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Letters to the editor
(Times Herald-Record, August 18, 2004)
False pipeline info
At first glance, yes, it would appear good planning, but the City of New York has told Kiryas Joel no one other than them can tap into this pipeline. While the environmental impact study conducted by KJ was being done, this fact was never broached. In fact, all the towns the line was to disrupt were given this false information about them being able to tap into this line.
I would like to know if in fact the proponents of this line knew this fact before selling it to local governments in the early stages. If they did, this would make an excellent story for this paper. Good community planning is what we want, but that cannot be accomplished with inaccurate/false information now, can it?
Valerie Prunty
Washingtonville
Webmaster's Response:
Dear Valerie:
The pipeline was ‘good planning’ at first glance and all the more so in the final analysis. You are correct about there being inaccurate information about the pipeline. The main inaccuracy is that New York City said ‘NO’ to the towns whose roads the pipeline was going to disrupt. New York City could not have said NO to them since they never applied for their own tap. It is worth noting that seventy-five other municipalities have requested and received permission to tap into the NYC Aqueduct. And that the agreement that NYC signed with the host municipalities, in 1905, expressly grants them permission to tap into the aqueduct.
New York City only objected to attempts by other municipalities to piggyback on Kiryas Joel’s application, since NYC does not permit the creation of a secondary market. They never ruled out a direct application by any municipality.
You should also be aware that Blooming Grove only wanted an emergency water source and Kiryas Joel agreed to allow Blooming Grove to tap its pipeline if and when the need arose, naturally only after it applied and received permission from NYC. And, last but not least, the fact that Kiryas Joel will no longer withdraw 1.1 million gallons a day from the local aquifer will drastically reduce the prospects that Blooming Grove will ever need to access this emergency supply.
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