Letter to the Editor
Putnam County Courier
(Published December 2002)
Should We Tax and Spend Billions to
Filter the Croton?
It was a blustery, cold sunny day at the
Ashokan Reservoir in Shokan, New York, typical for November but historic for the
City of New York. For on this day the EPA, DEP, DEC local officials and the City
of New York ratified the “EPA’s granting of another 5-year Filtration
Avoidance until 2007”..... “Testament to the City’s efforts to protect and
improve water quality in the reservoirs and source waters,” ... holding off
designing and building a multi-billion dollar filtration plant”... thereby
preventing unnecessary expenditures.,... at a time that the city is facing its most difficult
financial crisis in decades,” said Mayor Bloomburg in prepared remarks.
While I applauded these efforts to save
this incomparable asset of the Catskill/Delaware Watershed for the 9 million
people of New York City and the Metropolitan Region, at the same time, I
questioned why the same level funding and thereby, protection was not afforded
to the Croton Watershed, the source of over 10% of the drinking water for the
Metropolitan area and during the recent drought, approximately 30%.
Currently, over $250 million have been allocated for land acquisition in
the Cats/Del, while a paltry $17 million has been allocated for the Croton
Watershed. And according to the
Press Release, “in addition to funds already in place through the 1997
Memorandum of Agreement, these protection programs will commit approximately
$140 million in investment in the watersheds over the next five years.”
And what were these protections that avoided the construction of a $6
billion plant: identifying
malfunctioning septic systems, providing funding for repairs; upgrading all
wastewater treatment plans; providing additional funding to build new wastewater
treatment plants in Phoenicia and Prattville; aggressive efforts to purchase
land in the Kensico Reservoir Basins; expanding
acquisition of farm and forest
easements; identifying communities in which stormwater runoff poses the greatest
risks to reservoirs to name a few.
The same measures and level of funding
would also obviate the need to filter the Croton at a fraction of the $1.4
billion cost. Yet, within three
months, the DEP will make its final
decision re: the location of
the filtration plant - the Bronx or Westchester.
Putnam County, of which I am a resident, relies on MOA funds, currently
at $35 million for land acquisition to protect the Middle Branch and East Croton
Reservoir; replacing failing septics in Lake Carmel, Peach Lake, Lake Peekskill
and Putnam Lake; upgrading wastewater plants to tertiary levels; and instituting
Phase 11 Stormwater regulations. Grossly
insufficient for a county recognized as the fastest growing county in the state
and undergoing unprecedented residential and commercial development, destroying
wildlife habitat and natural filters and absorbers of pollutants - forests,
wetlands and streams that nourish the Middle Branch and East Croton Reservoirs,
thereby threatening the quality of water with phosphorous overload from
non-point sources of pollution from fertilizers on the ubiquitous lawns and the
chemical and oil runoff from impervious surfaces and vehicles now clogging its
limited roads.
Why this blatant disparity in funding for
water quality protection? While the
1997 Memorandum of Agreement guaranteed filtration avoidance to the
Catskill/Delaware, it simultaneously guaranteed that the Croton system would be
filtered. The cost in 2002 dollars:
$1.4 billion with millions more for operation and maintenance for
financially-strapped New York City water-rate payers, loss to residents in
Putnam County of their quality of life while permitting unchecked rampant
residential and commercial development, further degrading the quality of water.
Catherine Wachs in a recent letter to the Journal News said it best:
“We cannot afford a filtration plant to take the place of what open
space provides for free.”
And the experience of the
Catskill/Delaware has shown that these cost-effective and efficacious measures
taken at the source were the best way to protect the quality of water.
The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition has vigorously advocated that
these measures along with adequate commitment of funds be extended to the
Croton. “Filtration of water from
the Croton System is not necessary under today’s standards or those
anticipated in the near future,” asserts the DEP in its pamphlet “Facts
about the New York City Water Supply System.”
Why then does “the federal Environmental
Protection Agency and the State Department of Health continue in its
determination that the City must build and operate a filtration and disinfection
facility for Croton Water in the future.” Who benefits from imposing this
needless tax and spend policy?
Ann Fanizzi, Chair
Putnam County Coalition to Preserve Open Space
Bd. Member - Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition