קאונטי סוער פלאן וועט העלפן ק"י פייפליין

Pilot project raises concern over KJ

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

There is disagreement about what impact the pilot project at the Orange County sewage treatment plant in Harriman could have on the county's lawsuit over Kiryas Joel's proposed water pipeline.
The county's lawyers and two of its legislators argue that it should have no impact, since the outcome of the test is unknown and wouldn't excuse the omissions in Kiryas Joel's environmental review.
"Right now, these are just projections for the future and on our wish list," Legislator Spencer McLaughlin said.
But Kiryas Joel officials and their attorneys argue that the potential for expanded treatment capacity undercuts the county's central argument against the pipeline.
Two main pipeline opponents on the Legislature, Frank Fornario and Roxanne Donnery, worry that the pilot project will weaken the county's court case. Donnery said she would oppose implementing the filter technology if it proves feasible.
But Legislature Chairman Alan Seidman expressed enthusiasm for the project.
"It's going to save taxpayers in that area a fortune," he said. "The growth is there, and we need to address it."

Tests show sewage filters could quell county's woes

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

Harriman – Orange County has been quietly testing new technology at its beleaguered sewage treatment plant that it hopes will greatly increase the amount of wastewater it can treat at a relatively low cost.
The county won a $233,000 state grant in February 2004 to test filters that its consultants estimate could increase the plant's treatment capacity by 2 million to 3 million gallons a day – a big leap for a facility now authorized to handle 4.5 million gallons.
It's far from certain that the technology will work as hoped and that the state would let the county empty more treated sewage into the Ramapo River.
But the prospect of expanded treatment capacity raises new questions about future growth and development in southeastern Orange County and adds a new twist to the heated debate over the Village of Kiryas Joel's proposed water pipeline.
The plant, which serves about 40,000 people in eight towns and villages, is undergoing its second expansion since it opened in 1978 – a $26 million project that will increase its daily treatment capacity to 6 million gallons.
But many worry that cushion won't last long, given the regularity with which the county exceeds its discharge limit of 4.5 million gallons a day and the flood of anticipated hookups.
That's why the county is looking for another boost.
The state grant paid for a two-story tank with dozens of filters through which about 8,000 gallons of the plant's wastewater are diverted each day and then tested several times a week. The test began in October and will continue for two months.
The hope is that similar filters can be added to the plant's existing equipment, expanding capacity without the county having to acquire more land and build bulky equipment like the type now under construction.
Consultants estimate such a project could cost $10 million – less than half the cost of the current expansion, with the potential for greater capacity.
The plant's chronic problems played heavily in a lawsuit the county filed in November, challenging the environmental review for Kiryas Joel's proposal to tap the Catskill Aqueduct via a 13-mile pipeline.
The county claims Kiryas Joel brushed off several major questions about the $22 million water project, especially how additional wastewater resulting from an expanded water supply would be treated as the village's population continues to grow.
County officials have said little about their $233,000 grant and sewer-plant experiment, which would normally be trumpeted in news releases but happens to venture into two politically sensitive areas: the pipeline project and infrastructure that would allow more growth.
Both areas are dangerous for County Executive Edward Diana as he seeks re-election.
After the Record began asking about the project in the last few weeks, Diana and his administration have tried to cast it as an attempt at cleaner wastewater, rather than as a possible route to expanded capacity.
Deputy Public Works Commissioner Peter Hammond told the Record last month that improving effluent quality was the project's "primary objective" and said the county couldn't estimate how much additional capacity would result.
Diana, in a glancing reference in his State of the County address last week, mentioned a "new pilot project aimed at cleaning up wastewater."
But the county's grant application from August 2003 – a copy of which was obtained by the Record through the Freedom of Information Act – shows that the project's real purpose is expanding treatment capacity and that the county did indeed have an estimate of capacity.