Desalination Plant Put On Hold In New York
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
New York regulators recently dashed a water utility's hope of building an expensive desalination plant.
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) "announced that a date to make a decision about Rockland County’s long term water needs will be pushed back from 2015 to 2020," Nyack New & Views reported.
Last year, United Water New York applied to the state for the permission to raise bills by $56.8 million to fund a desalination plant on the Hudson River.
The idea was unpopular in the surrounding community. "Local opposition to the plant included 17 elected officials, 26,000 petition signatures, resolutions by four Rockland towns and 12 villages and almost 2,000 people attending an October, 2013 Public Service Commission hearing," the report said, citing PSC documents.
Consumer opposition to the proposal centered on rate hikes. The utility estimated "that if the surcharge is approved, the average residential water bill would increase by 8.08 percent," the report said.
The company’s request was unusual, since it departed "from usual utility business practice, in which ratepayers don’t have to pay for new infrastructure until it’s up and running," Capital New York reported.
Meetings in Rockland, NY, put the community's fervor on display.
"Speaker after speaker at the first of four hearings on United Water New York's request for a rate hike asked the state to deny any increase and instead require greater accountability on the part of the company," the Journal News reported.
Opponents emphasized the "ick" factor of treating Hudson River water.
“Nobody wants to be drinking brackish Hudson River water that is drawn a couple of miles downstream from the Indian Point nuclear plant,” said Daniel Duthie, a lawyer for municipalities opposing the plan, to Capital New York.
The regulators' decision does not rule out the possibility rates will be raised anyway. "United Water says they will continue to seek approval of a rate hike," Nyack New & Views reported.
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