water supply was
mainly by 2½ inch pipes at low pressure, minimal treatment provided
water of dubious quality and, as there were no hydrants, the system
gave no significant fire protection. The minutes of the McKownville
Improvement Association from its beginning in 1924, and continuing
in the 1930's and 1940's show that there were numerous discussions and
reports of attempts to remedy and improve the supply. One
significant improvement, made by about 1930, was the installation of
a 6" main along the south side of Western Avenue to Brookwood Ave,
with six fire hydrants along its length.
The 1948 Decision
document of the NY State Water and Power Control Commission
gives a good summary of the situation at that time:
"Two privately owned water supply systems are now serving water in
parts of the district. On of these, known as the Witbeck system, has
as its source of supply two small adjacent shallow storage
reservoirs located on a tributary of the Krum Kill within the
westerly part of the district and in close proximity to Route No.
20. Approximately ¼ of a mile above the upper of the two storage
reservoirs, another small and shallow pond, known as Harrington’s
ice pond, is located on this same tributary. The watershed of the
storage reservoirs consists of some 1.1 square miles of fine sandy
soil largely over-grown with scrub oak and pine. This watershed at
present is sparsely settled, although several houses are located
along Western Avenue and a somewhat larger number along a dirt road
crossing the westerly portion of the watershed. Most of these houses
have outside toilet facilities. The supply from this system is
pumped from the lower of the two storage reservoirs into a 12,000
gallon concrete tank from which it is delivered to the consumers
through a distribution system consisting principally of 2½-inch
pipe. The use of this source of supply never has been approved by
this Commission or any of its predecessors."....."Neither of these
systems have ever been entirely satisfactory because of insufficient
pressure, obsolete mains, poor control over the quality of the water
and complete lack of fire protection. The only treatment now
afforded the Witbeck source of supply is chlorination and a source
of this character requires at least filtration and sterilization."
William J Embler, who moved here in 1942, in his
reminiscences of
McKownville wrote: "The only treatment was by dragging a bag of
copper sulphate through the pond behind a small boat. This was done
by Frank
Miller who operated the gas station [owned by the Witbecks] at
the end of Fuller Road." However, minutes of a McKownville
Improvement Association meeting
in November 1931 are clear that at least by then the water was
being chlorinated. The copper sulphate treatment would have been to
control the growth of algae in the reservoir; Altamont used the same
method in their reservoir.
A letter in
1983 to the Altamont Enterprise from Mr. Newton Ronan
containing reminiscences of growing up in McKownville in the 1920-30
period (his family lived on Knowles Terrace) says this: "I wonder if
[he] can remember how horrible that water was. My mother used to tie
cloth flour sacks over the faucets in an attempt to filter it. The
sacks would soon be muddy yellow and so would the clothes she
washed."
Map from 1945 showing the Pitkin-Witbeck water system (and the
separate Farley system), including a plan (not the one implemented)
for upgrade [5.9MB
pdf]. Descriptions of the two
systems are given in the engineers report which this map
accompanied.
The McKownville Water 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 the engineering
study and map
done in 1945. A taxpayers petition to the Town was passed, to form
the McKownville Water District and take over the Witbeck system and
make significant improvements to it. The Town Board tentatively
approved this plan in April 1947, and gave its final approval in
August 1947 after receiving assent to establish the Water District
from the State Comptroller. An application by the Town filed in May
1948 with the State Water Power and Control Commission received
approval in June 1948. Acquisition of the existing facilities
and construction of the new water system started soon thereafter;
when completed by about 1951 it provided hydrants on the side
streets as well as more along Western Avenue. The planned sewer
system replacement, however, was not approved by the State
Comptroller, being judged too large a cost burden for the taxpayers
of McKownville. The old sewer system was after resident petition in
1954 taken over by the Town, but improvement of this had to wait
until 1972-3, when a system similar to the replacement plan proposed
in 1946 was approved and constructed.
Part of the acquisitions made for the McKownville Water District
were the ponds and the land surrounding the reservoir, purchased 1 April
1949 from Pitkin Witbeck Realty Company. Some very small
additional leftover pieces of land nearby were purchased by the
Water District much later, 17 April 1961, from
McKown Farm Realty Company, a successor to the Pitkin Witbeck
Company. From this property, a considerable part has later been transferred by easements to
Stuyvesant Plaza, although two proposed sales were prevented.
The residue now forms the McKownville Reservoir
Park.
McKownville Reservoir in 1960 (on left, between Western
Avenue and Stuyvesant Plaza), after construction of the NY Thruway
and Adirondack Northway (crossing the picture left to right).
Harrington's ice pond is in the center, just beyond the Thruway.
(click on the image for a larger version)
While the resulting system was a significant step forward, it was
soon degraded by careless acts during construction of the New York
Thruway in 1953, resulting in significant silting of the reservoir,
and temporary inability of the filtration system to cope with the
turbidity. Similar degradations occurred in 1959 during construction
of the Adirondack Northway, and in 1969 because of the installation
of a sewer main by the City of Albany along Washington Avenue
Extension. Quite apart from these temporary events, routine runoff
from sections of all three of these highways, including salt from
winter operations, was designed to flow untreated into the Krum Kill
drainage upstream of the McKownville Reservoir.
Fred Abele in an article in
the Altamont Enterprise of 15 Aug 1980 recounted the chequered
history of the McKownville reservoir and water supply, and in that
noted: "Raw McKownville reservoir water contains rather high levels
of iron, and the town had a rather poor record of success in
removing the iron. As a result, the water, while safe, frequently
had an undesirable taste, and tended to leave permanent brown stains
on laundry. The purified water also contained considerable
sediment." Dissatisfaction with the water quality was a recurring
issue throughout the period when water was sourced from the
McKownville Reservoir. Abele stated that in 1970 the Water District
began to supplement the supply with water purchased from the
Westmere Water District, and in November 1973 switched entirely to
water from that source, and ceased to use the McKownville Reservoir.
Map of the McKownville and Birchmont Water Districts in 1967 [18MB pdf]
Map of the McKownville Reservoir locality in 1968 [4.6MB pdf]
Attempts were made by the Town Board after 1970 to merge the
McKownville Water district with the much larger adjacent Westmere
Water District. As there were a sufficient number of qualified
objectors, on both occasions the proposed merger required majority
votes separately in both districts in a permissive referendum of
property owners. The first referendum was held 3 May 1977 and the merger was
rejected by a majority of McKownville owners. The second attempt
was held 27 August 1980, and in this a majority of McKownville
property owners voted in favor. Detailed articles were published in
the Altamont Enterprise, one by Fred
Abele, and another by the
Town Water Department Superintendent, explaining the reasons
for supporting the merger, but these also show understanding of why
some were opposed.
Guilderland Water District (successor in 1984 to Westmere,
and McKownville Water Districts, consolidated in 1981)
Since 1973, McKownville water has been supplied by the Water
Department of the Town of Guilderland. The source is mainly from the
Watervliet Reservoir, formed by a dam on the Normanskill, located
northwest of the hamlet of Guilderland Center. A small amount of
Guilderland water comes from three wells in the area south of Nott
Road in the central part of the District. The Town may also take
water from the City of Albany system through an interconnection in
Westmere. The Water Department Annual reports have more
detail on these sources and the treatments applied.
Residences in McKownville on the north side of Western Avenue have
had new water mains and house connections installed recently
(2019-2020), as part of a project
to upgrade the older drainage and water supply infrastructure,
and to separate entirely any storm and basement drainage water from
the sanitary sewer system. The last small part of the water main
replacement in this project should be
completed in 2021. The old water pipes targeted for
replacement were all those of asbestos cement, (marked A.C. on the 1967 map),
and cast iron pipes of less than 6 inch diameter (marked 4" C.I. on the 1967 map).
New trenches mostly within the lines of the streets were excavated
to place the new system; most of the old water pipes were in
different locations and have been capped off and abandoned in place.
Only the 6" C.I. pipes in the Parkwood Street circle, and on Waverly
Place, were retained in the system in the residential streets north
of Western Avenue.
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