Save the Sound applauds the New York State Assembly’s passage of a bill related to sewer districts in Westchester County, just a day after the bill passed the Senate.
Sponsored by Senator Shelley Mayer and Assemblymember Amy Paulin, the bill will allow the New Rochelle Sewer District (NRSD) to explore the option of transferring its sewer system properties and its management to Westchester County, “when determined to be in the public interest,” according to the Sponsor Memo. The NRSD includes the city of New Rochelle, town of Mamaroneck, village of Larchmont, and village of Pelham Manor.
“Upgrading our wastewater and stormwater infrastructure in Westchester County is critical,” said David Ansel, vice president of Save the Sound’s Center for Water Protection. “Wastewater and stormwater pollution are major sources of the nitrogen that degrades our bays and harbors and the bacteria that causes our beaches to close — even on sunny days following a rainstorm. We look forward to continuing to work with the county and with municipalities toward the full suite of solutions required to address this complex challenge.”
The bill is necessary because historically, some Westchester municipalities have underfunded repairs to their sewage systems. This led Save the Sound to file a Clean Water Suit against Westchester County and 11 municipalities in 2015 claiming that underfunding and lack of maintenance to municipal sewage collection systems feeding into County plants was resulting in sewage spills into local waterways and Long Island Sound. The suit has resulted in all 11 municipalities agreeing to study and repair a collective 518 miles of sewer pipes and fix more than 39,000 defects. The municipalities also will dedicate $1.2 million to environmental benefit projects to clean up Long Island Sound and local waterbodies. This legislation will allow the municipalities and the county to negotiate an agreement to ensure there are adequate municipal and county resources brought to bear to maintain these systems and to prevent pollution into the future.
“This legislation is a big step forward, but the job is not done,” said Roger Reynolds, senior legal director at Save the Sound. “It is now up to the county and the municipalities to come together to agree on a system that will ensure that the underfunding of critical infrastructure and resulting pollution that occurred for so long is ended. This will require everyone to come to the table in good faith to resolve these very real problems.”
