Saving Peach Lake: a fast tracked solution that convinced hundreds of Residents, two Municipalities, New York City and New York State Regulators

The Peach Lake Watershed contributes to the system of reservoirs providing New York City with a portion of their drinking water. The quality of the Lake has declined and it was concluded that septic systems around the lakeshore were failing and discharging effluent into the lake. It was concluded that the installation of a sanitary sewer collection system and the construction of a new tertiary level wastewater treatment plant was the only way to stem the decline of the water quality. The details of the solution had to be ones that would satisfy not only the 480 homeowners, but also the NYCDEP, NYSDEC, PCDOH, WCDOH, PCDOT, NYSDOT and the Town Boards. Many hurdles needed to be overcome early on in the process but the four most formidable were:1. Convincing over 1000 residents (and the four private lake association boards) that the benefit of the collection system and treatment plant outweighed the cost they would incur and then forming Sewer Districts which included Intermunicipal Agreements between two Towns and two Counties;2. Receiving a variance from New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s (NYCDEP) regulations forbidding new wastewater treatment plants in the watershed by demonstrating to their satisfaction that the variance requested is the minimum necessary to afford relief (ie. includes measures to avoid degradation of the water supply and that compliance with the regulation would create a substantial hardship due to site conditions or limitations) while assuring the Putnam County Department of Health (PCDOH) that the wastewater treatment plant capacity was conservative and would allow for the typical growth that usually comes with the installation of a collection system;3. Finding funds to offset the project costs to gain approval from the New York State Comptroller’s Office;4. Obtain approvals from more than a dozen interested regulators.Construction of the collection system and treatment plant was completed in 2012 and all grinder pump installations were completed in 2013. The new wastewater treatment plant eliminated the bacteria, viruses and parasites that were entering the lake from septic systems and the decreased the annual phosphorus loading. At its permitted capacity, the plant will contribute on average 170,000 gallons of effluent at a phosphorus concentration of 0.1 mg/L daily. This equates to 23.5 kg/yr, therefore, the annual phosphorus loading is now below the NYSDEC TMDL of 29.5 kg/year. The Lake will see considerable improvement after the 3 cycles of the 1.65 year residence time, or approximately 5 years.