North Country Contractors has laid around 5,000 of the 15,000 feet of pipe needed to tie the new wells into the existing water system, according to part-owner of the company, Daryl Zubrzycki. With no services except for the occasional hydrant to add to the line, the straight shot from one end of the mostly unpopulated Kildare Road to state Route 3 is moving quickly at around 1,000 feet per day.

“We just left Massena, so this is like a vacation,” Zubrzycki said. “It’s peaceful out here.”

After an extended process waiting on the state to waive the company’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises certification, the company was approved to start working

Portions of the pipe must be laid through directional boring to comply with the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s regulations on wetlands. A special machine drills horizontally with a wirelessly controlled auger, 6 feet under the surface and the new lengths of pipe are pulled through.

These 48-inch contact chlorination pipes will be used to treat water produced by the village’s new wells. The well water will only require a third of the chemicals currently used to ensure safe drinking water. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

The construction of two pump houses will provide the pressure needed to move water the three miles to state Route 3 and from downtown to uptown. One is being built at the same site as the wells and will be where the water is chlorinated. Two giant, 48-inch contact chlorination pipes sit in the foundation of the future building, which will be finished by winter, though it will not be operational until the spring.

The treatment plant will use a third of the chemicals as the current water system, only chlorinating the water before it enters municipal water lines. In 2014, the state Department of Heath determined the village water was over the safe zone for by-products of the disinfection process. Organic materials, such as leaves or algae can form trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, as water is treated with chlorine disinfection. Both these by-products have been linked to harmful side effects after prolonged exposure, including an increased risk for cancer.

The new treatment system will be healthier and cheaper to run on a daily basis.

The wells will pull 800 gallons a minute of water from a stream of water running through a gravel bed deep underground. The two wells sit atop a high ridge separating Pitchfork Pond and a wetland area owned by Lyme Timber Company, which has granted a 100-year easement for use of their property.

Thousands of years ago, glaciers receding from the North Country wore a notch in the rock and dumped large amounts of gravel inside. This encased stream of water flows through a gravel cavern, along the length of the ridge and acts as a natural filtration system.

This water source was found by landscape architect Claude Cormier who has found water sources for several other North Country municipalities and has been estimated to produce more than 800 gallons of water a minute.

A second water mainline on McLaughlin Avenue will connect the uptown and downtown water tanks, allowing the tanks to be controlled telemetrically. Currently, the uptown tank, which sits at a higher elevation, does most of the work, with water in the downtown tank sitting still unless there is an especially large draw. The new system will allow water levels in both tanks to be controlled simultaneously and remotely.

The downtown tank will feed customers up to around the Oval Wood Dish Company building on Demars Avenue and the uptown tank will take over from there.

When the water begins to flow telemetrically and in the opposite direction, dirt which has accumulated due to water traveling in one direction for many years will be shaken loose.

“The water might get riled up; it might be dirty,” said village water department Superintendent Mark Robillard. “Let it run, put water in the tub or if you have a garden hose you can run it in your yard.”

The village will be doing a routine water flushing soon, which results in the same sediment in the water for a day or so.