After nearly a decade of legal proceedings, Westchester County and Save the Sound have reached a landmark collaborative agreement that strengthens the County’s commitment to protecting water quality and upholding the Clean Water Act.
The settlement was approved by the County Board of Legislators on June 30 and has been submitted to the federal district court and to the U.S. Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency for review. The final settlement is expected to become effective later this summer, 45 days after being submitted to the federal agencies.
Under the agreement, the County would:
- take “reasonable measures” to enforce the County Sewer Act within four sanitary sewer districts: New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Blind Brook, and Port Chester;
- conduct a round of flow monitoring no earlier than 2037 to determine compliance with the Flow Limit within the four districts;
- provide materials to support the municipalities’ sewage management efforts;
- spend $475,000 on future environmentally beneficial projects, such as green infrastructure installation, inland wetland remediation, and riparian buffer restorations, with specific projects to be identified by the County and Save the Sound in the coming two years.
“Once finalized and approved by the court, this agreement will complete a series of ongoing repairs and maintenance put in place by agreements with all of the municipalities and the County. Municipalities are responsible for maintaining and repairing their sewer systems but the County is responsible for continuing oversight as it is their plants that are impacted,” said Roger Reynolds, senior legal director for Save the Sound. “When finalized, this agreement and others with municipalities will address the problem of ongoing sewage spills Save the Sound encountered when we opened our Westchester office more than 10 years ago. This will result in a cleaner, healthier Long Island Sound with less sewage pollution, and fewer beach closures and swimming days lost.”
Save the Sound is represented by Super Law Group.
“After nearly a decade of legal proceedings, we are pleased to reach a collaborative agreement with Save the Sound that allows us to turn the page and move forward together,” said Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins. “This resolution puts the missteps of past administrations behind us and reflects our renewed commitment to protecting water quality and upholding the Clean Water Act. I want to thank the Westchester County Board of Legislators for their support, as well as the U.S. Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the federal district court. Together, we are taking important steps to protect and preserve Westchester County’s waterways for generations to come.”
Prior to reaching the agreement with Westchester County, Save the Sound had settlements in place with the 11 municipalities named in the lawsuit: the Town/Village of Harrison, Village of Larchmont, Town of Mamaroneck, Village of Mamaroneck, City of New Rochelle, Village of Pelham Manor, Village of Port Chester, City of Rye, Village of Rye Brook, Village of Scarsdale, and City of White Plains.
Collectively, the settlements will have resulted in more than $100 million invested to study and repair more than 600 miles of sewer pipe and fix more than 64,000 identified defects, as well as more than $1.75 million in funding for projects that will restore and protect Long Island Sound and local waterbodies. In addition, each municipality has developed comprehensive plans for effective management of each of their sewer systems into the future.
The case originated when Save the Sound became aware through local pollution watchdog reports and alerts from New York’s Sewage Pollution Right to Know Act of the frequency and magnitude of raw sewage overflows throughout Westchester County, degrading the water quality of Long Island Sound and the waterways that feed into it. Much of that pollution resulted from poorly maintained and deteriorating municipal sanitary sewer pipes carrying wastewater from homes and businesses to County-owned treatment facilities, where pollutants are supposed to be removed so that the water is safe to be discharged into the environment. The aging and unmaintained municipal wastewater infrastructure makes the system vulnerable to stormwater overwhelming the leaky sewer pipes during rain events, which have grown more frequent and severe over the years due to climate change. The increased volume of water in the pipes causes sanitary sewage overflows and discharges of untreated sewage into the Sound both from the pipes themselves and from the treatment plants that can’t handle that volume of water. This sewage pollution contributes to periodic beach closures, the closure of shellfish beds, depletion of certain fish stocks, fish consumption advisories, and restrictions placed on certain recreational activities.
Save the Sound filed a formal legal complaint in 2015, claiming that Westchester County and the 11 municipalities were discharging partially treated sewage in violation of the Clean Water Act, causing a public nuisance, and failing to enforce the County Sewer Act to limit illegal levels of flow from municipalities to the treatment plants.
Here is a breakdown of the work detailed in each municipal agreement, as well as the environmentally beneficial projects (listed chronologically by original agreement date):
- Village of Port Chester (Oct. 2017)
- Completed required repairs by November 2020.
- Review revealed that the sewer system required increased capacity, amongst other investments; a five-year plan to implement such improvements is ongoing.
- EBP: $11,600 for an educational video, available in English and Spanish, explaining new regulations on private sources of fats, oils, and grease, which commonly clog sewage pipes and are generated in large quantities by local services such as restaurants.
- Village of Mamaroneck (Nov. 2017)
- Required repairs and flow monitoring are ongoing and on schedule.
- Established comprehensive Capacity, Management, Operations, and Maintenance (CMOM) Plan.
- EBP: $350,000 to the Westchester Soil and Water Conservation District for projects to remediate water pollution and improve water quality in the Westchester County Long Island Sound watershed.
- Village of Rye Brook (Jan. 2021)
- Completed required repairs by April 2021.
- Completed required flow monitoring and submitted report to the County by September 2021.
- Flow monitoring revealed that additional repairs were needed, which were completed in 2022.
- Established comprehensive CMOM Plan for effective management of sewer system.
- EBP: $47,000 for installation of a bioretention filtration system to reduce pollution to the Byram River.
- City of Rye (Feb. 2021)
- Completed required repairs by January 2025.
- Completed required flow monitoring by June 2024; report is anticipated to be submitted to County in July 2025.
- Established private lateral ordinance.
- Created extensive computerized database for effective management of sewer system.
- Work is ongoing.
- EBP: $470,000 for projects benefiting water quality, including bioretention basins to treat stormwater pollution entering Blind Brook.
- City of White Plains (May 2021)
- Completed first round of required repairs.
- Work is ongoing.
- EBP: $9,000 to Bronx River Alliance to stabilize and provide a canopy to address erosion on the east bank of Muskrat Cove.
- Town/Village of Harrison (Nov. 2022)
- To date, has completed five of 10 rounds of required repair work.
- Established comprehensive CMOM Plan.
- Established private lateral insurance program to assist homeowners with the cost of repairs for privately owned pipes.
- EBP: $60,000 to the Westchester Soil and Water Conservation District for projects to remediate water pollution and improve water quality in the Westchester County Long Island Sound watershed.
- Village of Scarsdale (August 2023)
- Completed required repairs by July 2023.
- Established comprehensive CMOM Plan.
- Established detailed private lateral ordinance providing for regular inspection and repair of privately owned pipes.
- EBP: $150,000 for installation of a bioretention basin to treat stormwater pollution to the Audrey Hochberg Pond Preserve.
- New Rochelle Sewer District, comprised of City of New Rochelle, Town of Mamaroneck, Village of Larchmont, Village of Pelham Manor (March 2024)
- Completed repairs by November 2023.
- Established CMOM Plans for each municipality.
- Completed flow monitoring in each municipality and submitted reports by January 2025.
- EBP: $180,000 to the Westchester Soil and Water Conservation District for projects to remediate water pollution and improve water quality in the Westchester County Long Island Sound watershed.
Save the Sound will continue to monitor and enforce the implementation of repairs, management of the sewer system, and progress of each environmentally beneficial project and to safeguard water quality around the whole Long Island Sound region.