TANNERSVILLE — The New York City agency that controls the city's reservoirs in the Catskills reversed course on a plan early Wednesday that could have tripled the cost of pumping septic tanks in the mountainous region.
The Department of Environmental Protection unilaterally decided in February to cut the amount of septic waste it accepted at its wastewater treatment facilities in the Catskills from 71,000 gallons a week to 26,000 gallons a week. The DEP had been accepting septic waste from Catskills residents and municipal septic districts since 2016 as part of the memorandum of understanding between the DEP and Catskills communities that allows NYC to purchase lands in the region to protect its Catskills reservoirs.
DEP Deputy Commissioner Paul V. Rush wrote Wednesday to the Catskill Watershed Corporation, which runs the septic waste program, saying the DEP – at least for the time being – would again accept the full amount of waste.
The DEP wants to work with Catskills communities to study septic disposal in the region, according to the letter, and to also explore how non-DEP wastewater treatment plants could accept more waste.
The letter comes after the DEP officials met with Jason Merwin, the watershed corporation's executive director, on Monday.
Assemblyman Chris Tague, whose district includes Greene County, embraced the decision, which he called "very important" for the county.
"I think they made the right decision," he said. "I'm glad two entities of government can work together to do something that will benefit the people."
However, Tague said the issue was not put to rest.
"I'm sure that it's going to come back around," he said. "I think this is an easy quick fix, and I think [the DEP and the CWC] are going to have to continue to meet and come up with what they're going to do in the future."
The day before the DEP reversed course, Merwin said the reduction was implemented in part so the DEP could compost septic waste after it was treated at wastewater treatment plants instead of putting it in landfills.
Merwin said he was in favor of the environmental goals of the project, but opposed to its sudden implementation. Residents would have to pay to get their septic waste hauled all the way to Albany County, potentially prompting fewer people to do so and impacting drinking-water quality.
Greene County legislator Greg Davis said the city would have been "cutting their own throat" if the reduction had continued.
"If you have septic failures, it's not going to improve New York City's drinking water," he said.
DEP reservoirs in the Catskills provide most of New York City with drinking water, as well as 1 million people in the southern Hudson Valley.
Davis was part of a unanimous vote Monday by a committee of the Greene County Legislature opposing the reduction. The resolution stated it would jack residents' costs for pumping a septic system from a little more than $300 to $1,000.
The resolution also stated the DEP had reneged on its obligations and violated the memorandum of understanding.
The Catskills have a long history of opposition to New York City's actions in the region stretching back to when the city forcibly removed the residents of 11 Ulster County communities and burned their towns to make way for the construction of the Ashokan Reservoir in the 1910s.
Since the moratorium of understanding, the DEP had bought up nearly 200 square miles of the Catskills to protect its reservoirs. Catskills officials have chafed under the land-buying program, and are demanding NYC replace the direct ownership with leases held by the towns.
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