Rockland Water Coalition

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/proposed-rockland-county-desalination-plant-a-boon-for-united-water-new-york-a-bust-for-area-water-customers20100112

Proposed Rockland County Desalination Plant a Boon for United Water New York, a Bust for Area Water Customers 2010-01-12 Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-2500 Proposed Rockland County Desalination Plant a Boon for United Water New York, a Bust for Area Water Customers Washington, D.C.—The Haverstraw Water Supply Project, a proposed desalination plant in Rockland County, New York, could generate as much as $5 million in annual profits for United Water New York, but community members would ultimately pay the price in the form of increased water rates, finds a new report released today by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Entitled Not Worth It’s Salt: How Rockland County Could End Up Paying for an Unnecessary Desalination Plant, the report recommends approaches to meeting the area’s water needs that include conservation, improving existing water infrastructure, and better stormwater management and land use planning, among others. “United Water New York’s proposed desalination facility for the Hudson River is a classic example of how the interests of private water companies starkly conflict with the needs of the customers to whom they are providing this essential resource,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “Rockland County residents have voiced a preference for conservation and other low-cost, low-impact water-delivery options, but United Water has instead chosen to pursue a high-tech method that would boost its profits.” Construction of the proposed Haverstraw Water Supply Project is expected to cost up to $105 million in 2008 dollars. United Water will recover its costs through a New Water Supply Source surcharge, which water users will have to pay. In addition to these financial costs, the Haverstraw Water Supply Project would use two to three times as much electricity as a similarly sized water treatment plant, and only produce three-quarters of the water, all while potentially adding to carbon emissions, polluting the Hudson River, and contribute to flooding. “United Water could recover up to two million gallons of water a day simply by fixing leaks in the area’s infrastructure system, almost the same amount expected to be produced from the plant,” noted Hauter. Similar desalination projects in other parts of the United States have been fraught with problems. Tampa Bay’s plant, perhaps the most notorious example of the failures of desalination, is unable to consistently produce the 25 million gallons a day it was supposed to, and came online years behind schedule and millions of dollars over its predicted cost. A smaller plant in Swansea, Massachusetts, went over its $18 million original budget before its scheduled date to come online. Desalination projects currently proposed in California are being met with considerable resistance from local groups. In Rockland County, local residents have formed the Rockland Coalition for Sustainable Water, which in addition to opposing the plant, is working to educate stakeholders about safe and affordable means of establishing a sustainable source of drinking water for the area. A subsidiary of the French multinational company Suez Environnement, United Water New York and its parent company maintain track records of high-profile privatization failures around the world, as communities have ended their contracts due to poor system upkeep, service problems, and other issues. Not Worth It’s Salt: How Rockland County Could End Up Paying for an Unnecessary Desalination Plant is available at: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/not-worth-its-salt Food & Water Watch is a non-profit organization working with grassroots organizations around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. Through research, public and policymaker education, media, and lobbying, we advocate policies that guarantee safe, wholesome food produced in a humane and sustainable manner and public, rather than private, control of water resources including oceans, rivers, and groundwater. For more information, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

http:\\foodandwaterwatch.org/not-worth-its-salt

Are you concerned about United Water’s proposal for Rockland County
residents to drink water from the Hudson River? 

On Tuesday, January 12, 7:30 p.m., the Clarkstown Town Board will host a town board workshop on United Water’s proposal to
desalinate and treat water from the Hudson River for Rockland’s drinking water.  There will be a presentation by United Water
on the desalination proposal, with time for public comment following the United Water presentation. 

It’s important for the public to voice concerns about this controversial plan, which raises health concerns, questions about
the real costs, increased water rates, and environmental impacts.  
There will be opportunity for the public to respond with questions and comments on the proposal. 

Date: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
TIme: 7:30pm

Clarkstown Town Hall
10 Maple Avenue
Room 301 (third floor)
New City, NY 10956

For more information or to be added to future e-mail notices:

RocklandWater@gmail.com
www.sustainablerockland.org
Contact: 845-358-3386 or 845-429-2020

The Ramapo Town Board passed a resolution in opposition to the propsoed Suez/United Water desalination plant in Haverstraw Bay. See attached document for details of the resolution.

Ramapo Desalination Resolution

The Stony Point Town Board also passed a resolution calling for a full review of alternative water supplies including consevration and a review of the s and proximity of the proposed desalination plant to Indian Point before proceeding with any further reviews of this facility.

Stony Point Desalination Resolution

Please contact your Supervisor and Town Board and thank them for this action or encourage them to pass a similar resolution.

Calculating how much water we use can be difficult! Firstly we tend to only get a bill every 3 months so it is hard to remember the last water bill you got. Also given all the bills we get – tv, phone, electric & gas, insurance – they can all seem like a blur. 

Bringing our water use into focus can have many benefits – reduced costs, less water waste to be treated at our sewer plants and reduction in the need to implement new water source infrastructure spending. 

Often we tend to think that we can’t control any of this – but each of us acting together can have a significant effect on the amount of water that is used and wasted every day in Rockland County. 

Back to calculating how much water we use in a few easy steps: 

1. Find you last water bill – hopefully it’s filed away somewhere. If not you can always contact your water provider and request a copy.
2. Verify that the bill is an actual reading and not an estimated reading. It will be an actual reading if your water provider has hooked your meter up to the phone line. If your water company still comes by to read the meter then you need to check the actual versus estimate as many times the water company overestimates the use.
3. The water usage is usually based upon a 3-month period and is given in CCF. Each CCF is equivalent to 748 gallons so multiply the number of CCF on your bill by 748. e.g. Bill says 25 CCF used in the billing period then the amount of gallons used is 18700.
4. Next divide this amount by the number of days in the billing period. If you are billed every three months the number of days would be 90 – if billed monthly the number of days would be 30. e.g 90 day bill of 25 CCF is 18700 gallons in 90 days or 207 gallons per day.
5. Next divide this number by the number of people in your household. E.g. 2 people in household then daily usage is 103.5 gallons per person. This is your water usage.
6. Rockland County has an average usage of about 80-100 gallons per person per day. So see how you compare to the average!
7. The environmental protection agency recommends that communities should strive towards 45 gallons per person per day and that this is more than sufficient for normal use. Rockland has a long way to go in terms of reducing our usage to this level however we have to start somewhere
8. Calculate your usage and then make a list of ways you can improve the efficiency of your water use. Improving efficiency and conserving does not mean reducing our quality of life or stopping doing things we like to do. It involves looking at what we do and ensuring that we waste as little water as possible in doing it. Take this challenge and see where you come out.
9. Ways to reduce water include – fitting new water wise toilets (a lot of our water is literally flushed down the toilet), fit low flow fixtures in showers and faucets in high use areas like the kitchen, ensure that sprinkler systems are audited to ensure that the right areas are being covered and water is not being wasted on sidewalks and roads, fit a rain sensor to your sprinkler system so that they do not come on during a rain shower, only water outdoors in the early morning or late at night to ensure that water is not lost to evaporation, plant drought tolerant plants which can survive NY summers, wash cars at a car wash and limit outdoor water use during periods of drought.
10. All of these steps can help us move towards a future where water is available for everyone at an affordable price. How we use our most precious resource is becoming ever more important.  See how you can implement steps to reduce your water usage and track it hrough every bill!

Leave a comment here and tell us how much water you use!

The following are links to the seven part coverage of the Rockland County Executive candidates debate held at Clarkstown Town Hall-New City, NY. on October 8, 2009

The event was sponsored by the Rockland Coalition for Sustainable Water. The event was attended by a capacity crowd.

Part 1 Rockland County Executive debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt3gjHOBi3M

Part 2 Rockland County Executive debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugykNn97ON8

Part 3 Rockland County Executive debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MthBQ3jm-sE

Part 4 Rockland County Executive debate

Part 5 Rockland County Executive debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8qf5r-8ZP4

Part 6 Rockland County Executive debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfS_efk_wPg

Part 7 Rockland County Executive debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IV7r9uhD3Y

County Executive candidates to debate environmental issues affecting Rockland residents    

Thursday, October 8 at 8pm, Clarkstown Town Hall

The debate is being sponsored by the Rockland Coalition for Sustainable Water – a coalition of Rockland residents, including members of civic associations and representatives of local, regional and national environmental and business organizations that question the safety, cost and need for the Suez/United Water proposed desalination-filtration plant on the Hudson River.

The public and press are welcome to attend what promises to be a provocative and informative debate.

For more information:

Rockland Coalition for Sustainable Water

RocklandWater@gmail.com 

www.sustainablerockland.org 

Republican incumbent County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef and Democratic challenger, Orangetown Supervisor Thom Kleiner will debate one another at 8pm in Clarkstown Town Hall, 10 Maple Avenue, New City, on Thursday, October 8th. Doors open at 7:30pm.

The Planning Board of Haverstraw has opened a Public Hearing on the proposed Pilot Plant by Suez / United Water. The Public Hearing was opened at Haverstraw Town Hall on Wednesday August 19th and will remain open until the next meeting – September 9th. Members of the Rockland Water Coalition were present and added many comments relevant to the proposed Pilot Plant to the Public Record.

Chief among the comments was the status of Suez / United Water’s application for a permit for the Pilot Facility to the DEC. At the time of the hearing Suez had not submitted a completed application to the DEC. The coalition urged the planning board to reserve judgement in this case until all coments from the DEC about the intake facility are received so they may be incorporated in the final site plan.

Also the action proposed is a Type II action based upon the temporary nature of the activities. The coalition urged the planning board to be detailed in reviewing the application and applying time based approvals as necessary for the build, operation, decommissioning and restoration of all areas post testing. Corporations are usualy quick to build and operate and do not take their responsibilities to restore the area in a reasonable timeframe as seriously.

Many speakers called on the Planning Board to review the environmental impacts of the Pilot Plant to ensure that mitigation measures can be put in place and impacts can be minimised.

Public representative Shirley Lasker (Clarkestown) called for the Planning Board to take on overarching view of water use and conservation in Rockland County. Ms. Lasker indicated that the plant is not necessary and has no support among the community.

SPACE Comments-WDesalPilot-090819

09-06-12-SuezArchitectLetter

09-06-22-NarrativeUWNYPilot

09-06-22-SuezApplicationPilot

09-07-22-Town BoardTranscript

The life is being choked out of some waterways due to overuse of phosphorus but several lawmakers are hoping to address the problem.

Phosphorus is considered an essential nutrient for plants and animals that comprise the aquatic food web, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. It is also the nutrient in short supply in most fresh waters, so even a small increase in phosphorus can lead to accelerated plant growth, algae blooms, low levels of dissolved oxygen and the death of aquatic life.

Low oxygen conditions can then cause iron, manganese and more phosphorus to be released from sediments, deteriorating the quality of a communitys drinking water sources, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In Rockland, county Legislator Connie Coker, D-South Nyack, wants to ban any use of lawn fertilizer containing phosphorus between December and April, when the ground is frozen and more prone to allowing runoff.

She also wants to require signs to be posted in stores and garden centers that sell fertilizer containing phosphorus so consumers are informed of the danger when it comes to overuse near waterways.

Yesterday, Coker said it would take time to work out the details because she wanted a law “that made sense” and because she wanted to include landscapers, Cornell Cooperative Extension representatives and other experts in the process.

“We’re going to really work with everyone to come up with what really makes sense,” Coker said.

Speaking before the Rockland County Legislatures Environmental Committee on Wednesday, Steve Botto, president of the Professional Landscape Association of Rockland, said many landscapers had already reduced their use of phosphorus.

“We’ve changed our way of doing business,” Botto said. “We’re not at zero, but we’re very low.”

He said professional landscapers who apply pesticides undergo frequent training and in the process, learn about the concerns of phosphorus.

He expressed concern about how Cokers proposed law might be effectively enforced, but said he was willing to work with the Legislature on the measure, including a public education effort on the dangers of overuse.

Coker said she became interested in passing a law after learning how phosphorus was choking waterways and after seeing the efforts of Westchester County in addressing the problem.

In April, Westchester’s Board of Legislators passed a law that regulates the use and sale of fertilizers. It takes effect in 2011.

A partial ban already in effect prohibits the use of fertilizers with phosphorus on land closer than 20 feet from a water source and on all land from December to April.

Westchester is hoping to reduce phosphorus runoff into waterways, including the Hudson River and Long Island Sound.

Visit LoHud.com for original story.

ALBANY – A $750 million cleanup of the upper Hudson River is shut down temporarily months after its launch because PCBs kicked up by the dredging are drifting downstream.

At the earliest, dredging is expected to resume Tuesday. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it was notified by the General Electric Co. that water test results last week exceeded safety limits.

The EPA says possible actions include increased use of special silt curtains.

GE, which discharged wastewater containing PCBs into the Hudson before the substance was banned in 1977, is paying for and overseeing the work.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090810/NEWS/908100357