Testimony Before the Public Hearing on the Proposed United Water Experimental Treatment Plant

Robert I. Rhodes July 15, 2008

It is hard to know when United Water thinks it is telling the truth, when it is lying, and when it is simply incompetent.

Over a year ago, United Water filed a twenty-year plan with the New York Public Service Commission. At that time, it estimated that Hudson River water would cost significantly more than water from the Ambrey Pond Reservoir, but it argued that the extra cost was worthwhile because the supply of water would be much greater and that many environmental issues and permits would be avoided by using of Hudson River Water.

More recently, the head PR flack for United Water has been going around telling everyone that Hudson River water will be cheaper than water from Ambrey. Which statement is true?

Then we have the environmental issues. Nowhere in the report to the Public Service Commission is there any suggestion that the use of Hudson River Water would involve the use of experimental technologies, or that the cost of this water would be have to be determined after large scale experiments.

The need for the construction of an experimental treatment plant suggests to me that United Water is not confident that it knows what technologies will be required to adequately filter Hudson River water. And if United Water does not know how it will treat this water then the clear inference is that it does not know how much this water will actually cost.

Some time ago I did some back of the envelope calculations. I took United Water’s estimated cost of Hudson River water, I added a modest increase for inflation, and found that this water would cost roughly ten times as much as water purchased at the standard winter rate. Of course, since then there has been an enormous escalation in the cost of steel, cement, electricity and almost everything else that would be required first to build and then to operate the plant.

It would not be alarmist to suggest that by the time United Water finally gets its act together we will be looking at Hudson River water that will cost perhaps fifteen times our standard winter rate.

Now let’s look at population growth and the economic and environmental implications.

United Water’s report to the Public Service Commission suggested that Rockland’s population would only increase by 15% over the next twenty years. When I asked where this figure came from United Water told me that it probably came from the Rockland Board of Health. When I asked the Rockland Health Department where the population figure came from I was told it probably came from United Water.

In truth, I believe this figure was cooked up by a bunch of politicians, bureaucrats, and representatives from United Water who sat around a table and came up with a highly political estimate based on no demographic analysis whatsoever.

I believe that the 15% growth figure is much too low. If it is too low, United Water’s filtration plant will have to be much larger and much more expensive to build and to operate. Also, if the water still contains some level of toxic chemicals, viruses and so forth after it is filtered, then, as we become increasingly dependent on Hudson River water, the concentrations of these contaminants in the water we drink will be greater.

United Water is still reassuring every planning board in Rockland that it has plenty of water to satisfy the needs of our growing county. In other words, it is doing its best to encourage population growth in Rockland. At the same time it is desperately looking for more water. It is talking out of both sides of its mouth and then claiming that it is being apolitical. What it is really doing is aiding and abetting our irresponsible political leaders.

Can we afford United Water’s water? As our water table goes down the company is looking to the very few parts of the county where the water table has not yet been abused. As more private wells are pumped dry, more people will be forced to rely on United Water. Unfortunately, as more and more buildings and parking lots are built the quality of our ground water will continue to deteriorate, and we will become increasingly dependent upon Hudson River water.

We need serious water conservation and real limits to population growth.

Robert I. Rhodes, Ph.D., Chairman, Preserve Ramapo, www.PreserveRamapo.org