Folder_0047

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

8) Since the signing of the Agreement, the City has effectively added new reservoirs to its unfiltered Catskill-Delaware System without including their watersheds in the land acquisition program. Alternative water distribution measures that were unforeseen by the United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency or the other Watershed Agreement signatories include increases in the pump capacity at the Cross River and Croton Falls reservoirs, allowing the City to increase use of Croton system water in the Catskill-Delaware distribution system. The City's failure to include these two reservoirs in the land acquisition program is a violation of the Watershed Agreement.

9) FAD Task 311-b mandates that the City "implement and administer" the Watershed• Regulations, including enforcement of the regulations against watershed polluters.. Despite six years of commitments from City Hall and two DEP commissioners, DEP has failed to adequately staff its Environmental Enforcement Division. There are still only six police officers detailed to environmental enforcement in a 2,000 square mile watershed, which is home to over 250,000 people, contains over 80,000 septic systems, 112 sewage treatment plants and thousands of other pollution sources. There are only four officers, one captain and three green recruits, assigned to environmental protection East of Hudson. The West of Hudson environmental enforcement unit, although theoretically staffed with three officers, has ceased making pollution arrests'altogether. As a result, DEP is violating the 1997 EPA FAD, which requires the maintenance of environmental enforcement staff at levels described in previous FADs. Iri addition, daily sector patrols required by the FAD to uncover environmental crimes are not occurring.

10) NYC DEP has approved Zenon and other experimental sewage treatment technologies that are being used by developers to circumvent the Watershed Agreement. The Watershed Agreement limits the number of new sewer plants allowed within sixty days travel time from the systems water consumers in order to prevent microbiological contamination of the supply. The ban on new sewer plants was intended to prevent microbiological contamination by the plant itself and by the construction of impervious surfaces associated with growth and development. The three pilot plants provided for in the Agreement must strictly control their own phosphate discharges and allow for and control all pollution discharges associated with induced growth of impervious surfaces. Experimental technology recently approved by the NYC DEP allows the construction of new sewer plants within the sixty day travel zone without any limitation on impervious surface pollution associated with or induced by the plants.

Zenon enables developers to recycle most of their wastewater, significantly cutting the waste stream and reducing the need for conventional disposal to ground or surface waters. While the Zenon system may promise substantial benefits for existing businesses and communities in sensitive areas, the conditional approval policy announced by DEP ignores the potentially catastrophic growth inducing aspects of Zenon and similar systems that are not contemplated by the Watershed Agreement. Already, the least responsible watershed developers are lining up to incorporate Zenon technology into their - proposed projects, in many cases to avoid the sprawl-limiting sewage discharge restrictions in DEP's new watershed regulations.

The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has shown little willingness to fight the tough political and legal battles necessary to establish control over "all human activities that may have an adverse impact on the microbiological quality of the source water." 40 CFR 414.71(b)(2)(iii). In a series of stunning policy decisions, DEP leadership has instead opened up thousands of acres of watershed land that were formerly protected from the threat of development due to wetlands, steep slopes or restrictions on the construction of new sewage treatment plants. DEP engineers use discredited and outdated stormwater models that encourage dangerous development; they routinely fail to conduct site visits prior to issuing approvals; they regularly miss opportunities to steer development projects out of sensitive areas by failing to attend local planning board meetings. DEP has abandoned its powers to map and protect small wetlands or to use the State Environmental Quality Review Act to fight

NYC-WTC 000137620