The Town of Lake George is getting some help from the state to upgrade its aging sewer system. As our Matt Hunter reports, the grant comes almost a year after a sewage leak forced the closure of the popular Million Dollar Beach.

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. – The Town of Lake George has been awarded a $343,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to make ongoing upgrades to the Caldwell Sewer District.

“The Caldwell Sewer District is right on the shores of Lake George, it is key to the environment," said Lake George Town Supervisor Dennis Dickinson, who noted that the sewer system was built in the 1940s and '50s.

The funding was awarded last week, not quite a year after water at the nearby Million Dollar Beach tested positive for high levels of E. coli, resulting in the popular swimming spot being shut down for several weeks.

"Of course, that is headline news across the country and not good,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson says the town spent almost $25,000 trying to identify the source of contamination.

"It’s an open water source,” he said. “There are all kinds of things that affect it.”

Public works crews eventually discovered the leak was caused by a broken sewer line in the area of Beach Road. Dickinson says National Grid workers accidentally and unknowingly damaged it when installing a new gas line under the street a few years earlier.

Dickinson says the repairs were quickly made last summer, thanks in part to a quarter-million dollars from the state. The beach was re-opened once the water levels were deemed safe.

"It is absolutely necessary to maintain the water quality, especially in the swimming area,” Dickinson said. "Lake George is a water source. The village takes all of their water out of Lake George."

The new grant will help shore up the system in the surrounding area, something Dickinson hopes will prevent future problems.

“We have a much better system, and hopefully this year, we will not have the issues we had last year,” Dickinson said.