Town Approves Study of Water Filtration Alternatives

An agreement has been reached between Mamaroneck-based Westchester Joint Waterworks (WJWW) and Westchester County to join forces to fund a study to look into the options for an ultraviolet plant alternative, as opposed to WJWW building a water filtration plant on its own.  The alternative could save the Town of Harrison millions of dollars.

The announcement came at the Harrison Town Board meeting on March 18. 

"The agreement is to be part of the county's UV alternative so that we would be getting the same water that they will be getting," said WJWW manager Anthony Conetta.

Of the alternatives proposed, the first option would be for the county to build their own UV facility at Kensico Plaza. The second is to build a pipeline to Eastview, where it would get water from the New York City UV facility there, he said.

Right now, WJWW— which provides water to the town of Harrison and the town and village of Mamaroneck— is sharing the cost of the investigation. The county is facilitating the study and will choose which of the two options is the most feasible.

"At that point, Westchester Joint will have to make a decision if they want to partner with that. They'll have a certain time period in which to do that," said Thomas Lauro, Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Facilities for Westchester County.

If WJWW went that route, the UV plant would replace the building of the water filtration plant.

"Water filtration is geared to remove solids, UV treatment is geared to provide disinfection," said Conetta. Currently, New York State has determined that UV treatment is sufficient, he explained.

Joining forces would also be significantly cheaper than if WJWW had to build the water filtration plant on its own. Construction and maintenance of the plant alone would cost an estimated $110 - $120 million, said Harrison Mayor/Supervisor Joan Walsh. 

According to Walsh, sharing with the county, however, would bring the cost somewhere in the ballpark of $20 million, although she points out that this number keeps changing.

The whole issue with building the water filtration plants dates back to the early 90s, when New York State mandated WJWW to construct the facility. Although land was purchased for its creation, construction never began. After a lengthy lawsuit with the State, WJWW agreed to build the plant and a time table was put into place with penalties for not meeting the deadlines, said Walsh. 

The three municipalities that make up the WJWW would have to take on the $110-$120 million cost to build and operate the facility, with Harrison responsible for 52 percent of the costs for joint responsibilities, said Walsh.

"We're a well off community, but there's no way we could possibly do that without raising water costs to an astronomical sum," said Walsh.

The thought to partner with the county began around 2008 when Walsh, along with the leaders of the other two municipalities, looked into ways to bring down the cost. In their research, they found out that the county was under mandate to create a UV plant.

According to Lauro, the county has to have an alternative in place sometime in 2012 to deliver UV treated water to their district.

Currently, all involved have adopted the resolution, said Walsh.