The Environment
Fiction: Ambrey Pond is a better option for the environment.
Fact: The Haverstraw Water Supply Project will have fewer environmental impacts than other options, including building the Ambrey Pond Reservoir in Stony Point. Ambrey will require the construction of new dams and the disruption of an established ecosystem.
Fiction: The Haverstraw Water Supply Project will draw a large amount of water from the Hudson.
Fact: Fourteen billion gallons of water pass by the location of the proposed intake every day. At maximum capacity, approximately 10 million gallons per day will be withdrawn. In comparison, the Bowline Point Generating Plant withdraws 783 million gallons of water per day when it is online.
Fiction: The salt in the brine by-product of the treatment process will be improperly disposed of or harm the Hudson’s habitat.
Fact: The brine by-product will be blended with the effluent of the nearby Haverstraw Joint Regional Sewer Treatment Plant, creating a discharge to the river that will have salinity levels that are closely matched with the Hudson.
Fiction: The Haverstraw Water Supply Project will have a significantly detrimental impact on water quality and aquatic life in the Hudson River.
Fact: The Project would not cause any significant adverse impacts on water quality in the Hudson River. Directional drilling used to construct the shore-based intake pipe and the raw water transmission main and the use of silt curtains and a cofferdam at the intake location would minimize potential impacts on aquatic resources.
Implementation of the erosion and sediment control measures, and storm water management measures would minimize potential impacts on aquatic resources associated with discharge of storm water runoff during land-disturbance activities resulting from construction.
The discharge of reverse osmosis concentrate into the Haverstraw Joint Regional Sewer Treatment Plant outfall would not result in significant adverse impacts on water quality or aquatic biota of the Hudson River.
United Water has long proposed using wedge wire screening, the best technology available, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, to reduce the impact to aquatic life.