With rain falling this summer, it’s easy to forget an ongoing battle over one of Rockland County’s precious resources: water.
This past April 18, the Rockland Water Coalition hosted the one and only debate between Rockland County Executive candidates in Clarkstown. Several issues were discussed, including overdevelopment and the increasing tensions of the East Ramapo School District.
But front and center was the discussion of Rockland County water, and especially United Water’s Haverstraw Water Supply Project, a proposed desalination plant to convert Hudson River water to drinking water. United Water calls it the future of Rockland County water. Others call it something else.
Suffern Mayor and county executive Democratic candidate Dagan Lacorte came out aggressively against the UWNY desal plant. Lacorte heads up one of the few Rockland County villages with a water treatment facility. Nyack also has a self-supporting Water Department that provides water services to village residents.
At the debate, Ilan Schoenberger, a longtime Rockland County Legislator representing Wesley Hills and also vying for the Democratic county executive ticket, said that the United Water desalination decision was really out of the county’s hands. Schoenberger said that the issue was essentially a NY state issue. That same day a $500 check arrived from United Water to the Friends of Ilan Schoenberger at the White Plains, NY Main Street office of Pannone, Lopes, Devereaux & West LLC.
Pannone, Lopes, Devereaux & West LLC served as the Town of Ramapo’s bond counsel, as well as counsel for the Ramapo Local Development Corporation (RLDC), during the development of the $35 million minor league baseball stadium now known as Provident Bank Stadium in Pomona. RLDC records were recently very publicly seized in a sweeping FBI raid on the Town of Ramapo offices May 15.
According to LoHud, the law firm received a subpoena as part of a federal grand jury probe stemming from the raid.
The United Water, Inc. New York Employee PAC has been spreading the wealth around Rockland the last several years.
Other area winners in UW’s political contributions sweepstakes include Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack, who recently endorsed Schoenberger’s Rockland County Executive candidacy; Friends of Scott Vanderhoef and Christopher St. Lawrence; Friends of the Town of Haverstraw Democrats; and various other Rockland Democratic committees.
The future of Rockland County water is a big issue, and could loom large in the Rockland County Executive race. In 2006, the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates the rates and services of some 277 private water companies across the state, including United Water, ordered UW to have a long-term water supply online in Rockland County by 2015. The Haverstraw Water Supply Project was the company’s response. Immediately after the Water Coalition debate, a continuing petition circulated throughout county towns and villages, calling for a countywide Issues Conference. That issue has also been playing in newspaper guest editorials and blogs.
Just last month, United Water filed a petition for a surcharge on water rates of approximately $5 per person per month for Rockland County customers to cover the costs-to-date of the company’s proposed Haverstraw Water Supply Project. United Water New York then announced a separate rate hike filing with the State Public Service Commission for an additional $12 per month related to infrastructure improvements and increased operating expenses throughout the county.
In total, water bills under the two proposals could reach an annual average of $880. NY State Senator David Carlucci called on the Public Service Commission to reject UWNY’s rate increase.
“They’ve got to stick up for the ratepayers and not the utility companies,” Carlucci said.
To date, only Rockland County Executive candidate Lacorte has come out forcefully against the UWNY rate increase. Republican Rockland County Executive candidate Ed Day, though vocal on other issues, has not made his position clear on the recent UW rate hikes or Haverstraw Water Project.
At the April 18 debate, Day said that the county should be an active participant in part in the regulatory process, though cited development as a primary cause of rate increase pressure. While David Fried, another Democratic candidate, called for limitations on Rockland water sold to New Jersery, the RCT reported that at the debate Schoenberger said that the desalination project needed more study and should viewed as a last resort.
But Carlucci, Lacorte and Day have consistently stepped up to the plate to make their voices known on issues related to Rockland residents or their constituencies. And as Rockland County legislative chairwoman Harriet Cornell recently made clear, an Issues Conference would provide transparency and clarity on the future of Rockland water.
Leadership must be heard and seen to be effective. Any candidate’s silence on the issues of the day speaks volumes.
Haverstraw Bay aerial photo used courtesy of Lee Ross of Ross Pilot Aerial Photography via SustainableRockland.Org.
