Town wants state to determine range of muddy water in river
The Town Board wants the state Department of Environmental Conservation to determine how far muddy water released from the Ashokan Reservoir into the Lower Esopus Creek travels once it reaches the Hudson River at Saugerties.
Town Supervisor Jared Geuss said the main local concern is the safety of Hudson River water that reaches the taps of Port Ewen Water District customers.
“The town of Esopus relies on the Hudson River to supply safe and potable drinking water for thousands of residents,” Geuss said. He said the environmental advocacy group Riverkeeper “has advised the town and other municipalities regarding its serious concern about New York City’s discharge of turbid water from the Ashokan Reservoir into the Lower Esopus Creek.”
The Port Ewen water intake is 13 miles south of where the Lower Esopus Creek meets the Hudson River in Saugerties. Town of Esopus officials say no studies have been done on the rate at which the muddy water dissipates once it reaches the river.
New York City sends up to 600 million gallons of turbid, muddy water per day from the Ashokan Reservoir into the Lower Esopus Creek, to prevent it from reaching customers’ taps in New York City, and is seeking permission from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to continue the
practice indefinitely.
The discharges turn the creek a chocolatey brown from where it starts in Olivebridge to where it ends 32 miles downstream, at the Hudson River.
Geuss said it’s “critical” for the DEC to “exercise its authority and responsibility to assure that any potential adverse environmental impacts from the proposed (continued) discharges be avoided.”