Upper Saddle River awarded $900,000 settlement

Fought utility for decade over sewer discharges

UPPER SADDLE RIVER – A $900,000 settlement has been awarded to the borough after a 10-year legal battle over an estimated 540,000 gallons of waste discharged into the Saddle River by the Rockland County Sewer District No. 1.

U.S. Southern District Court Judge Edgardo Ramos ruled in the suit brought by the borough and five residents in April 2014. It charges that the sewer district “has polluted – and will likely continue to pollute – the Saddle River.”

The suit said wastewater from the 73-square-mile service area was to be channeled to the treatment plant in Orangeburg, New York, and discharged only into the Hudson River and its Sparkill Creek tributary.

Instead, the Saddle River Pump Station, next to the Saddle River Valley Swim and Tennis Club, “has had more mechanical failures” than other parts of the system due to its “high head” design, along with the Twin Lakes Pump Station in nearby Monsey, New York.

The plaintiffs said there have been an estimated 135 discharges into the Saddle River since 2001, in both wet and dry weather conditions. However, only 12 discharges between 2006 and 2010 are addressed in the suit.

They reported that in one case, a “fountain of sewage” bursting from a manhole near the swim club covered its lawn with “pieces of toilet paper, used bloated tampons,” and in another case “toilet paper and excrement,” and that athletic fields in Lions Park adjacent to the Saddle River “smell like sewer.”

Defense witnesses blamed the discharges on a combination of pump station design and a 20% reduction in staffing, but did not explain why a $30.5 million system improvement failed to correct the problem.

Borough Attorney Michael Burke of Hodges, Walsh & Burke LLP in White Plains, New York, announced the decision. There were no comments from borough officials. Rockland attorneys Thomas Gonnella and Peter Adelman and a representative of the sewer district did not respond to a request for comment.