The various Rockland County Executives candidates kicked the issue around at a recent Rockland Water Coalition debate.
And Rockland residents splash, bathe, drink, and waste the clear elixir of life most every day. With weather patterns turning this bit of east coast geography into a sort of new Portland (rain and then more rain), how Rockland gets its future water is an important issue.
United Water has bet the farm on its solution, a proposed massive desalination project slated for the Hudson River’s Haverstraw Bay. But the issue is a sticky, tricky topic, and sentiment ranges from outright opposition, to more study please, to it’s a done deal.
Officially called the Haverstraw Water Supply Project, United Water New York (which is a subsidiary of French multi-national Suez Environnment) proposes to pump millions of gallons of Hudson River water from Haverstraw Bay, treat it through desalination, then inject it into ground water aquifers in Ramapo, thus selling the river water back to Rockland County residents.
United Water studies indicate that at it’s current rate of growth and water consumption, Rockland County will experience a water shortage in the near future. The Haverstraw desalination plant is the company’s solution. United Water would like to have the desal plant operational and online by the end of 2015. The proposed desalination site is approximately 3.5 miles across the bay from the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.
A thorny, related issue to the desal proposal, is just how much of Rockland County water flows south to New Jersey and the Hackensack River reservoirs.
The desal proposal touches many on Rockland County political and cultural hot points, such as high-density housing and over developments (and concerns of “uncapping” natural limitations to population growth), as well as environmental concerns such as injecting desal water into Ramapo aquifers and United Water’s reconstituting NY river water to sell back to area residents. A shadow over the whole project is the high energy cost of the desalination process and the planned pumping of concentrated desal discharge back into Haverstraw Bay..
Joining many other Rockland County governmental agencies, Suffern Mayor Dagan Lacorte and the Suffern Village Board will vote on special resolution at a May 21 board meeting, asking the New York State Department of Environmental Commission (DEC) to hold an issues conference on the proposed Hudson River desalination plant.
Haverstraw Mayor Michael Kohut reportedly refused to even entertain the possibility of adopting a similar resolution at a recent Haverstraw board meeting — “not even allowing discussion among the members of the village board,” according to this report by Susan Kernan.
“Rockland families need clean and affordable water,” Mayor Lacorte said. “This issues conference will explore alternatives to the environmentally irresponsible proposed United Water “desal on the Hudson” which I have opposed from Day One.”
Larcorte is also a candidate in the Rockland County Executive race.
NY State Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee (D), who represents the 97th District and is a Suffern resident and leading proponent of the proposed issues conference, has thrown her support behind the resolution.
“I am pleased Mayor Lacorte and my home village of Suffern are signing on to this important resolution,” Jaffee said in a release related to the issues conference. “An open an honest hearing on the proposed desal plant is needed. ”
Recently a contingency of groups, led by New York Senator Bill Larkin, announced their support and endorsement of the Haverstraw Water Supply Project, including the Construction Industry Council of the Hudson Valley, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Mid-Hudson Region and the New York State Conference of NAACP Branches, the Rockland Business Association, and the Building & Construction Trades Council of Rockland County.
Currently Suffern, along with Nyack, are the only Rockland County villages that have their own water departments that supply their residents with water. An issues conference would provide Rockland communities a voice to counteract United Water’s lock on Rockland’s resource. At this time, the Haverstraw desal plant may or may not be in the best interest of county residents and the long term future of Rockland.
No one really knows at this juncture.
A recent Community View published in LoHud by Dr. Joseph G. Jacangelo, vice president and director of research for MWH Global, a global environmental engineering company, strongly advocated the proposed desal plant was scientifically sound and had met peer-review vetting.
David Fried, also running for Rockland County Exectutive, has called for the creation of a Rockland County Water District to serve as an oversight water agency.
“United Water owns reservoirs, pipes, and pumps, but they do not own the water,” Fried has said in the past.
Both Ed Day, the Republican county executive nominee, and Ilan Schoenberger, a Rockland County Legislator from Wesley Hills running for the Democratic nomination, have suggested more county oversight is a good thing (though at the April Rockland County Executive debate, Schoenberger basically threw his hands in the air and said the decision on the United Water desal proposal is up to the state).
The appeal of local municipalities to Governor Cuomo is an attempt to get a voice at the private table where Rockland County water decisions are currently being made.
Suffern Trustee Trish Abato (who also recently tossed her hat in the Suffern mayoral race) said that, “even though the Village of Suffern has its own water supply, we must stand shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors when it comes to important environmental issues like water quality and supply.”
The Suffern Village Board will vote on an Issues Conference Resolution at a special, Tuesday, May 21 Board Meeting.
United Water Resources was founded in 1869 as the Hackensack Water Company using water from the Hackensack River. After numerous mergers throughout the years, it was acquired in 2000 by French conglomerate Suez Environnement, a global company headquartered in Paris that is now one of the U.S.’s largest water services. — The Palisades Newsletter, March 2012, Issue 16.
Haverstraw Bay aerial photo used courtesy of Lee Ross of Ross Pilot Aerial Photography via SustainableRockland.Org. Drought proof sign courtesy of Joe Larese, The Journal News, and part of a sign in support of the United Water desal plant.
