AMD gets its effluent sorted

IT LOOKS LIKE AMD has finally got its future sewerage needs sorted.

Local county officials in New York State, where AMD said it intends to build a brand spanking new $3.2 billion chip fab, have approved a $52.2 million expansion of the sewage treatment plant next door.

The expansion of the facility on the Hudson River in Halfmoon, allows for the flow of an estimated three million gallons per day of future AMD waste.

The move has caused some local ructions, as the money to finance the deal will have to be borrowed. The district sewer expansion will cost current users an estimated $50 per year to finance, according to the local paper. But the lure of the AMD dollar meant the supervisor vote was swayed towards building a better future.

AMD's plan to build in the Luther Forest Campus are by no means guaranteed, however.

“It’s not just AMD we’re talking about with this expansion, it’s the sustained growth of the county,” one supervisor told the Schenectady Daily Gazette.

"If you support AMD, you have to support the investment in bringing them here,” said another. “We have to get the job done, and that means bonding.”

The bonding excercise means the sewerage plant construction project is being put out to tender to be built within two years. µ