FULTON COUNTY — The Fulton County Board of Supervisors has voted to designate the county as the lead agency in a state Environmental Quality Review Act investigation into the safety of creating a second county sewer district.

The SEQRA process will investigate whether the county sewer line built to support the Fulton County Residential Health Care Facility on County Highway 122 in 1978 can safely accommodate the creation of a second sewer district. If created, Fulton County Sewer District 2 would encompass the area in and around the hamlet of Meco in the town of Johnstown.

Broadalbin Supervisor Lee Hollenbeck, vice chairman of the county board’s Buildings and Grounds Committee, which worked on the SEQRA resolution, said the move to create another sewer district was prompted by the state Comptroller’s Office. He said state auditors discovered the Residential Health Care Facility was being billed for all of the sewer use on the line, even though Fulton County over the years has allowed several additional users to connect, including the Meco Elementary School, the Meco Volunteer Fire Department, a Stewarts Shop and the Gloversville Enlarged School District’s bus garage. He said the only way for Fulton County to legally bill the other users for the sewer line is to create a second sewer district.

“Every time there’s a problem with [that line], because they’ve had two dig-ups with it already — it’s 30 years old — that’s all the responsibility of the Residential Health Care Facility,” Hollenbeck said. “[The state auditors] don’t think it’s fair that tax dollars, or people at the infirmary, alone are doing the cost of the operation and maintenance.”

County officials estimate the Residential Health Care Facility pays from its budget $8,600 per year for the operation and maintenance costs of the sewer line, even though other institutions are connected to it. The county-run nursing home also paid the full cost of building a pump station for the sewer line.

Johnstown town Supervisor Roy Palmateer at a county board meeting Monday questioned whether the county was in effect “shoving a sewer district down people’s throats” in Meco.

Hollenbeck disagreed. He said the county conducted a survey of people living near the sewer district and found that about five of them, if given the option, would connect to the sewer line. He did not know how many potential users are in the rural area. He said a private business has also sought the right to connect to the line, something the state Comptroller’s Office says the county can no longer permit without the creation of a sewer district.

“There was talk around that the county was going to charge everybody whether they want to hook up or not, [but] we’re not going to do that,” he said.

Gloversville 5th Ward Supervisor Michael Gendron said if the county creates the sewer district it will charge users only for the operation and maintenance of the sewer line.

“Roy, we’re not forcing this on anyone,” Gendron said. “When you add areas to a [sewer line without a] sewer district, all of the decisions become emotional. We’re trying to take the emotion out of it, put some thought behind it and create a sewer district.”

Fulton County Administrative Officer Jon Stead said he thinks using a formula of only charging users of the sewer line for the cost of operating and maintaining it will make creation of a new sewer district more palatable for citizens and help remove a barrier to business entities interested in Meco.

“If there are any economic development interests out there it would be illegal for the board to allow them to tap into that line. In order to make everything operate legally you need to form the sewer district,” Stead said.