With Reservations, A Strong YES.
In a recent editorial we spoke in favor of Phoenicia’s wastewater project. That shouldn’t have surprised anyone since we’ve been advocating in support of centralized wastewater treatment for the hamlet since 2001, and before there was a Phoenicia Times, before that. While we gave you our conclusion, we didn’t provide our reasoning. We owe you that and we’ll do it in a moment. But first this question: Is the plan Phoenicia’s voting February 3 the best solution to the hamlet’s needs? Our view is that regrettably it may not be. Other good solutions were possible; which might have worked best we’ll never know. But they were:
1. Constructed Wetlands. DEP’s engineers believed this inexpensive and near-zero-operating-cost alternative would have worked fine. In fact given Phoenicia’s actual metered water usage, it might have been perfect, with only a very modest amount of land required. This alternative was killed after superficial consideration by the town’s Wastewater Committee.
2. A DEP-funded Septic Maintenance District, with repair and occasional replacements as necessary, and pumpouts trucked to DEP’s underutilized treatment plant in Pine Hill.
3. A single, shared plant for Phoenicia and Boiceville. All objections raised to this turn out to be solvable, and given the way these plants actually work, two nearly identical ones 4 miles apart isn’t just inefficient, it’s unnecessarily expensive for both hamlets and for DEP.
So why is Phoenicia voting on an option that’s not even amongst these? First, it’s because our political leadership in the watershed has, for the umpteenth time, failed us badly in its dealings with DEP. And second it’s because our town board allowed its Wastewater Committee to move forward without seriously considering good and lower-cost alternatives. For better or worse, this is all water under the bridge now.
We still share many concerns expressed by local business owners that the costs going forward must remain manageable for them. With a solid contractual guarantee from the system’s builders for its O &M, we believe they can. As we’ve said for years we think it’s unreasonable for anyone to have to pay ANYTHING toward the cost of hooking up to the system. These one-time costs - the single largest concern for many in Phoenicia - are an insignificant part of the project’s overall budget and DEP, not Phoenicia’s residents, should be paying them. The fact they won’t be is primarily our own town’s fault: we think negotiations with DEP were handled very poorly. But regardless, that still leaves us with the only deal on the table now, one that MUST be considered on its own merits and apart from how we got there. That deal for commercial users, is in the end, a very good deal and the one for homeowners is even better. That’s why we support the plan now proposed; it’s the only reasonable option still open to us. We support it because we’re realists and believe it’s the only good choice left for Phoenicia’s residents.
In the late 1920’s, Phoenicia was given the same opportunity as Pine Hill and Chichester to have the City provide perpetual wastewater treatment at no cost to its property owners. For whatever reason back then, people decided against it and it was the worst decision the hamlet’s ever made. And today, all these years later, Phoenicia stands in a nearly identical position. No, the deal on the table isn’t free. But at $100 or so a year for homeowners, it’s as close to free as it will ever get. And no one will ever need worry that they’ll need to find $20,000 or $30,000 to replace their old septic system if it fails, or find their property values go down the tubes because they can’t. Was this the best deal we could have gotten, or as fair as it should have been? No. But objectively speaking it’s still good. So why do we say this?
We say this because the Phoenicia we envision for the future will not only be as beautiful as it is today, but vibrant and commercially thriving. But the only way we see that happening is if we have centralized septic treatment here, just as every other hamlet in the watershed has chosen. If we do this, and it does become possible for businesses to expand and new ones to open, no one stands to gain more from the hamlet’s revitalization than its current commercial property owners. So we see this septic system as insurance for their future, just as we see it for every homeowner it will serve. To kill a project of this importance because a handful of people, elected and appointed, may not have handled things perfectly, that is throwing away the baby with the bathwater. We’re not saying Phoenicia MUST grow, but we are saying we have to leave our options open so at least that’s possible. We’re not thrilled frankly, about who’s likely to benefit from the growth implications we see in the system’s design. Some development interests are clearly intended to benefit and will no doubt, by seeking to expand the district’s boundaries in the future. But that is after all, why we elect leaders and appoint planners. So if we have to do better in the future, that’s where we’ll have to do it.
One final thought: DEP isn’t funding this thing to protect the City’s water quality, They’re only doing it to delay for some years the huge capital expenditures that filtration will ultimately require. If they were serious about protecting the water they’d be honestly working to solve their system’s turbidity problems, which they’re clearly not doing. So the need for this plant isn’t to protect the city’s water, although it will help that some. It’s about protecting Phoenicia’s property owners, the value of their homes and businesses, and the whole of our town’s economic well being far into the future. That’s why Phoenicia needs to do this. It’s for us, not for them. We ask Phoenicia’s residents to vote and vote yes on the wastewater referendum February 3.
BP