WHAT ABOUT THOSE SEWERS?

Almost Everything You Need To Know

One of the Town Board’s goals for 2001 has been the continued development and implementation of plans for sewers in the northern section of New Castle, including Riverwoods, Yeshiva Nitra and Stanwood, as well as in the Millwood area, in order to divert effluent or waste from the Croton Watershed. Basic to this goal is the Board’s policy of maximizing funding from outside sources so as to make sewers affordable for the affected residents and of developing sewer district plans in already built-up areas so as not to encourage undue additional development.

A Little History

The story of sewers in New Castle should start between the 1880's and the 1920's when the Kensico, Croton, and Catskill water systems were constructed in New York State. After New York City incorporated the boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island in 1889, its water supply had to be increased on a large scale. Therefore, New York City began buying land in Westchester County and elsewhere, and by 1924 owned more than 18,000 acres spread across 14 towns in the County. In order to build its water system, the City planned to flood thousands of those acres to create reservoirs. Legal condemnation proceedings dragged on for years. Many factories and mills went out of business when they lost their waterpower due to the diversion of streams and rivers into the water system. The flooding dislocated many towns, businesses and homes. Some villages were actually relocated, including Katonah, our neighbor to the north.

The Croton Watershed from which increasing waste and effluent now must be diverted was created by that damming and flooding, and includes the lands around seven New York City-owned reservoirs: the Amawalk, Croton Falls, Cross River, East Branch, Muscoot, New Croton and the Titicus. This vast Watershed encompasses all or part of 10 municipalities in Westchester County, including New Castle. It consists of 113,265 acres of land, an area of 177 square miles, 39 percent of Westchester County. Approximately 75 percent of the Town of New Castle lies within the Watershed. It would be safe to say that the existence of the Croton Watershed and the need to protect the quality of the water in the reservoirs has had and will continue to have a radical impact on the development of New Castle as well as on all of northern Westchester County.

There are a number of ways that New York City protects its water supply. One of those is by working with all the Croton Watershed municipalities, including New Castle, to restore, enhance and improve water quality throughout the Watershed. The 10 municipalities that are fully or partially within the Watershed all are members of the Northern Westchester Watershed Committee (NWWC). Supervisor Sinek represents us on the NWWC, which with representatives from the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, the County of Westchester and the NY State Department of Health, constitutes the Steering Committee that oversees all aspects of the Croton Watershed. The rationale behind this intermunicipal organization is that water quality issues transcend the political boundaries of any one municipality.

How do sewers help? First, because sewers carry waste away from the area they are friendlier both to the quality of the water entering the reservoirs from the Watershed and to fish and wildlife than are other forms of waste disposal such as septic systems and subsurface septic fields. Second, sewers are, when planned responsibly, generally more efficient and less costly to homeowners.

A Few Definitions

A septic system consists of two basic working parts: a septic tank in which the solid matter of continuously flowing sewage is disintegrated and a soil absorption field into which the partially treated wastewater is discharged. These are the method of waste treatment for individual homes that are not connected to sewers, and require stringent periodic maintenance to prevent failure.

A community waste treatment facility, sometimes referred to as a "subsurface sewage disposal system" or "subsurface septic field," is a facility established to dispose of waste in a particular area. Our Town has two community waste treatment facilities within the Croton Watershed: one in Random Farms and one in Riverwoods. The Random Farms plant is a waste treatment facility with a subsurface discharge and the Riverwoods facility treats the sewage and then discharges the effluent into the Kisco River. Both of these are privately owned and operated.

In areas where there are actual sewers, each home or business is connected to a sewer line that is generally located in the public right of way. These are gravity-discharged into a main sewer trunk line; from there the effluent goes into a waste water treatment facility. In most cases throughout Westchester where sewers are utilized, the municipality owns and maintains the local sewer distribution system and the County owns and operates the large trunk mains and waste water treatment facilities. The only sections of New Castle that now have sewers are located in the Chappaqua Hamlet area (that is, in the southern portion of Town). Sewer effluent from the properties in these five local sewer districts flows to the Yonkers Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility for processing. The Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities operates this treatment plant, together with a number of others. Westchester County Saw Mill Valley Sewer District taxes help fund the operation and maintenance of the plant. Most of the rest of New Castle utilizes individual septic systems for each home or business

The Town’s Current Sewering Ideas

In essence the Town Board proposes to form two new sewer districts. The first would serve the Riverwoods, Yeshiva Nitra, Stanwood and Kisco Park neighborhoods and divert approximately 190,000 gallons of effluent daily from the Croton Watershed. The second would connect Random Farms and areas south along Route 100 and possibly portions of Whitlaw Close and divert approximately 150,000 gallons of effluent daily from the Watershed. The area in both proposed districts already is fully developed, thereby providing a very positive return on the investment in new infrastructure as a ratio of gallons of effluent diverted annually.

Some parts of Town in addition to those in the Chappaqua hamlet area are in the Saw Mill Valley Sewer District but, because they do not have access to a local sewer system, have had no benefit from being part of that district. As part of the creation of the two new districts mentioned above, the County and Town want to modify the Saw Mill Valley District, eliminating the areas where sewers are not likely to be constructed in the future and that do not have a history of septic system failures. (This would allow those homeowners to stop paying taxes for something they are not using.)

In order to move this policy forward, the Town Board, using a grant from the Army Corps of Engineers, has hired Dolph Rotfeld Engineering to prepare plans and specifications for sewer systems in the two proposed new districts. The Town Engineering and Public Works Departments are working with the County’s Health Department and Department of Environmental Facilities to determine which properties can and should be removed from the County Saw Mill Valley Sewer District. The County Executive's office currently is negotiating an agreement with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to provide the funding for much of the work described herein. When details of the funding and specific plans are in place, the County will build the system and the Town will maintain it.

The Public Process

In 1999 the Town Board held neighborhood meetings in the affected sections to give information to homeowners and to get a sense of their degree of interest. Before proceeding further, the Town must form the specific sewer districts. To do that, the Town Board will start by holding a public hearing and then passing a resolution. This then will provide a public forum in which to discuss the district, the financing of the project and the scope of work to be performed.

If petitioned to do so, the Board must hold a referendum on the proposed districts. That referendum would need approval by a majority of the owners of taxable property located in each proposed district in order for the district to be formed.

Sewer construction is a major financial item. As of this writing (October 30, 2001), there still are many unknowns regarding the total funding that will be available from outside sources. Until there is more specific funding information, the Town cannot estimate the final cost to individual homeowners. The Town Administrator and Town Board, as well as the Town Engineer and the Building Department, are working closely with all outside parties in order to resolve the funding issues as soon as possible.

Prepared in large part by Town Board member John Diaconis