City Gets a Break on Fines for Filter Plant By JORDAN MOSS A federal judge cut New York City some slack last week by allowing it, for the time being, to avoid paying fines for failing to build a filtration plant according to the schedule the city agreed to in federal court. Eastern District Court Judge Nina Gershon said that "the extent to which the city proceeds in good faith, given the recent decisions of the New York and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals may well bear on the issue of whether penalties are appropriate. For that reason, I'm going to hold the application for penalties in abeyance..." Gershon referred the matter to a federal magistrate who will determine whether there should be a new schedule of milestones that the city should be held to. The city agreed in a Consent Decree supervised by Judge Gershon in 1998, to begin building a filtration plant for the Croton water system by September 2001. But the state's highest court ruled in February that the city could not build the plant at the site it chose, Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park, without the permission of the state legislature. That approval is unlikely to be forthcoming since local lawmakers have indicated they will not put forth bills in either house calling for the "alienation" of Van Cortlandt Park. Still, Gershon insisted that the city must seek that approval "rigorously and it must show that it is doing so." The city has, in fact, submitted a draft bill to both houses of the state legislature. However, Gershon also seemed to give the city some room to pursue a "multi-track" effort of evaluating various alternative sites for the filtration plant, which it is doing. In its memorandum opposing the federal government's motion to impose the fines, the city said that it "has proceeded expeditiously, and has expended considerable resources, to develop an alternative course of action to construct a water treatment plant." The city then cited its efforts to find an alternative site in the Bronx or Westchester, to evaluate alternative filtration technologies that could reduce the size of the plant, and to determine how and when the city should use the Croton, which supplies the city with only 10 percent of its water supply. The city expects to narrow its list of options within the next month and come up with a final plan within three months. Foes of the filtration plant believe that the city now has some breathing room. "I think there's a new ballgame out there," said John Klotz, an attorney who has been involved in litigation concerning the Croton, but not this particular case. "For the first time, they're taking a realistic look at the Croton water system and how it fits into the scheme of things." Though both city officials and filtration opponents could take solace in Gershon's decision, officials of the city's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) were still in somewhat of a fighting mood, mainly because of renewed efforts by local activists and elected officials to take Jerome Park Reservoir off the table of alternatives by making it parkland through state legislation. "The most critical thing is that [the judge] admonished the city to come up with a scenario to build [the filtration plant]," said Charles Sturcken, chief of staff at the DEP. "The fastest route to build is at [the] Jerome Park Reservoir. On the other hand, the activists are out there trying to make it parkland. What are we gonna do, cut off the water supply? We're not going to do it." Sturcken said that even if the city eventually builds most of the plant in Westchester, a portion of it will still need to be built in the Bronx. Ed. Note: All Norwood News filtration articles over the last three years are archived on our Web site. Click on Ongoing Stories.
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