Praise for NYC filtering waiver
Mandated midterm review sits well with Riverkeeper
The environmental advocacy group Riverkeeper is pleased that the new filtration waiver for New York City’s upstate reservoirs includes a mandatory review halfway through the waiver’s term.
The 10-year waiver, formally known as a Filtration Avoidance Determination, or FAD, was granted to the city by the state Department of Health last week.
Riverkeeper attorney Michael Dulong said conducting a review at the five-year mark is necessary to address any issues that might arise.
“We’re pleased with what the state has done and with what the city is committed to,” Dulong said. “... We think it’s going to be important come five years from now to take a look at the direction this is going and be sure that it’s correct.”
The FAD allows New York City, for at least the next decade, to forgo building a costly upstate filtration system for water drawn from the reservoirs in the city’s Catskill and Delaware supplies. The price tag for such a project has been estimated at $12 billion, plus $350 million per year in operating expenses.
The city’s upstate reservoirs, including the Ashokan in Ulster County, provide drinking water to 9.5 million people. About 90 percent of New York City’s drinking water comes from the reservoirs in the Catskill and Delaware systems. The rest comes from the Croton system.
New York City is one of only five large cities in the nation with a surface water system that does not require filtration.
The FAD does not require the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which operates the reservoirs, to complete findings regarding the discharge of muddy water from the Ashokan into the Lower Esopus Creek. It does, however, require the department to “analyze the potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts” of the discharges.
Roger Sokol, director of the state health department’s Division of Environmental Protection, said Tuesday that the discharges are, indeed, a component of the FAD.
“It’s within the document,” he said. “... [The] SPDES (State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit is within the FAD.” Dulong concurred. “There is no doubt that ... the Catskill turbidity program is part of the FAD,” he said.
City spokesman Adam Bosch has said in the past that the discharges are not part of the FAD, and he maintained that position on Tuesday.
From October 2010 through February 2011, and roughly the same period in 2011-12, the city sent up to 600 million gallons per day of turbid, muddy water from the Ashokan Reservoir into the Lower Esopus Creek through a “waste channel” as a cost-saving measure.
In October 2012, the state levied a $2.74 million penalty against the city for making the 2010-11 discharges without approval, though the fine consisted largely of programs that the city would fund in the event an environmental review of the creek was conducted.
The new Filtration Avoidance Determination can be found online at on.ny.gov/2CvBimo.