KJ pipeline opponents feel NYC's on their side
By Brendan Scott
Times Herald-Record
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Goshen – Even as the ink was drying on a lawsuit over Kiryas Joel's pipeline, Orange County leaders were in a meeting with New York City officials that they say reveals that the project is far less advanced than once thought.
"It's not a done deal," Legislator Frank Fornario, R-Blooming Grove, said yesterday.
Fornario was among a group of pipeline opponents who met with the city's Department of Environmental Protection Monday to discuss Kiryas Joel's plan to build a 13-mile pipeline to tap the New York City Aqueduct.
Among other things, pipeline opponents say city officials seem to share local concerns about the growth-inducing potential of the project.
The group, which included Legislator Roxanne Donnery, D-Highland Falls, and leaders from Blooming Grove, Woodbury and Washingtonville, will discuss the meeting at a news conference today.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said officials were jumping the gun by declaring a victory. He said talks with the city have been on hold since Orange County began to question the pipeline's environmental review process.
"There's no question that the project is no done deal," Szegedin said. But, he added, "The city and the village are on the same page. Everyone believes the project can't move forward until the State Environmental Quality Review process is completed."
And that can't happen until a judge rules on the lawsuit Orange County filed in state Supreme Court last week.
The 37-page complaint argues, among other things, that the 2 million gallons of water the tap is expected to carry into the village would overwhelm the county's already maxed-out sewer system.
The complaint marks the opening salvo in what could be a long legal battle over the pipeline, which Kiryas Joel considers vital to its future. The Hasidic village has threatened to file its own suit alleging that opposition to the pipeline is largely motivated by prejudice.
http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2004/11/12/water12.htm
