Power + Water = the Ever Increasing Tax Burden on Residents

Water and power for industrial and personal use. The two are so entwined in the Stony Point/Haverstraw area that when one burps the other says “excuse me” or at least that is the way it should work. In the case of the Mirant Corporation owner of the now torn down Lovett Generating plant at Stony Point and the Bowline Power Plant in Haverstraw supplying power and United Water, a private corporation that supplies drinking water for the Rockland County area that is not necessarily thecase.

Who loses, the taxpayers of the Haverstraw/ Stony Point School District! Mirant Corporation is the largest taxpayer in the area, and because of decisions made over the last ten years, some on a local level by administrators, courts and politicians, and some
on a national level through lobbying efforts that controls the distribution of power to local areas, generating power on a local power is not as appealing as it once was.

While power may be created in a distant, less costly area and supplied through the newest technology to communities hundreds if not thousands of miles away, water because of its inherent properties cannot. We in the Hudson River Valley are blessed with an abundance of water for drinking purposes. The Catskill Water Supply system, which services New York City and other areas along the distribution route, is touted as the best water in the country. Of course the tremendous economic growth in areas related to the system have given pause to the statement above, and have led to serious discussion of a filtration system in Yorktown, NY or the Bronx, at the moment the downturn of the economy seems to have put those discussions on a back burner.

Other communities have their own sources of water from wells, streams and rivers. It should be noted that all water quality in New York State is over seen by the New York State DEC and the federal government EPA. What most people are unaware of is the fact that seven population centers along the Hudson River, on both the east and west shores get their supply of drinking water from the Hudson River. (The federal government classes Hudson River as class two drinking water.
Significantly higher in quality than many parts of the country.)

They are Stillwater, Halfmoon, Waterford, Green Island, Rhinebeck, Port Ewen and Poughkeepsie. In these cases the establishment of facilities along
the Hudson River  was done in relatively civil circumstances… not so the new proposal for the desalination plant proposed for the Town of Haverstraw by United Water. United Water supplies water to the Rockland County Residents through a series of wells, reservoirs and streams. 

In 2006, United Water was mandated to seek further sources of water so as to backup their present volumes to support future growth in the Rockland County area and in case of severe drought. (There has not been a severe drought in the Hudson River Valley since 1966. (However droughts are cyclical just as abundance is cyclical.) The fact that a new water supply is necessary to accommodate projected growth and future demands on the system is recognized by the Public Service commission staff; the County of Rockland; then Legislator, now Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee; and he Rockland

County Fire Chiefs, who all entered into a 2006 agreement that requires the company to pursue a long-term solution.