OPPOSITION MOUNTS
Legislators overwhelmingly come out against DEC plan to shift responsibility for Ashokan water releases
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> An overwhelming majority of county lawmakers have signed onto a letter opposing a proposal by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to shift to the county the responsibility for making decisions about muddy releases from the Ashokan Reservoir.
But they left open the door for such a takeover in the future, if, according to the letter, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which controls the Ashokan Reservoir, “reset(s) its cooperation with the county” and conducts further environmental studies into the use of CatAlum, a chemical settling agent used to by the DEP to decrease turbidity in waters released from the reservoir.
“It’s axiomatic that any increase
in cooperation between DEP (and DEC) and the affected municipalities should start with a prompt (supplemental environmental impact study) analyzing all of the relevant issues and not further delayed a number of years,” the letter states. At that point, and upon further integration f the county in the hydrologic analyses that the agencies regularly use to determine whether to undertake releases, Ulster County can consider increasing its personnel to take responsibility for these determinations.
Among the issues that should be further addressed in that supplemental study, the letter states, are potential impacts to the Hudson River water intake in Ulster and Dutchess counties, the impact of climate change, the potential utility of structural alternatives, increased watershed sedimentation mitigation measures and impacts on recreation, tourism and property values along the Esopus.
Unless and until that happens, however, legislators say the county cannot “assume responsibility for spill mitigation releases.”
“Ulster County simply does not have the technical staff or expertise to assess all the data and comparative risks between depletion of reservoir capacity available to mitigate flooding and the impact of turbid releases into the Lower Esopus … “In short, the DEP, in conjunction with the DEC uses substantial analytical resources to govern its water supply system, and the county does not have access to these resources,” the letter states.
The letter was signed by 20 members of the 23-member county Legislature. Among those not signing the letter was Joseph Maloney, who in an interview Tuesday called the letter “a cop-out” that handed the
“Ulster County simply does not have the technical staff or expertise to assess all the data and comparative risks between depletion of reservoir capacity available to mitigate flooding and the impact of turbid releases into the Lower Esopus.”
— Letter signed by majority of county lawmakers
state and city environmental agencies “exactly what they wanted.”
Maloney, D-Saugerties, said that he for several months has called to have experts come in to talk to lawmakers
“We lost all the leverage we could have had with them,” said Maloney, D-Saugerties. “Maybe we should have played chicken with them, but we’ll never know because we didn’t bring in any experts.”
Maloney said rather than fighting over turbid releases that he said will eventually destroy the region’s waterways, the county should be demanding the state and city install a non-chemical filtration system on the reservoir.
City officials in 2010 began a coordinated effort to release muddy water into the Lower Esopus Creek as a way to decrease the use of the chemical settling CatAlum into the water after it leaves the Ashokan Reservoir. In 2011, the city enacted a set of “interim” regulations which determine when muddy waters can be sent into the Lower Esopus as well as the duration of the amount of water that can be released. Local officials and others say the releases, which can be up to 600 million gallons a day, have disrupted the use of the creek, including all but eliminating ice fishing in
Saugerties, have been conducted without studies on its impacts.
As a result of the controversy surrounding those releases, the city is now proposing modifications to those interim procedures that would put the onus on the county to determine when those releases should occur.
Also not signing the letter, which was circulated to legislators on Friday and submitted to the state yesterday were Thomas Corcoran, RMilton, and Kevin Roberts, R-Plattekill. Corcoran said he missed the deadline to sign the letter but supports the sentiment “100%.” Roberts is out of town and could not be reached for comment.