Bedford Asked to Test Alternative Septic Fix

Bedford officials appear likely to test whether decentralized wastewater systems can serve as a far less costly alternative to traditional treatment-plants in safeguarding New York City’s water supply.

County Legislator Peter Harckham of Katonah asked the town board Tuesday to serve as a proving ground for the contaminant-stopping power of so-called enhanced treatment units, a cross between septic systems and treatment plants.

And while the board did not take official stance, no one balked and one member, Councilman Francis Corcoran, asked, in effect, “What took you so long?” With the town already facing serious septic challenges in Katonah and Bedford Hills—but unable to afford the pricier treatment-plant solutions—some suggest Harckham’s request was roughly like asking a floundering swimmer to test the efficacy of a tossed rope.

Decentralized systems, Harckham said, maintain a property owner’s septic tank for breaking down solid waste but pipe the effluent, the liquid, to a central treatment site.

“Everything is smaller,” Harckham said. “You’re just pumping liquids. The amount of disruption to streets and lawns is certainly much less because they’re [accommodating] smaller pipes. It’s sent to a central treatment area, again using advanced treatment that can be as good as or superior to a conventional sewage-treatment plant.”

Although New York City has installed decentralized systems in Putnam and west of the watershed area, Harckham noted, it has refused to permit them in the watershed itself. So, with Bedford Hills and Katonah facing serious problems with soil and absorption, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) pressed for construction of a massive treatment plant Bedford could ill-afford.

Harckham, who chairs the County Legislature’s septic subcommittee, convened a summit last fall with DEP officials, among them the DEP’s David Warren, and others from local, county and state governments, among them Bedford Planning Director Jeff Osterman. By Summit’s end, Harckham said, Warren had green-lighted a pilot project to test the protective powers of decentralized systems.

“The good news is that for the first time a pilot can be done,” Harckham said. “The bad news is that since it’s never been done, we have to make it up as we go along.”

He told the board members, “We’re here to ask the Town of Bedford to join us in this conversation. . . . We think Bedford would be the perfect partner for this, given the challenges you face.”