The Town/Village of Harrison has agreed to spend $36 million on fixing its sewers to prevent pollution from reaching Long Island Sound and to settle a lawsuit brought by the Save the Sound environmental group.
Harrison will repair about 64 miles of sewer pipes, according to an Oct. 18 announcement by Save the Sound.
The Larchmont organization sued Westchester County and 11 towns and villages in 2015 for failing to maintain, repair and upgrade their sewers.
The Sound is a feeding, breeding, nesting and nursery habitat for thousands of plant and animal species, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains. It contributed $8.5 billion annually to the regional economy from boating, commercial and sport fishing and recreation.
“But Long Island Sound is no longer a jewel,” the complaint states, especially near Westchester County.
Sewer pipes installed more than a hundred years ago are broken, according to the complaint, and in heavy rains they overflow and dump raw sewage into the Sound.
Dissolved oxygen in the water, on which marine life depends, decreases. Pathogens and toxic contaminants increase. And in 2015, Save the Sound claimed, the sewer systems were continuing to degrade and the pollution was worsening.
The lawsuit was filed to force the local governments to comply with the federal Clean Water Act of 1972.
Harrison has already spent $1 million, according to the agreement filed in federal court on Sept. 30, as part of $9.9 million budgeted for Phase 1 from 2019 to 2025. By the end of this year, for instance, Harrison is expected to have fixed half of the manholes and disconnected many stormwater catch basins from the sanitary sewers.
It has budgeted $25 million for Phase 2 repairs and upgrades from 2025 to 2032.
It has agreed to pay Save the Sound $140,000 in attorney fees and expenses and up to $35,000 for continuing oversight and $60,000 to the Westchester Soil and Water Conservation District for environmental projects.
Harrison also agreed to set up a program for fixing privately-owned pipes that connect homes and businesses to the public sewers. The government will either adopt an assessment or tax to pay for the program, according to the settlement, or create a compulsory insurance program that could include an opt-out measure.
Save the Sound has forwarded the agreement to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a mandatory 45-day review. After the review, it will ask federal court to approve a consent decree.
Save the Sound previously reached agreements with Village of Mamaroneck, Port Chester, Rye, Rye Brook, and White Plains. It is still negotiating, according to a recent court records, with Larchmont, Town of Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Pelham Manor, Scarsdale and Westchester County.
