MINUTES
COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH
Monday, January 27
3:00 P.M.
MEMBERS PRESENT: M. Kaplowitz (Chair), J. Maisano, V. Pinto, M Rogowsky, W. Ryan, S. Swanson, L. Bronz.
BOL STAFF: T. Bernard, S. Kirkpatrick.
ALSO PRESENT: George Klein (Sierra Club), Steve Kaplan (CWCWC), Jon Powers (Town of Pound Ridge and NWWC), Linda Cooper (Town of Yorktown), Mary Beth Murphy (Town of Somers), Sy Globerman (Town of North Salem), John Dinin (Town of Bedford), Jerry Faiella (Town of New Castle), Ed Vergano (Town of Cortlandt), Jerry Mulligan (Planning Dept.), Sabrina Charney (Planning Dept.), Marian Sinek (Town of New Castle), Tom Herzog (Town of Lewisboro), Edna Sussman (Federated Cons.).
DISCUSSION:
Chair Kaplowitz called the meeting to order at 3:15 p.m. and introduced Jonathan Powers, Town Councilman in the Town of Pound Ridge and Chair of the Northern Westchester Watershed Committee (NWWC).
NWWC is made up of the twelve supervisors and the County Planning Department. The committee was formed in the late 1980’s to deal with regulations related to the Croton Watershed and became more formal in 1993 seeking to deal with problems and maintain and improve the quality of the watershed. In January of 1997, the twelve communities, Westchester County and NY City signed the Memorandum of Understanding which;
1. Established rules and regulations to deal with development in the watershed.
2. Called for a study of sewage diversion. NY is one of the few states that allows sewage to be put into its watershed.
3. Created an East of Hudson Fund which was initially $38M and has grown to $50M today.
4. Called for a plan to create a process of education and public
involvement in maintaining and improving the watershed.
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In late 1997 Savin Engineering was contracted to do a study of how to remove the effluent from the watershed. The study looked at six alternatives which would cost over $450M to get 100% compliance. Savin was asked to identify the areas that would remove the most effluent with the money available. They identified Hallock Mill, Riverwoods, Random Farms and Baldwin Place as the four locations offering the most effective use of the dollars. The proposal for Phase I involving the four plans was to have 53% of the effluent from the treatment plans go to either Peekskill or Yonkers. There are 30 treatment plants and 31 focus areas (areas with either actual or potential septic failure) in the Croton Watershed. This would take care of two of the worst focus areas, Yeshiva and Stanwood in New Castle. Although most of the water goes to NYC, 50,000 to 200,000 Westchester residents would benefit from improving the watershed. The cost of Phase I was estimated to be $29M of which the County would pay $21M for upgrading the plants plus $4M and the City would pay the remaining $4M.
Phase II which includes the Katonah business district, Peach Lake and Lake Shenorock is not ready for public discussion since the municipalities are currently reviewing the plans and discussing funding.
NWWC is preparing a septic management database since the vast majority of residents in the watershed are served by wells and septic systems. They are further setting up a system whereby services must be licensed and controlled by the Board of Health. The Board passed this last year.
The remaining funds are split between two areas:
1. $3.7M for watershed-wide projects. This is a series projects including a study of what needs to be done in the watershed.
2. Storm water phase II which is due March 10, requires all communities to provide action plans for the next five years. If there are any items in those plans that can be done areawide, those will be done thorough “economy of scale.”
The other $3.7M has been allocated equally to each of the 12 communities for local projects that they feel are most significant locally. All projects must
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be reviewed by the Watershed Protection Partnership Council which
consists of the State DOT and DEC, the County Board of Health, EPA, all the communities, Trust for Public Lands, Riverkeeper and reviewed by the County Board of Legislators.
NWWC is asking that the $1.4M be made available to prepare a detailed investigation of Phase I SEQRA process which will include a detailed analysis of diversion project and also alternatives (upgrading.) Public hearings are part of this process.
He feels that spending the $29M on diversion is the only way to get 100% of effluent out of the reservoirs.
Chair Kaplowitz asked the various representatives of communities in the NWWC to comment on the issue.
Marian Sinek, Supervisor, Town of New Castle, distributed a chronology of the NWWC events to show how long this issue has been developing. She hopes that $500,000 in engineering costs expended by New Castle will be reimbursed through the $1.4M. There is a no-growth provision in the agreement with NYC. Funds spent on sewering will only be spent on already developed areas. About half of the 1500 parcels in the Saw Mill River Watershed will be taken out of the Yonkers district. Mr. Faiella stated that about 700 dwelling units would be coming out and 700 go back in under diversion. Ms. Sinek stressed that the $1.4M was for an EIS and would clarify what would be done under the project.
Mr. Kaplowitz asked the New Castle officials to review the breakdown of the $1.4 to see if their engineering costs were included. Otherwise, the numbers may need to be revised.
Linda Cooper, Supervisor, Town of Yorktown, stated at Mr. Wishnie’s request that the Yorktown expenses were anticipated for future needs.
Mr. Kaplowitz asked the NWWC to submit a memo of the various anticipated costs to be incurred by the communities including New Castle
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and Yorktown and any additional changes in the future. He wants to be sure the Committee does what the communities want. The dates of up-coming community meetings were announced. On February 10, the Committee will tentatively meet with Drew Clackston, Marian Rose and others who are host to this project. Another meeting will be scheduled with Supervisor Sinek and Supervisor Cooper dealing half with the specifics of the Yorktown project and half with the specifics of the New Castle project so the legislators and community can ask questions.
Supervisor Cooper prefers to come in with specifics, maps, and so forth. She would like the Legislature to understand their efforts have been made in a deliberate way to achieve regional collaboration that reflects a consensus of the twelve communities. In response to Mr. Rogowsky’s question, Supervisor Cooper explained that the Yorktown plant is one of few municipal sewage treatment plants in addition to North Castle. The rest are private plants or part of the county operation. Two additional pump stations would be build and the partially treated effluent would be pumped out from the plant. The cost of building laterals is very expensive ranging from $1500. for homeowners to $30,000 for businesses. Costs to upgrade or to divert are about equal for Yorktown. The savings of upgrading would be in not having to pay the10 year surcharge “buy in”. Operating costs would be expended in either case to the county sewer district or in district costs for operating the Yorktown plant. She will present more specifics later.
Mr. Kaplowitz pointed out the issue of “environmental justice” and suggested a field trip to the various plants to see their proximity to the reservoirs. Mr. Rogowsky stressed that this should not delay the process because of urgency of moving forward.
Supervisor Cooper explained that for Yorktown to upgrade there has to be a change in the permit and the regulations. These are legal issues.
Supervisor Dinin stressed that the upgrades will not help septic areas such as the Katonah downtown area. Mr. Rogowsky clarified that 6 areas would
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be diverted but the program changes with upgrading use DEP funds to upgrade to state requirements, e.g. secondary to tertiary levels. Sabrina Charney explained that diversion deals with both treatment plants and with focus areas.
Supervisor Sy Globerman of North Salem emphasized the issue of public health in the letter he presented to the Committee, especially the issue of pathogens reaching the drinking water. The pathogens causing algae bloom are not destroyed by chlorination and over chlorination can create cancer causing agents. Only diversion resolves these concerns. It is the duty of the County to take steps to safeguard the health of county residents.
Tom Herzog, Town of Cortlandt, expressed concern that capacity not be restricted since Cortland has plans to provide sewer services to approx. 4,000 homes currently being returned to the Peekskill district.
Towns of Yorktown and Cortlandt and the City of Peekskill are working collectively on a sustainable development study linking land use and traffic. This represents a reduction of development in the towns whereas Peekskill would like to attract more ratables. Supervisor Cooper feels density can’t increase because of the traffic it generates.
According to Supervisor Dinin of Bedford there has been a long term commitment from the communities elicited by the DEC and DEP to live within or restrict their master plans.
Steve Kaplan (CWCWC) encouraged “thinking out of the box” to come up with the best solution including combining upgrading and diversion. CWCWC would rather spend money purchasing land around the reservoirs. According to the DEC 85% of the phosphorous in the reservoirs comes from run-off. If diversion causes growth, then the runoff will further increase which is a far larger problem than sewage.
The meeting adjourned at 4:25 p.m.