Questions You Should Be Asking About Southern Orange County's Looming Sewer Emergency
The $200 million sewage expansion and improvement project took a major step forward this week, but what local towns and villages do while the project gets underway is up in the air.
Hi.
Linked here is the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Orange County’s Sewer District 1’s expansion.
At 54:07 seconds in the video below, you can see the Orange County accept and approve the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
(I could not, yet, locate the FEIS online.)
You can view the resolution they passed here on Page 32 of 100 in your PDF viewer.
So, after many years, this sewer project is moving forward. A project that’s going to have major ramifications for residents of Monroe, Woodbury, Palm Tree, Blooming Grove, and Chester.
But.
If you look at the 156 page Draft EIS, you might have A LOT of questions.
And, thus far, our elected representatives in the county and in these towns and villages have yet to answer them.
Today, I’m going to share with you the questions I have.
Let’s rewind the clock, if you don’t mind, to the Orange County State of the County Address.
If you watch the above presentation, Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus speaks about the sewer infrastructure project for less than a minute.
He spends more time talking about his visit to the border, spinning a humanitarian crisis into a threat to “national security”, then he does South Blooming Grove, or stuff like this in Newburgh:
If you believe the County Executive, everything in Orange County is, to put it in the words of George Carlin, “just fucking dandy.”
But it’s not.
The sewer project is another great example of the cognitive dissonance exhibited by the County Executive in his speech.
He’s not alone.
I reached out to Orange County Legislator Katie Bonelli (District 5), among other Southern Orange County legislators, saying this:
“I have confirmed from multiple local government officials in Southern Orange County that Southern Orange County has reached its maximum sewer capacity. In some instances, such as Monroe, the sewer is OVER capacity.
I am writing to all of you together, as a group, as the designated representatives for Southern Orange County residents (including Monroe, Woodbury, Blooming Grove, South Blooming Grove, Washingtonville, and Chester.)
The OC County Executive's office has not replied to requests for comment about the sewer situation, what its current status is, what the plan is to fix this, and whether or not an emergency stop work order will be issued for all projects throughout the county and our portion of it.
I'd like to ask you all, as a group and individually, for official comment on the situation.
Can you clarify what is going on for our readers, and what actions the County is taken given the situation?
Here’s what Mrs. Bonelli said:
Your inquiry regarding the OC SEWER District #1 is very timely. This past Thursday we accepted the environmental report to move forward with longevity improvements and plans to expand the plant.
As far as concerns regarding development, many regulatory agents have enforcement powers. (Emphasis Added.)
Referring to the sewer issue I refer you to the Orange County website, which you will find the extensive plans for review. This should provide you with an idea of the project.
Enjoy your weekend.
That doesn’t answer my question!
I felt like I got a Donald Rumsfeld-like answer here from Bonelli.
The kind of answer that can best be described by this profane and hilarious conversation from an episode of “The Boondocks.”
I am now 55 pages into the Draft EIS document.
So far, these are the biggest questions I have, that I sent to Legislator Bonelli in my follow-up.
1. The cost of the project in 2025 construction dollars, adjusted for 7% inflation, is roughly $203 million dollars. This is on Page 35. The EIS says the cost of this construction would ultimately be passed on to people living in the Sewer District.
I know your district includes Palm Tree. Palm Tree received $100M+ from the state and federal funding for the pipeline connection project.
Can you clarify if residents of Palm Tree are obligated to pay back or otherwise help pay off the funding they received for the pipeline?
If not, will Palm Tree, given that both it and South Blooming Grove are the primary beneficiaries of this sewage district expansion project according to the EIS, seek similar funding from Congress and New York State to alleviate the costs to all residents within the OCSD1 expansion project?
2. You stated, "As far as concerns regarding development, many regulatory agents have enforcement powers. ."
Orange County District Attorney Hoovler has repeatedly failed to act against Mr. Brach and his associates (as just one example) via the White Collar Crime Task Force.
Can you help explain how the county plans to utilize its own enforcement powers regarding building and development in South Blooming Grove and other projects in Monroe and Woodbury in light of OCSD1 being over capacity, in Monroe, and at capacity for the other villages and towns?
3. Will Orange County be issuing an emergency stop work order for all projects in OCSD1 until the project is completed in the next three to five years given the timeline for the project's Phase 1A and then the SBR options to be built?
I’ll let you know if she writes me back.
The Question To Ask Your Mayors and Supervisors
Page 2 of the DEIS says the following:
The existing OCSD1 sewer system includes equipment and structural components that are aging past their service life, there are updated regulatory requirements to be met and there are documented increasing demands for sewer service in the sewer service area that exceed the existing 6.0 MGD capacity of the wastewater treatment plant. Realistically, the ‘No-Action’ alternative is not viable in light of the problem to be solved.
So … The question you should be asking is:
Why the fuck are you allowing any building to continue right now?
Seriously.
There’s a potential for an ecological disaster that could happen here at any moment.
Hopefully, it doesn’t!
Hopefully, I’m being completely hyperbolic and downright ridiculous in suggesting that such a thing is imminent.
But the concern is legit.
Straight from the horse’s mouth at Orange County.
So what are you, Mayor George Kalaj, going to do about it?
What are you, Supervisor Tony Cardone, going to do about it?
What are you, Village Trustee Freiband, going to do about it?
What are you, County Executive Neuhaus, going to do about it?
Especially because!
Especially because County Exeucitve Neuhaus dedicated a major chunk of his State of the County presentation to suggesting, like I have, that nobody is coming to save us.
His implication being, you can trust the County to be the adult and take care of business, because the FBI isn’t going to arrest Joel Stern and the State Comptroller isn’t going to audit Tony Cardone.
So, again I’m going to ask:
What are you, County Executive Neuhaus, going to do about the rampant, often un-permitted building, happening right now, given that the DEIS you just approved, said, “there are documented increasing demands for sewer service in the sewer service area that exceed the existing 6.0 MGD capacity of the wastewater treatment plant.
The answer should be an emergency order issued by the county to stop all building in Sewer District 1.
The answer should be stepped up code enforcement in Palm Tree, Monroe, Woodbury, Blooming Grove, and South Blooming Grove since they rely on this district.
The answer should be enforcement of the laws on the books by District Attorney Hoovler against rogue village governments like South Blooming Grove and against developers like Zigmond Brach and Jacob Gold, Keen Equities largest shareholders.
If nobody is coming to save you, according to the County Executive, then it’s up to the County Executive to take immediate and decisive action to protect the health and safety of all Southern Orange County residents.
Ask him yourself:
Email: ceoffice@orangecountygov.com
Subject Line: What Are You Going To Do About It?
Body:
Dear County Executive Neuhaus,
In May of 2024’s State of the County Address, your main theme was that the federal government and the state were not going to solve the problems of a county resident.
The implication was that Orange County, and yourself, could solve their problems.
So, I’d like to ask what are you, County Executive Neuhaus, going to do about the rampant, often unpermitted building, happening right now, given that the OCSD1 FEIS the county just approved, said, “there are documented increasing demands for sewer service in the sewer service area that exceed the existing 6.0 MGD capacity of the wastewater treatment plant.”
The answer should be an emergency order issued by the county to stop all building in Sewer District 1.
The answer should be stepped up code enforcement in Palm Tree, Monroe, Woodbury, Blooming Grove, and South Blooming Grove since they rely on this district.
The answer should be enforcement of the laws on the books by District Attorney Hoovler against rogue village governments like South Blooming Grove and against developers like Zigmond Brach and Jacob Gold, Keen Equities largest shareholders.
If, according to you, nobody is coming to save us, then it’s up you to take immediate and decisive action to protect the health and safety of all Southern Orange County residents.
Please get to it.
(Put your name here.)