The Metropolitan Water Board (MWB) is the administrative body of the Onondaga County Water District (OCWD). Its mission is to provide clean, safe, reliable, sustainable and cost-efficient wholesale drinking water from Lake Ontario to the Central Upstate New York region. Integral to this mission is the MWB’s role as an essential public health resource and economic development asset for the community.
The MWB was created to provide wholesale drinking water from Lake Ontario to municipal corporations and public authorities and to supplement the limited capacity of the area’s primary retail water utilities – Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA - Otisco Lake supply) and The City of Syracuse (Skaneateles Lake supply). The MWB system has the capacity to sustain production of up to 60 million gallons/day and store in excess of 110 million gallons of water for emergencies, including fire protection and periods of drought.
From an intake off the shore of Oswego, New York, MWB pumps "raw" water to its nearby Water Treatment Plant where it is filtered, purified and tested prior to the transmission of "finished" water to the Terminal Reservoir in the Town of Clay. By 2014, Terminal Reservoir will be replaced by covered tanks as a means of compliance with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (see Current Capital Projects link). From Terminal, water is pumped to east, west and south to other MWB operated storage facilities and connections.
To fund major capital improvement projects, MWB collects ad valorem taxes from three zones of assessment and external (outside of the OCWD) customers. Operating and maintenance expenses are supported by sales revenue generated through wholesale water rates.
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Chairman
Ferdinand L. Picardi
Executive Director
I. Holly Rosenthal
Board Members:
Vice Chairman
Harold E. Rook
Members
Justine P. Bush
Gary J. Lavine
Terence A. J. Mannion
Deborah L. Somers
Robert F. Tomeny
Metropolitan Water Board - Onondaga County Water District
4170 Route 31, Clay, NY 13041-8739
Telephone 652-8656
FAX 652-1977
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