Crooked OC Exec Steve Neuhaus Throws Raw Sewage to the Wind
An update on the Village of Monroe's hydrogen sulfide problem and the multi-billion dollar Simon Property Group's efforts to make it worse.
Pictured Above: Crooked Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus trying to look and sound like what his instruction manual says is a “Totally Normal Human.”
Howdy. Just a short follow-up on a story we broke here at The Monroe Gazette late last month. Originally, today’s post was going to be 800 words or so of “Chuck Schumer should resign from the Senate” but then something stupid happened.
Something stupid happens a lot here in Southern Orange County.
(But seriously, Chuck Schumer should resign. Not just as Minority Leader, but from the Senate itself. Then, I want to see posters all across America with his dumb face on it that says, “Term Limits Now!”)
Where was I? Oh right. Orange County Sewer District 1
On March 24th, there will be an in-person public hearing. It’ll be held at 3 p.m. Steve Neuhaus and the Republican legislators, including Drunk Uncle Peter Tuohy, refuse to hold meetings when residents can attend. Ditto with the Orange County Sewer District 1 Advisory Committee meeting, happening on the day I write this, which is scheduled for 2 p.m.
This is an issue The Monroe Gazette has covered before, where Republican legislators didn’t want to entertain changing the times of the meetings. Why? Because “nobody from the public shows up.” That’s not the point, jackass. The point is that the meetings should be accessible to the public. Given that the Orange County Legislature meets once a month, this shouldn’t be too much to ask. It’s a meeting of the county legislature, not a Metallica concert. The only time local government meetings are packed, or should be packed, is when people are pissed.
This hearing will be on whether to upgrade the capacity of the existing Orange County Sewer District 1 plant from 6 million gallons per day to 9 million gallons per day. As you know, because you clearly read The Monroe Gazette, OCSD1’s Harriman plant is operating at, and often above, capacity. Expanding that capacity means many new units in South Blooming Grove, the Village of Monroe, and Palm Tree can be occupied. Of course, there’s limited to no water in these three municipalities, but hey, God will provide, right?
What Should We Discuss at the Hearing?
There are some profoundly concerning issues involving Orange County Sewer District 1’s infrastructure, such as the hydrogen sulfide issue on the children’s playground in the Village of Monroe. We broke the story on that. (We do that a lot around here. Try a monthly subscription. It’s what pays for all the investigative reporting.)
We don’t know what’s being discharged into the Ramapo either, how often, and whether or not that’s happening appropriately. Now you want to process three million gallons more? Do all of the municipalities downstream of the Ramapo in Rockland County know about this? How about the Village of Suffern and its residents? Over two million people depend on the Ramapo River. So what happens here in Orange County Sewer District 1 will impact their water supply and quality of life.
We also don’t know what shape the OCSD1 plant is in. Crooked County Executive Steve Neuhaus won’t let reporters in to see it. So here we have Orange County asking to upgrade how much sewage the plant can process, but no information on whether or not the existing infrastructure can handle it, or if the proposed upgrades will, let alone the river itself, which qualifies as a distressed water body according to Orange County Sewer District 1’s own advisory committee.
By the way, if you’re wondering who will pay for all this, it’s you. It’s not going to be the multibillion-dollar Simon Property Group — who could easily pay for a new sewage plant out of what it just offered up in stock buybacks last year.
So let’s be clear about what’s happening here: Residents of Orange County Sewer District 1 are being asked to pay for upgrades to the current sewer plant infrastructure and then a brand new facility for the next thirty years. Meanwhile, Simon Property Group, one of the wealthiest corporations in America, isn’t going to pay a dime. Neither will the Simon family, whose net worth is valued at just over $11 billion, according to Forbes.
Meanwhile, while running for re-election, Crooked County Executive Steve Neuhaus is going to brag about cutting your taxes and lowering the cost of living here in Orange County. Much like everything else that comes out of his subhuman mouth: It’s a lie.
Here’s What We Know
We know that in 2018, there was a consent decree between OCSD1 and the State Department of Environmental Conservation. And that settlement with the DEC and Orange County led to the original surge in interest in containing the hydrogen sulfide problem in the Village of Monroe.
The hydrogen sulfide issue was first detected in 1995. In 2003, the Moodna Sewer Basin Commission was confronted about it, and Orange County — among other parties — chipped in to fix that infrastructure. (It’s not clear yet if Moodna knew about the problem and chose to ignore it, but that’s what the FOIL’ed documents recovered by The Monroe Gazette have so far revealed. We are gearing up to take legal action against Moodna as they have repeatedly attempted to hide documents from FOIL requests.)
The hydrogen sulfide smell was then detected again in or around 2008/2009 and ignored until the consent decree between Orange County Sewer District 1 and the DEC in 2018.
There was then a renewed push to fix this problem since, by the time Orange County got around to addressing it, Joel Stern pulled an Elon Musk and took over South Blooming Grove in 2021.
Joel Stern then approved virtually everything that appeared before the South Blooming Grove planning board, and often projects that didn’t, taking a bad situation and making it much worse. Crooked County Executive Steve Neuhaus — along with Soft on Crime District Attorney David Hoovler — is a coward, like State Senator James G. Skoufis, and has repeatedly let Joel Stern off the hook for infrastructure problems like this. Hoovler has repeatedly failed to bring charges against Joel Stern, Isaac Ekstein, and South Blooming Grove. (At the time of this writing, The one lawsuit between Orange County and South Blooming Grove is not a criminal case. And both Neuhaus and Orange County Attorney Rick Golden are fighting like hell to avoid testifying in it. That’s because Neuhaus and Golden, along with Skoufis, appeared to have approved the illegal construction of a road through Orange County-owned Gonzaga Park by Stern.)
To nobody’s surprise, Neuhaus and Hoovler are up for re-election this Fall, like Skoufis was in November.
I was on the phone with someone from Orange County last week, who repeatedly blamed Chester for the hydrogen sulfide problem in the Village of Monroe. Historically speaking, they’re not wrong. But they’re leaving out something pretty significant: Which is that Orange County installed the ANUE Water Technologies hardware, which cleaned up Chester’s contribution to the hydrogen sulfide problem. So for Orange County to continue blaming Chester for the problem is total bullshit. And it’s a lie Orange County has continued to push in documentation reviewed by The Monroe Gazette as recently as this month. While there was a hardware failure in Chester in 2024, which would have temporarily contributed to the hydrogen sulfide problem, the consistent source of the problem is the Village of South Blooming Grove.
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Woodbury Common and South Blooming Grove Deal Blessed By Neuhaus
And here’s where things get really fucked up. Because as of last night, Crooked County Executive Steve Neuhaus has made it clear that they plan to bless the deal between South Blooming Grove and Simon Property Group. That means Simon Property Group, barring a lawsuit, will get its Phase 5 Expansion of Woodbury Common. Something that area residents do not want. Especially without a train station to help alleviate the increase in traffic it’ll bring.
This blessing by Neuhaus comes even though:
South Blooming Grove does not have any excess capacity to give Simon Property Group, based on its rampant approval of new units.
South Blooming Grove failed to hold an election in March of 2024, rendering all decisions (and agreements) made by the Village null and void.
South Blooming Grove couldn’t even handle a test of the ANUE Water Technologies hardware without experiencing a massive sewer failure. And South Blooming Grove “Mayor” George Kalaj has started off meetings this month and in February complaining about the state of their crumbling sewer infrastructure.
South Blooming Grove is the primary culprit of the hydrogen sulfide issue in the village of Monroe, and that problem hasn’t been solved. So how exactly does leasing their non-existant “excess” capacity help alleviate this issue? The existence of this issue demonstrates the structural failures of OCSD1’s infrastructure, suggesting it can’t take any more strain.
The OCSD1 Plant itself is at, if not often, over capacity. So how is there any “excess” capacity in the first place? Who calculated that? Did someone give Steve Neuhaus a calculator and a couple of crayons to play with?
We spoke with the New York State DEC, who currently has its handsfull with South Blooming Grove. For example, despite lying under oath concerning his connection with the Clovewood project, Joel Stern has been pushing ahead over there. This is despite limitations placed on the project by the DEC, and an ongoing lawsuit by the Town of Blooming Grove. The DEC said the following to The Monroe Gazette about that situation:
DEC is committed to enforcing New York's stringent environmental laws and regulations, holding violators accountable, and protecting the health and safety of all New Yorkers. DEC is actively directing the developer to come into compliance and continues to monitor the site. Based on site inspections, DEC will undertake all necessary enforcement actions to ensure the protection of public health and the environment.
We’ve also been informed that the DEC has been to the Clovewood site four times in a VERY short amount of time recently, observed violations, and is working with Stern and friends to bring them into compliance. Now, the DEC has been saying that last part to the public for a long time now.
But as you can see, it doesn’t stop Stern from doing whatever he wants. Neither will Neuhaus. Neither will Skoufis.
The only thing that seems to work is a lawsuit. I should know. You won’t believe how much more cooperative South Blooming Grove is now with FOILs since they’ve been sued and lost in court.
So if you want my advice? If you live in Orange County Sewer District 1? I’d say the time for talk is over. You can, and should, absolutely go to the public hearing on March 24th. But then you should sue South Blooming Grove, Joel Stern personally, Orange County, Steve Neuhaus personally, and Simon Property Group. This deal between SBG and Woodbury Common has little legal ground to stand on. But it’ll get pushed through all the same if you sit here and do nothing like a bunch of Chuck Schumers.