After commitments made in a 2017 Consent Order went unfulfilled by established deadlines, Save the Sound and the village of Mamaroneck have reached a new amended agreement in a suit involving violations of the Clean Water Act that dates back to 2015.
Through years of remediation work, the village has already completed $6.5 million worth of repairs to its sanitary sewer system. These fixes primarily address inflow and infiltration problems that occur when groundwater and stormwater enter cracked, broken and faulty pipes, mix with wastewater and cause discharges of untreated or partially treated sewage into Long Island Sound and the rivers and streams that feed it. The Village Board of Trustees recently authorized up to $3.5 million be spent to repair similar defects in other areas of the Village.
The new agreement will have resulted in the study and rehabilitation of more than 23 miles of sewer pipe. Additionally, the village will make an Environmental Benefit Payment of $350,000 to the Westchester County Soil and Water Conservation for projects to be determined that will reduce, mitigate and remediate pollution in the Sound and its tributaries in or near Mamaroneck.
Pollution from sanitary sewer pipes carrying wastewater from homes and businesses to treatment facilities has long been a problem in Westchester County. The wastewater infrastructure has deteriorated over the decades, making it vulnerable to stormwater infiltrating the pipes and overwhelming the system during rain events, which have grown more frequent and severe due to climate change. Consequences of sewage pollution can include periodic closures of beaches and shellfish beds, depletion of certain fish stocks, fish consumption advisories, and restrictions on certain recreational activities.
As a result of all the settlements with all of the towns to date, over 665 miles of sewer pipes have been or will be repaired and more than 64,000 defects have been or will be fixed across the 11 municipalities.
