October 21, 2005
Ruling cheers opponents of KJ pipeline
By Chris McKenna Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com
decision available at:
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/10/21/pipe21.htm
Goshen – Opponents of Kiryas Joel's proposed connection to New York City's Catskill Aqueduct won a big victory yesterday when a judge ordered the village to continue studying the water project's potential impact. Ruling on a lawsuit brought by Orange County, acting state Supreme Court Justice Stewart Rosenwasser declared that Kiryas Joel's environmental review inadequately addressed several issues, including the treatment of wastewater that the pipeline would generate.

The decision doesn't in itself stop the project, but it requires Kiryas Joel to prepare an additional report – known as a supplemental environmental impact statement – that provides a fuller analysis of those issues.

Opponents of the water project were jubilant. "I'm thrilled at the outcome," said county Legislator Roxanne Donnery, a Highland Falls Democrat. "I'm not surprised." But she and Frank Fornario, a Republican colleague who helped goad the county into an unlikely confrontation with Kiryas Joel, also criticized County Executive Ed Diana for not intervening in the $22 million project before a lawsuit became his only recourse. "We got involved a little later in the project than I would have liked," Fornario said.

Michael Edelstein, a Democrat challenging Diana for office on Nov. 8, joined in that line of criticism: "This is exactly the kind of place where Eddie should have been at the beginning. Instead, he was asleep."

Diana was attending a ceremony for retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at West Point yesterday, but his office issued a statement from him that merely recounted the events that led to the suit and avoided any fist-pumping. "I stated early on that a lawsuit is always the last resort," Diana said.

Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin and one of the village's lawyers both expressed disappointment in the decision and left open the possibility of an appeal. Szegedin said the village still plans to proceed with its 13-mile pipeline. "We believe the environmental review that we did was very thorough and complete," Szegedin said. Daniel Ruzow, an Albany attorney who argued for the village in court, said Rosenwasser ignored "a variety of issues regarding selective enforcement." "He bought the county's arguments," he said. "The county has never applied those arguments toward any other project."

The village proposed building the pipeline to secure an ample water supply for its booming population and end its reliance on limited ground water. The pipe would cross through several towns and tap the Catskill Aqueduct in New Windsor. Residents and officials from neighboring communities launched a vehement protest last year, arguing that access to a virtually unlimited water source would perpetuate overdevelopment in Kiryas Joel and fuel its future expansion.

Spencer McLaughlin, a county lawmaker whose district abuts Kiryas Joel and who helped lead the Legislature opposition, said the ruling vindicated the environmental concern he first highlighted: the scarcity of sewage-treatment capacity. "It's not the end of the fight against the pipeline," McLaughlin said. "It's the end of the beginning of the fight against the pipeline."

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