Rockland Green Map

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PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JULY 9, 2008
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Some of the leading environmental organizations in Rockland County have joined together with civic organizations in a growing coalition that is demanding a more thorough environmental and economic analysis by state and local agencies of United Water’s proposed desalination-filtration plant in Haverstraw.  The Rockland Coalition for Sustainable Water is asking the question “Do Rocklanders want to drink Hudson River water? – and pay much higher water bills and taxes too?

The coalition urges all Rockland residents to attend the PUBLIC HEARING to be held at Haverstraw Town Hall on Monday, July 14 at 8pm to learn more about the proposal.

The coalition members, which include organizations and individuals that consider the United Water proposal a “shortsighted and expensive burden to taxpayers” are looking for a better solution that is more in keeping with Rockland’s actual water and energy needs. They say United Water is a subsidiary company wholly owned by GDF Suez, a French multinational corporation with a longstanding international reputation for disrergarding customer needs, while increasing their rates to shocking levels. 

Coalition members question motives behind the United Water/Suez’ scheme to build a desalinization-filtration plant, pointing out that a ‘deal’ of this magnitude could be a corporate strategy, calculated to enrich United Water/Suez’ own coffers at residents’ expense.  They see United Water/Suez strategizing to gain public and municipal support  by taking advantage of local real estate development interests, and promising tax rateables to municipalities.  The coalition warns it is questionable whether Rockland residents would benefit under the proposal – or whether Rockland residents will pay more for water that will forever be tied to skyrocketing energy rates and higher taxes to pay for tremendously higher energy and operational costs as well as improved infrastructure, drainage and sewage expense that come with more people, more traffic and more overdevelopment.
The United Water proposal must be more closely examined to identify environmental and economic concerns that remain unanswered, including:

1. Does drinking Hudson River water pose risks to human health?

Can United Water remove all legacy pollutants from Hudson River water, including strontium 90, cesium, tritium and radioactive nuclides that leak from Indian Point, PCBs, and more?  While we have been warned for years that it is unhealthy to eat many of the fish in the Hudson River, suddenly, United Water wants to assure us that filtered drinking the water from the Hudson River will be safe. How do we know this is true? What additional negative impacts will water intake and discharge have on fish life in our Hudson River?

2. Should we pay significant rate increases, tied to skyrocketing energy prices?

Desalination is extremely energy intensive and comes with a high price tag for operational costs. United Water has been vague about the exact increase, which could be 200-300% and significantly higher water rates in Rockland will be forever pegged to rapidly rising energy costs. While everyone tries to reduce their carbon footprint of energy use, United Water’s plan will increase greenhouse gas emissions with increased energy use and expense for an expanded water resource that Rockland may not need.

3. “Unlimited” water lead to “unlimited” new development at ratepayer expense?

An over expanded water resource feeds United Water’s plan to provide much greater capacity for building in Rockland with taxpayers subsidizing more over development throughout Rockland. United Water’s plan will become a financial burden with taxpayers assuming costs to expand our local roads, drainage infrastructure, sewerage capacity, municipal services and schools.

4. Should Rockland residents pay higher rates and hidden costs as water is shipped to NJ?

Is the timing of the recent $1.8M bond for the Joint Regional Sewer System in Haverstraw merely a coincidence?  Are improvements to waste capacity and treatment part of a bigger plan to clean expected toxic waste residues for river water filtration and in anticipation of new population growth?  If so, this could constitute illegal segmentation of the SEQRA review. United Water expects Rockland residents to drink Hudson River water and pay higher rates for desalination-filtration, while our water is being shipped to Bergen County, NJ.

5. Why has United Water abandoned Ambrey Pond Reservoir in Stony Point?

Ambrey Pond Reservoir, on the books since the 1980s, would be both a welcomed tax ratable in Stony Point and a much cleaner, less expensive and more sustainable water source alternative for the needs of Rockland when we consider the tremendous operating costs for a desalination-filtration plant that will forever be driven by energy costs.

6. Aren’t limits to growth and water conservation the real alternatives needed?

Rockland needs regional water planning with sensible limits to growth, permitting growth only to the limit of our resources, along with policies that require water conservation.

For more information - contacts:

Dorice Madronero
Rock;and County Conservation Association
845-504-0034
dmadronero@gmail.com

Peggy Kurtz
Rockland SIerra Club
845-709-0802
pkurtz9@gmail.com

Michael Castelluccio
Preserve Ramapo
mcastelluccio@yahoo.com

Janet Burnet/Geoff Welch
Ramapo River Committee
Ramapo Watershed Intermunicipal Council
PHONE:
janetburnet@aol.com
geoffwelch@GMAIL.COM

Steven White
Spring Valley Concerned Citizen’s Coalition
845-664-3088
polanve@optimum.net

Bob Jackson
Nanuet Civic Association
845-623-5192
jaxfire1@verizon.net

George Potanovic, Jr./Susan FIlgueras
Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment (SPACE)
845-429-2020 - G
845-429-3229 - S
info@stonypointer.org