Onondaga allocates $69m wastewater bond authority between Metro annex and Harbor Brook
Onondaga County, Department of Water Environment Protection, New York · Meeting date: October 27, 2026 · Published: October 28, 2026
The committee’s action assigns $51.5 million of a 2023 sanitary-district bond authorization to clarifier and gallery renewal at Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant and $17.5 million to the Harbor Brook Pump Station. County finance staff said the measure adds no borrowing authority or debt-service change.
Key points
- $51.5 million is allocated to the Clarifier and Gallery Asset Renewal project at Metro WWTP.
- $17.5 million is allocated to the Harbor Brook Pump Station project.
- The resolution supplements a June 2023 authorization for $69 million in Onondaga County Sanitary District bonds.
- Finance staff described the action as a clarification of subproject allocations, with no increase in total project cost, debt service or borrowing authorization.
Full report
Onondaga County’s Ways & Means Committee has approved a supplemental bond resolution that separates the funding allocation for two components of the Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant annex asset-renewal programme, assigning $51.5 million to clarifier and gallery renewal and $17.5 million to the Harbor Brook Pump Station.
The measure amends a June 2023 bond resolution authorising up to $69 million of county bonds for improvements in the Onondaga County Sanitary District. As originally adopted, the full amount was allocated to the Clarifier and Gallery Asset Renewal project at Metro WWTP, although the bond authority had been intended to finance both that work and the Harbor Brook Pump Station.
CFO Christy Smiley told the committee that the action was a clarification made through the county’s annual review with bond counsel. “There’s no increase,” she said. “We’re not asking for a total cost increase. We’re not asking for additional authorisations or changing any debt service.”
The supplemental resolution sets the maximum estimated cost of the two purposes at $69 million and retains the original plan to finance them through the authorised county bonds. It establishes a 40-year period of probable usefulness for each project under New York’s Local Finance Law.
Under the resolution, the county’s Chief Fiscal Officer may issue and sell bond anticipation notes, subject to state law, and may execute financing agreements with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and/or the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation for financing or refinancing of the projects.
The bond obligations are backed first by assessments on taxable property within the sanitary district sufficient to meet principal and interest payments. The resolution also provides that all taxable property in the county would be subject to ad valorem taxation if payments were not made from that source.
Committee members asked whether any work had changed from the original programme or whether changes were expected in the coming year. Smiley said no to both questions. The measure passed without opposition.
This summary was generated by AI based on the source document and may contain errors.
Source: Ways & Means, Onondaga County, Department of Water Environment Protection