Keep Paying Attention

My View:
Water master plan contains wrong numbers, bad conclusions
June 19, 2009

The recently released Orange County Water Master Plan is not about planning but about taking total control of our precious water resource. It must be stopped.

Our communities need representation on a county level to participate in the management of the water resources in each of our towns. Currently the master plan is not the answer because:
* It is based on faulty population assumptions that either seriously exaggerate or understate population growth rates.
* It gives control of our water resources to the Orange County Water Authority without any oversight or local elected officials' input.
* It gives the water authority MTA-like government powers without proper oversight by our legislators or locally elected officials.

As an example, the growth projections the master plan uses for Washingtonville and Kiryas Joel are absolutely wrong, or have been fabricated to support the priorities identified in that document. The Kiryas Joel growth rate used in the plan conflicts with Kiryas Joel's own growth-rate projections as laid out in the Final Environmental Impact Statement in support of the aqueduct pipeline request.

The growth assumptions used suggest that Washingtonville will grow at almost the same rate as Kiryas Joel, which is not supported by the U.S. Census data. The Census shows a significantly smaller growth rate for Washingtonville and a significantly higher growth rate for Kiryas Joel.

The Census growth rates would cause Washingtonville to fall out of the "in need of water" category and thus eliminate the justification for the proposed link between Washingtonville and Cornwall.

The bottom line is that the plan improperly "moves" new population from Kiryas Joel, where it is expected, to Washingtonville, where it isn't. This phony "population transfer" has the effect of concealing the real reasons for the priorities identified in the master plan and that is to get access to 1.7 million gallons a day of Cornwall water for the users of those links.

There is the additional concern that the master plan will give the Water Authority unbridled powers over the control and management of our water once the plan is approved. The Authority will be able to 1) acquire right of ways using eminent domain, 2) sell bonds without legislative approval, 3) charge whatever fees they see fit to build and maintain the links they install and control, 4) once the water is in their system, send it to whomever is linked to that system.

The only involvement of our local elected officials will be powerless "consultation." The Orange County Sewer District is managed by the county; however, local elected officials have complained vigorously to no avail about how that facility is managed, how the capacity is distributed to its members and the lack of meaningful involvement in the budget process. We should assume it will be the same when the Water Authority seizes control of our water supply and decisions.

So I ask, should Cornwall allow the Water Authority to take its water without any oversight or controls in place to protect their own supply?

Since the Times Herald-Record reported in 2007 the wells in Monroe went dry when Kiryas Joel activated a number of wells illegally, this is a real concern. I urge the locally elected officials to resist the kidnapping of their oversight authority and their water supply.

We need to establish a board of commissioners with representation from all the impacted communities to manage our water. We need to resist giving it over to or the Water Authority to be managed like the Orange County Sewer District, where special-interest groups have the most influence.

Robert A. Fromaget lives in the Town of Blooming Grove.