GREENFIELD — The Ways and Means Committee is recommending $700,000 in bonds as part of the Department of Public Works’ fiscal year 2026 budget requests to dredge the Green River water supply intake and to plan clay pipe replacements and repairs throughout the city.

While the $500,000 river dredging was the department’s most costly FY26 request, the committee on Tuesday discussed, and positively recommended, roughly $1.5 million in DPW requests for a variety of projects, such as $16,000 for an electric vehicle for meter reading, $35,000 for the inspection of the Adam’s Hill water storage tanks, and $200,000 to continue inflow and infiltration work.

Last year, the city borrowed an additional $500,000 toward the repair and replacement of sewer lines. DPW Director Marlo Warner II outlined the multi-year planning process, noting that when the DPW began studying the pipe replacement six years ago, it was expected to cost roughly $5.6 million. Warner added that his department has overseen roughly 90% of the replacement, repair planning and inspection process.

“These pipes are 100 years old or more. It’s kind of like, you fix one crack in a pipe and two more develop,” Warner told committee members. “This $200,000 will get us into a place where, hopefully, we can start tackling the actual hands-on repairs. We’ve still got some repairs we’re going to do with the in-house sewer division, but I don’t believe in borrowing money and letting it sit there for three years.”

Warner said that since the project started in 2019, the DPW has had to “hit the reset” button as initial flow tests were performed during a drought year. After conducting an additional test to run cameras, dye and smoke through the pipes during a wet year to find leaks, he said infiltration and inflow rates have improved significantly.

After At-Large City Councilor Michael Terounzo asked Warner when the Green River had last been dredged, or cleaned out, he said he did not believe it ever had been, remarking that Hurricane Irene might have naturally dredged the river when it struck the region as a tropical storm in 2011.

Explaining that the Green River intake, or filtered channel, is responsible for roughly one-third of the city’s water supply, Warner said the engineering and design has to pass through numerous regulations that are unique to river dredging, as opposed to the cleaning of a reservoir.

“We have to actually turn the Green River down at this point because it’s filled in so bad in the middle of the island, and starting to cut the intake off,” Warner explained. “Dredging the Green River is a whole different subject compared to dredging our main water supply source. … The permitting and study are much bigger.”

When Terounzo asked Warner if he had a preliminary estimate for the project’s total cost, Warner said over the next few years it could cost the city $8 million to $10 million. After Precinct 3 City Councilor Michael Mastrototaro confirmed with Terounzo that the project would have to be funded entirely by the city, Terounzo joked that he had to ask the question but “really didn’t want to know the answer.”

The fund allocations were on the agenda to be read for the first time at Wednesday evening’s City Council meeting and will be put to a vote by the full council in April.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.