BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

MASSENA -- Village trustees have formally approved an agreement for the village to sell up to $300,000 worth of water to Air Products and Chemicals annually.

The new green hydrogen facility will be built on a plot of land over 80 acres in size on Pontoon Bridge Road and will employ roughly 90 workers once complete.  

Site clearing is currently underway with initial construction likely to begin this summer.

According to Mayor Greg Paquin, the contract was finalized for some time and just required formal approval by the board.

Now that the deal is official, Air Products moves one step closer to production, which will begin in the fourth quarter of 2026, officials say.

The facility will produce 35 metric tons of green hydrogen every day, Air Product officials previously said.

Roughly 1 million gallons of water will be used each day, they said.

The total cost for the facility will be around $500 million, with millions of dollars in annual maintenance expected, Air Product officials said.

A $77,000 study was also approved by the board recently, with LaBella Associates, D.P.C. slated to conduct a water treatment plant intake evaluation for the facility.

Half of the cost of the study will be covered by a $38,500 Empire State Development grant.

Town officials are also considering lowering the speed limit on Pontoon Bridge Road due to the construction that will soon be underway.

The change in speed would run from Route 131 to the village line on North Main Street, Highway Superintendent Dylan Casselman said.

According to Air Products Construction Manager Michael Clemson, when construction is underway, more and more vehicles would be entering and exiting the highway at the site.

Though flaggers have been used and road signs have been posted, Clemson noted close calls in recent weeks.

“I’ve been the construction manager on the site prep phase. If anyone’s been out there on Pontoon Bridge, you’ll notice a large area that’s been cleared there. Going into next year when we get in peak construction you might have 300-plus cars coming on that site each day,” he previously said.

With more vehicles coming and going from the site, the odds go up that an incident may occur with the current speed limit, officials said.

Clemson said one such incident occurred when one vehicle was following another too close going into the construction zone before attempting to pass.

Despite having the site marked and flaggers on site as a large truck was backing in, a collision nearly occurred, he said.

Though Bellor said the process could be slow depending on New York State's actions, Clemson said Air Products should be OK for now but noted "a year from now it will be much different."