Pay Attention, Folks

Our View:
Surrounding communities concerned about Kiryas Joel pipeline
June 18, 2009

As supervisors and mayors in southern Orange County, we have heard from many of our citizens who are concerned about the impact of the Village of Kiryas Joel's proposed pipeline to hook into the New York City water system.

The pipeline would run 13 miles through many of our communities, causing major disruptions and impact to the environment. Five years ago when the pipeline plan was first submitted, the county went to court challenging the original Final Environmental Impact Statement on the grounds that it was deficient in a number of areas, including any real plan to deal with the increased sewage capacity that would be required.

The court agreed and ordered that the plan needed to address a number of issues, including wastewater, wetlands and population growth.

Unfortunately, the court did not seem to take the environmental impact review process seriously and allowed Kiryas Joel to file an amended impact statement that is not subject to further review.

The new amended statement most certainly does not answer the court's questions. In fact, the filing is still plagued with erroneous or missing information and miscalculations.

For example, on sewage, the plan claims that a new filtration system will be installed in the Harriman Sewage Treatment Plant, which will double its capacity, and that all of this new capacity will go to Kiryas Joel. In truth, the county has not yet decided if it will install this very expensive and experimental filtration system,. The most optimistic guesses say it might increase the capacity by 50 percent, not double it. Most egregious is Kiryas Joel's claim that all additional capacity, as well as all of the recent 2 million-gallon expansion of the Harriman plant, should go exclusively to its village.

This ignores the rights of the citizens of all the communities that have been involved in the expansion project and who have been on waiting lists for years to be hooked into the system.

To allow this project to proceed without further review will make a mockery of the State Environmental Quality Review process, because the issue is not the pipeline but the necessity that the environmental review be done properly to protect the environment and surrounding municipalities.

All we ask is that all towns and villages be treated fairly and equally when, in too many instances, this hasn't been the case.

The State Environmental Quality Review Act and the review under state General Municipal Law 239 are requirements mandated by law. The law's intent is to protect the environment and coordinate land-use decisions to mitigate intercommunity and countywide impacts. It is the state, county and court's responsibility to ensure that we are all treated fairly and equally under the law. If the laws are not going to be enforced equally across the board, then rescind the laws and put everyone on an equal playing field.

Lastly, there is the question as to whether this pipeline, which will serve only one community and enrich a small group of developers, is the best use of $30 million in taxpayer money.

Signed;
Charles Bohan, Supervisor of the Town of Blooming Grove
John Burke, Supervisor of the Town of Woodbury
Robert Jeroloman, Mayor of the Village of South Blooming Grove
John Karl is mayor of the Village of Monroe
Steve Neuhaus, Supervisor of the Town of Chester
Michael Queenan, Mayor of the Village of Woodbury
Kevin Quigley, Supervisor of the Town of Cornwall
Steve Welle, Mayor of the Village of Harriman.