Priority Must Be Placed on Water Quality Projects in Putnam County
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Since Putnam County’s water resources are a source of life, of beauty and of recreation, we should all be concerned when our elected officials don’t do all it takes to ensure our water is clean and safe.
In 2017, $200 million was earmarked in New York City’s budget for several Hudson Valley water quality projects. In 2022, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) finally entered into a contract with the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for $200 million in specific water quality projects in the New York City watershed.
Specifically, $35 million is assigned to Lake Carmel for wastewater treatment and sewage collection around the lake, and another $5 million for Palmer Lake for non-conventional septic systems. That is $40 million designated specifically for Town of Kent projects.
There is also $29.1 million designated for the Town of Carmel’s Mahopac wastewater treatment upgrades. Another $25 million is for wastewater solutions for Putnam and Westchester lakes and finally $10 million for stormwater retrofits in both counties. That is $104.1 million for mostly Putnam County projects.
According to the paperwork, this money has been sent to DEC. So where is it and when will these critical water quality projects actually happen?
I am the lake chair at Hill & Dale; our lake is Palmer Lake. If we are awarded this $5 million grant, we will immediately begin the work of contacting our 143 homeowners to prepare to remove all existing septic systems and retrofit them all with the newest phosphorus-specific FujiClean high-efficiency septic systems. Septic runoff is one of the major contributors to impaired water quality in our water bodies. At Palmer Lake, we have numerous years of data showing this impact.
There seems to be little proactive coordination of these various Putnam County-specific funding projects at the county level. This is a huge $104.1 million fund we should be utilizing now to improve our waterbodies, groundwater and the watershed.
I am running for Putnam County Legislator, District 3, which is most of Kent and a portion of Patterson. If you elect me, my first project in office will be to work with Putnam County, DEC, DEP and the various towns to move this funding forward and get working on spending these critical funds by creating the bid documents and oversight needed to properly manage this work.
My priorities include working on installing high-efficiency septic systems around every waterbody in the watershed. Activating this $104.1 million DEP money will be the first step in this process.
Another key priority is to create a better, more proactive working partnership with DEC, DEP and Putnam County. We all benefit from clean water and a properly managed watershed.
Kathy Kahng
Kent
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