The time is now for sewers, says Kaplowitz, and he’ll fight for them
October 7, 2011
by Christine Yeres
“The stars have aligned,” announced County Legislator Mike Kaplowitz in a press conference on Wednesday at the Riverwoods treatment facility. “The time is right, it’s the right thing to do. Our water supply is imperiled, and officials know it. Local officials know it. And the solution is to pump [the sewage] out by pipe and send it to a treatment plant that has the capacity and can best treat this sewage.” That plant is in Yonkers, a city historically not the least bit interested in taking it.
The Croton Watershed east of the Hudson River is the source of 10% of New York City’s water supply; the Catskill/Delaware system supplies the other 90%. Water from both supply eight million NYC residents plus one million upstate residents. The water is unfiltered but treated with chlorine and fluoride before it reaches consumers.
Soon, an enormous ultraviolet (UV) treatment plant for NYC water on 153 acres in Mt. Pleasant and Greenburgh will be up and running and will reduce the need for chemical treatment. By 2012, New York City’s DEP will require water originating from the Croton Watershed to be UV-treated. The DEP seems ready to make a deal: If Yonkers can be persuaded to allow New Castle the sewer extension that its Random Farms, Riverwoods and Yeshiva neighborhoods desperately need, DEP will allow the Yonkers plant to tie into its new UV treatment plant, saving the the County 20 to 40 million dollars.
Since the late 90’s the on-site sewage treatment plants in the three New Castle neighborhoods have released contaminants into surface water that makes its way into the Croton watershed and Hudson River. The three communities are under pressure from NYC’s governing agencies to upgrade their systems—at great expense and for only a temporary fix. And for as many years, town and county representatives have petitioned to be allowed to hook them in to the sewer line that runs to Yonkers.
Affordable housing an additional incentive now
In May 2011, Supervisor Barbara Gerrard sent New Castle’s most recent petition to the county to extend the sewer district. To the three neighborhoods she adding a fourth—Chappaqua Crossing. In all, 293 parcels. Of that total, about 23 users would be units of housing at Chappaqua Crossing, which currently has only enough sewer coverage for 88 of the 111 units described in a preliminary site plan as approved by the town. That 20 units would be fair and affordable housing complying with the housing settlement between the county and HUD is another of the stars in the right place at the moment.
“Through this proposal [at Chappaqua Crossing] 20 units will be fair and affordable housing,” said Kaplowitz. “Why is that relevant? Even legislators who don’t have a connection to this area want to see the county move forward in good faith and will welcome the 20 units and recognize that this is fair consideration for their approval of New Castle’s petition [for extension of the sewer district].”
“Mythbusters” by Kaplowitz
Kaplowitz posed a series of questions and answered them:
Yonkers: Mike, how can you sent “affluent effluent” from up there down to su without hurting us?
Kaplowitz: You have 120 million gallons of capacity and receive 83million gallons on a daily basis. The New Castle petition is for 207,000 gallons a day. A drop in the bucket.
Yonkers: Mike, the odors are terrible and you want to dump more on us.
Kaplowitz: The county has expended and committed $52 million – which all taxpayers are paying, by the way – for odor mitigation.
Yonkers: Mike, if you put this [sewer extension] through, you’ll have unencumbered development, you’ll be incentivizing development and make more problems in the future.
Kaplowitz: The 1997 agreement the towns signed on to says that future development runs by this precept: If you cannot build it on septic, you cannot build it on sewer. All the towns agreed to this.
Money for Yonkers, money for New Castle
With the UV treatment plant due to go online in 2012, the DEP is talking with Westchester about allowing Yonkers to connect to it—in exchange for Yonkers’ acceptance of the inadequately treated waste water from New Castle. County Executive Rob Astorino supports the plan as well.
Kaplowitz pointed out that Yonkers itself will save tens of millions by making use of the new UV plant.
And the money’s already there to extend the sewer district for New Castle, according to Gerrard. The funds—$10 million from NYC set aside in 1997 by 14 watershed towns, grown to $60 million today—are available to divert sewage to the Yonkers plant. Yet Yonkers, mainly in the person of its county legislator Ken Jenkins, has remained adamant in its refusal to accept “affluent effluent” from New Castle estimated to be around 207,000 gallons a day—“a drop,” says Kaplowitz, “in Yonkers’ proverbial bucket,” its 120-million-gallon capacity.
In a letter from Jenkins to Kaplowitz dated September 18, Jenkins wrote, “As a Legislator representing a host community to the largest [waste water treatment plant], I cannot support any diversion until a complete proposal is developed, presented and adopted by the County Board.” It’s a response, according to another legislator familiar with the issue, “that translates as ‘No’.”
Asked what he will do if there’s continued resistance from legislators, Kaplowitz responded, “We’ll plow through it.” He added, “Now is the time to do the right thing, and we’ll take all measures, including legal. We hope that good faith and good science will prevail. But I’m prepared for anything.”
Kaplowitz, Chair of the Legislature’s Environment and Energy Committee, will hold a meeting of the committee—at 3:00 p.m. on October 17 on the eighth floor of the Michaelian Office Building, 148 Martine Avenue—at which he and other members of the committee will discuss the proposal to share the UV treatment facility and advance New Castle’s petition for sewers. “We’ll start counting heads and get the votes to move this along,” said Kaplowitz.
This video excerpt from Kaplowitz’s press conference at the Riverwoods-Yeshiva treatment plant site is about 12 minutes in length:
There doesn’t seem to be any acknowledgement of the limited scope of this proposal and that it does not address other residential neighborhoods as well as the Millwood business district who have similar needs. If this proposal was submitted as recently as this past May, why was Chappaqua Crossing added and these other neighborhoods and the Millwood Business District not?
I think it’s time for the town to look to the Ridgewood Terrace and Chappaqua Ridge portion of town to add sewers. We are all on small plots of land and our septic fields are very old and some are failing. We have several streams through the neighborhoods that empty into the Old Farm Lake ecosystem that are a risk after heavy rains. Our water tables are rising due to construction above us and to the north. It’s time the town looked to help a large number of people in a small area that need the assistance. Chappaqua Crossings? Really? It’s not just a watershed issue, it’s a quality of life issue as well.
I totally endorse comments by Robin Murphy re: Millwood Business District and sewers.
Business owners in the Hamlet have been teased for many years with the promise that “sewers are coming.” How can you develop a Hamlet plan for broadening the commercial tax base if the area is ignored in favor of Chappaqua Crossing; Yeshiva, Riverwoods and Random Farms?
Failure to address sewers in the Hamlet will exacerbate the frustrations of local business owners. Very discouraging. Former Chair Millwood Task Force. 10/7/11
I am paying sewer tax for what?
I live near Old Roaring Brook Rd, 120 , Seven Bridges community. This area too is full of very old houses with very old septic systems. ms Murphy and Mr Hewitt are correct. Why the limited scope and why the favored status of these communities getting sewers? Could be politics at work> Who got to Kaplowitz and got him to work for their houses?
I live along Millwood Rd between 120 and Random Farms. This area has several brooks, streams & ponds which our old septic systems all feed into. There are many homes in this area, as well as throughout Chappaqua which are far older than Random Farms, Riverwoods & Chappaqua Crossing. This is a huge issue for everyone and requires an in-depth study for all areas of Chappaqua, identifying the areas that need sewers the most. I’m not saying that these identified communities don’t need sewers, but the approach is very piecemeal, when what is needed is a comprehensive study for all of Chappaqua. It’s ridiculous to say that only Random Farms, River Woods, Yeshiva & Chappaqua Crossing, newer communities that should have planned for sewage treatment processing, are the only areas that need sewers that everyone will have to pay for? C’mon!
Kings Court has 7 homes that deserve to be ahead of Chappaqua Crossing for sewers.
Mike Kaplowitz has been claiming that this is one of his #1 priorities for many many years. When he says the “Stars have aligned. The time is right” that must be code for it’s election time and both he and the Democrats (who have been running the New Castle Town Board for 17 years) are running against strong opponents who are committed to better meeting the needs of the residents of New Castle.
The homes in existing developments proposed for connection to the sewers do not have individual septic systems. The article clearly states that the “the on-site sewage treatment plants in the three New Castle neighborhoods” have released contaminents into the watershed.
The homes in these neighborhoods do not have individual septic systems. There are on-site community septic systems that the entire neighborhood feeds into. These systems are failing and repairs to the systems would be prohibitively expensive and would only provide a temporary fix until they fail again. Allowing these neighborhoods to connect to the sewer system will improve the quality of drinking water for everyone who uses the NYC water supply system. Apparently, this common good is not enough for some people in Chappaqua who feel that if anyone gets sewers then they better be getting them too.
All of this complaining about “how come they’re getting sewers and I’m not” sounds a lot like the stories I’ve heard about how the air conditioning in Seven Bridges school cannot be used because there is no air conditioning in Bell (can anyone confirm this??).
Perhaps the town should prohibit anyone from getting a new gas connection from Con Ed until the entire town has access to gas connections. Underground utility connections should also be prohibited until all of the utility lines in town are relocated underground. No potholes in town roads should be repaired until repairs are scheduled for all potholes.
The sewer district expansion will prevent untreated effluent from these three developments from finding its way into all of our water supply. I’m amazed that there are actually people in the community who would object to addressing this problem because they feel entitled to their own personal sewer connection.
I do know how myopic people can be but I would like to point out that when it comes to septic issues in New Castle, there is more to it than just “what about me.” There are many, many homes where the existing fields have failed or are in the process of failing but the yard simply has no more viable room for new septic fields. This is a product of geography—there are many rocky shelfs underlying homes in New Castle that preclude septic usage—and the reality that soil making up existing fields has become saturated over many decades of use and the property boundaries cannot be extended for new fields. My septic failed several years ago and we were pumping it once a month(!) to take the water out of the tank. We had added what fields we could several years before but there was not enough linear footage possible to create a long term solution and before long those fields got soaked too. Fortunately for us, we had room in another part of the yard but it involved a whole new system and creating fields weaving through just about every non-tree inch of the property. It was really expensive and took about a year to get approval before work could start. Still, we were lucky. Across the street from us, there is a rocky shelf on one side of the yard and a small stream on the other and the septic is failing, with no place to go. I know we cannot solve all problems at once and I understand the point about safer water for all, but the aging septic systems of this area are a real problem that even community minded people get upset about when they hear about approvals going to one area but not another.
Let’s not make getting rid of our effluent a Red and Blue issue, or an issue for the Tea Party to take up. O’k, wonderful, Michael Kaplowitz seems to be pushing really hard, keep pushing Michael - I feel like an expecting Father PUSH PUSH PUSH - It’s a BABY SEWER LINE: we hope!
Dr. Murphy, keep pushing for the sewer line, PUSH PUSH PUSH. Don’t beat up MK, he is in the process of giving birth. I feel like I am in a lamaze class for infrastructure.
The problem is our Community is in the waiting room for the past 50 years; and now in walks Ken Jenkins to throw the Baby infrastructure project and the hopes of the Community out of the waiting room. What Party does he belong to? Folks we are only having false contractions, come back when the waterline breaks; then we have no choice but to give birth to a project.
While we are waiting to give birth, we are all going to have a c section over the Tappan Zee Bridge.
Jeez, what did Washington say about shovel ready projects? Ours is shovel ready and already funded and paid. What Party has primarily controled Washington, New York, Westchester County, and New Castle over the past 25 years? What Party likes declaring going forth with shovel ready projects? Come on, 50 years, and we are shovel ready!
Question of the day: What same word can be found in both Ready and Already? ANSWER: READY !!!!
Ask any New Yorker to take a sample of their NYC Tap Water to a LAB. If they find traces of effluent in it, we might be the originating source. It just might be vintage Random Farms, Yeshiva, Riverwoods, or West End failing septics. Good sense and the ability to get things done, has no Party. Failure to perform or to work with Party members in either Party over projects that benefit many; has a Party.
Several years ago, I moved to Chappaqua, into a house built in 1947. I bought it in the winter, and the home inspector said he couldn’t properly test the septic fields due to the snow covering the ground. I was a first time home buyer, and I didn’t think it was an issue at the time.
May came, and one day the gardner stopped me when he was cutting the lawn and and asked me to come look at something. He said that he thought we had a problem. I felt like Jed Clampett, only what was bubbling up from the ground wasn’t oil, it was septic sludge.
My septic field had failed, and since the others were in equally bad shape, i had to create new ones by bringing in truckloads of bank run etc. $20,000 later, the job was done. Talk about flushing money down the toilet—pun intended.
This is not an unusual occurrence in my neighborhood, which is in the Roaring Brook Road area, near Route 120, as many of the homes were built in the 1940’s or earlier.
My point? We all need sewers, no matter where we live in New Castle.
I agree that this is just the beginning of getting more sewers into Westchester. More sewers mean more condensed housing which leads to more property tax revenue for the county and communities.
This article did not mention what the homeowners of Random Farms, etc. are contributing. Buyer beware.
OK, just what is Random Farms contributing? Or, have they been paying “sewage taxes” all along. What is the precedent? Just what do the areas that are or will be “hooked up” pay? If anything?
Re: this comment….
By To West Ender on 10/10/2011 at 5:18 pm
Across the street from us, there is a rocky shelf on one side of the yard and a small stream on the other and the septic is failing, with no place to go.
To what address do you refer?
Sorry can’t tell you that but some days you could find it by the smell alone.
