Wayne County Water and Sewer Authority was celebrated last week at the Council of Infrastructure Finance Authoritities (CIFA) Summit in Washington, DC. 

The NYS EFC (Environmental Financing Corporation) proudly shared in honoring the Authority with US EPA’s George F. Ames PISCES Award for “Excellence in System Partnerships.”

EFC nominated the Authority for this distinguished national award for its collaboration with the State, the Towns of Marion, Macedon, Walworth, Palmyra and the Village of Palmyra to consolidate four aging wastewater facilities into one state-of-the-art system.

Funded with $64.5M from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $41M in State grants, the project strengthens infrastructure, protects local waterways, and delivers affordable solutions—all made possible through effective government partnership.

Accepting the honors at the Summit were Wayne County Water and Sewer Authority’s Director Marty Aman and the Authority’s Director of Engineering Mark Bailey. 

Marty Aman was honored to receive the award for the project, but especially as the honor was for the partnership and collaboration that led to the project success.

All participants in the Regional project worked together to consolidate treatment facilities and to alleviate the communities of the huge burden of caring for outdated and inefficient sewer plants.

The original talks on consolidating services began with the Town (and former Village) of Macedon, which were dealing with a hefty cost for updating their deteriorating wastewater plant. The town was to take over the facility after the Village dissolved and were faced with an unsurmountable debt for updating. They discussed this with the Wayne County Water and Sewer Authority, who also was running the Village of Palmyra wastewater plant. Figuring that a consolidation would be the best plan, Macedon and Palmyra were to be the two towns consolidating. 

Marion soon joined the mix, with their aging plant presenting concerns from NYSDEC. While a financial plan was being written and calculated for the three municipalities, Walworth jumped in and the financial plans were rewritten and quoted. 

With all four towns now online, the new Regional facility will bring Walworth, Marion, Macedon and the Village/Town of Palmyra into DEC (New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and federal EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) compliance. 

 The new facility consists of a treatment process including influent screening, grit removal, biological treatment, filtration and effluent disinfection, along with aerobic digestion and dewatering equipment for biosolids. Following complete treatment, the water is then discharged into the adjoining Erie Canal.