Comments of Leo Wiegman, Trustee of the Village of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, on the Millennium Pipeline Project; November 13, 2002 Public Hearing.
Good morning, my name is Leo Wiegman. I serve as a Trustee of the Village of Croton-on-Hudson and as Liaison to the Village’s Waterfront Advisory Committee, which has jurisdiction over our Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. I also serve as Liaison to the Village’s Water Control Commission. I have worked closely with Waterfront Advisory Committee for the entirety of its deliberation on the consistency of the Millennium Pipeline with the Village’s LWRP. The inconsistency finding it delivered to the Village Board was the product of months of research and discussion. I want to comment this morning on why I oppose the present route of the Pipeline through the Village Wellfield.
The Village was so committed to coastal protection that it created its own LWRP which placed the entire municipality and its wellfields within the “coastal zone” for the program. In 1989 the Village adopted a local law for wellfield protection, a law which is an enforceable policy under the CZMA. It establishes three groundwater protection zones that encircle the wells. The most restrictive is Zone 1, the Wellhead Protection Area, which extends a minimum of 200 feet from all Village Wells to include the
“cone of influence” induced by a well’s pumping action. Regulations on Zone 1 state:
“All systems, facilities and activities are prohibited except for physical pumping and treatment facilities and controls. The area shall not be used for any purpose except public water supply.”
The proposed Millennium Pipeline route crosses Zone 1 in direct violation of this law. The Village has commissioned two hydrogeological studies of the Wellfield in order to prepare the conditions of the Local Law cited above and the LWRP. Neither of these studies anticipated a pipeline being routed through Zone 1. Therefore changes to the Wellfield during the pipeline’s construction and operation remain completely unstudied in this location. We would like Millennium held to the same standard of study as the Village ‘s LWRP.
The proposed route through Zone 1 also diminishes the surface area available for drilling our future wells. The proposed route traverses immediately through Zone 1, making two turns, which effectively eliminates from potential future use a zigzagging corridor that is 50 feet wide. Millennium’s own brief states that there would be a flat prohibition on new well placement within this corridor.
If the Village’s well water supply were to be disturbed for any reason during pipeline construction or operation, the Village would not now be able to supply itself or Metro-North’s Croton-Harmon Rail Yard adequately from any other source:
1. We have no functioning backup well in this location or any other.
2. We have one extremely limited water interconnection with an adjacent town.
3. Our current system can not provide the more extensive, more costly chemical treatment that Reservoir water requires.
4. Supplying ourselves with potable by truck is impractical.
5. Desalination and filtration of Hudson River water would take years to implement.
In sum, the proposed route does not protect adequately the Village’s sole source drinking water supply, nor its ability to find and develop additional supply in the future. Neither prudent nor responsible water supply management allows a gas pipeline to traverse the capture zone of a public wellfield.
Respectfully Submitted,
Leo A. W. Wiegman
Village Trustee, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
and Liaison to the Waterfront Advisory Committee and Water Control Commission.
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