Read more: https://www.riverdalepress.com/stories/A-road-to-nowhere,49710?page=1&content_source=

Kristin Hart is the President of the Fort Independence Park Neighborhood Association (FIPNA)

Also see:

Aqueduct Trail disconnect

By Karen Argenti on November 21, 2011 | Edit

Aqueduct Trail: how the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail in the North Bronx is a disconnect As you may know, the historic Old Croton Aqueduct trails from Croton Lake in Westchester County through the Bronx exiting at the historic and soon to be opened High Bridge — the oldest bridge in the City. But for one little [...]

New Yorkers will pay price for Croton Water Treatment Plant cost overruns

The price tag of a new Bronx water treatment plant has skyrocketed to $3.4 billion – nearly three times what the Bloomberg administration announced when construction began in 2004, the city’s Independent Budget Office says.

The astounding cost overruns for the Croton Water Treatment Plant mean that every New York City household will end up paying, on average, $44 more in its annual water bill for the next few decades just to pay for the plant.

And although city officials keep coming up with cash for the contractors in charge of this money pit, they have yet to produce all the parks improvements they promised Bronx residents in exchange for erecting the new plant in Van Cortlandt Park.

Mayor Bloomberg promised in a 2004 memorandum of understanding with city and state leaders that the Department of Environmental Protection would earmark $200 million over a five year-period from the Croton project’s budget to pay for boroughwide park improvements.

Only $150 million of that money has been committed, Parks Department spokeswoman Vickie Karp said yesterday.

The Independent Budget Office said the city doesn’t plan to spend the rest of the $50 million until 2019.

Somehow, a five-year promise mysteriously morphed into 15 years.

“I’m so outraged at everything DEP and the city have done here,” said North Bronx neighborhood leader Jane Sokolow. “They keep trampling over a community that didn’t want this project to begin with.”

“All of the Parks [Department] Croton projects have either been built, are in construction, or are in the process of being designed or bid,” Karp insisted.

“The undertaking is a huge success and a huge win for the people of the Bronx.”

Bronx neighborhood leaders see things differently.

They always said the plant, which the city was required to build by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, could be built more cheaply in Westchester County instead of beneath Van Cortlandt Park. But the DEP’s experts insisted the Bronx site would only cost $1.2 billion.

So what went wrong?

“Initially, bidding out the work during a hyper-inflated construction market was the primary reason behind cost increases,” DEP spokesman Farrell Sklerov said yesterday in an email statement.

In 2009, then-city Controller William Thompson audited the project and found it had jumped to $2.1 billion. The original “conceptual cost estimate [by the city] was unreliable,” Thompson concluded.

In other words, the neighborhood people had been right.

Since Thompson’s audit, the plant has swallowed another billion dollars or so.

“More recently, design and construction change orders due to the complexity of the facility, and enhancements to the design and architecture of the above ground facilities all played a role in cost increases,” Sklerov added.

That’s all doublespeak, says Bronx Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, a longtime critic of the plant.

“If this was Bloomberg’s own company, he would have fired the people who screwed this up,” Dinowitz said. “But the mayor has not said a word. … Someone needs to take responsibility for such huge waste.”

jgonzalez@nydailynews.com

This was passed by the City Council on September 28, 2004 – Communication from the Mayor ….. transmitting the memorandum of
understanding entered into pursuant to chapter 175 of the laws of 2003 in connection with the Croton water filtration facility and the funding of certain eligible projects in the borough of the Bronx.

MOU also references the one and only ULURP on this project passed in 1999.

Here we are in October 2011 and the DEP has admitted that of the $200 million in the MOU and the $43 million in the ULURP has been frozen.

DEC Report to the DEP in 2009 on the Earthen Berm
DECDamSafety_to_DEPAug2009

Site of the 66 trees that have to be removed
Fort Independence Park Trees kadraft 070511

NYS DEC page concerning the rules on Earthen Berms Dam Safety near Reservoirs: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/4991.html

Notes from the WM11 CWTP Monthly Report 79 from April 2011. Here is 14 pages excerpted and I have two full reports form April 2011 and August 2010.

• Comments WM11 CWTP Mo Rept 79 April 2011 comments
• Monthly Report (excerpted) - WM11 CWTP Monthly Report 79 April 2011 excpts
• 2004 Council MOU info - Updatedlistfor10m091304 from 09.13.04-BronxWaterFiltrationPlant
• 1999 Resolution:  Reso 933 of 1999
• 1999 List of funded projects:  Mosholu Mitigation Res 993 of 1999

Also see the presentation in this pdf - Water

For more information on the issues – The story of the Croton

Water, Soil, & The Spirit of Place

index

fixprompt

And for all you who do not have flash (apple people), here it is in pdf form:

LafayGreenCBxRSSB4_12_04

• Watershed and Sewershed Maps and things of interest

1. Water Power Point in PDF  Water
2. Story of the Croton in PDF The story of the Croton

• Reviewed four chapters in William J. Byron, The Power of Principles:  Ethics for the New Corporate Cutlure, Orbis Books, 2006.  Excellent Book that describes ten classic principles.

• Show one hour movie:
  • “Dirt! the Movie”  - http://www.dirtthemovie.org/
  • “Gasland” – http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/about-the-film/
• YouTube of the Gowanus Canal after a rainstorm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzWOOqPAEgs&feature=player_embedded

Finally the report was provided in April, and discussion will follow in May at the FMC meeting on the 20th.  Report is on the CB 8 web page under the Croton Water Treatment Plant, Van Cortlandt Park, Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study
Van Cortlandt Park Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study Part 1
Van Cortlandt Park Pedestrian Bridge Feasibility Study Part 2

Letters of support are being sent to the Community Board 8.  Here are a few:

FIPNA Support Pedestrian Bridge 05182010

BCEQpedestrian_bridge_support05182010

Pedestrian Bridge Support Letter FVCP 051710