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HOPEWELL
JUNCTION -- The Central Dutchess Water Pipeline may be used
to supply water to new and existing communities in East
Fishkill, and help preserve groundwater in one of the county's
most important aquifers.
And
it could provide a second supply of water for the Town of
Wappinger, where the need for a backup supply was emphasized
last year when a gasoline tanker truck overturned and spilled
near the town's wells.
But officials from the two other towns along the pipeline's
route -- Poughkeepsie and LaGrange -- said they don't expect
the water to supply any current residential communities
or future development.
Construction is to begin this spring on the 13-mile pipeline,
which will follow the old Maybrook rail line from Poughkeepsie
to East Fishkill. The $33.25 million cost will be split
primarily between IBM Corp., the state and county. East
Fishkill taxpayers' share is $269,000.
IBM plans to use 2 million gallons of water per day from
the pipeline. The pipes will have a capacity of 10 million
gallons per day, but the Poughkeepsie water treatment plant
currently has the capacity to supply it with only 4.25 million
gallons per day.
Biggest
project of its kind in county
Touted
as the largest infrastructure project in the county's history,
county officials have said it will not only anchor the region's
largest employer to East Fishkill and allow for IBM's expansion,
but also allow towns along its route to plan for ''smart
growth.''
''For
the communities along the pipeline, if they have groundwater
pollution problems, or a shortage of water, or for future
development along that corridor, they have a secure supply
of water,'' said Thomas LeGrand, chairman of the Dutchess
County Water and Wastewater Authority, which will build,
own and operate the pipeline.
It doesn't appear that water from the pipeline will have
a big effect on future development, at least not in the
near future, according to interviews with town officials.
Neither will it immediately attract sprawling new development
to untouched forests or farmland, as some critics have said
it might.
In
East Fishkill, the pipeline could supply water to three
developments in and around Hopewell Junction -- the Hopewell
Glen, Lake Walton Park and Twin Creeks developments, town
planner John Morabito said. He said no other open land in
East Fishkill that could be developed lies along the pipeline's
route.
All three projects are still under review. Together, plans
call for 630 new houses and townhouses on about 500 acres.
''At
this point, we are still in the early planning stages for
the development, so the discussions are all pretty hypothetical.
We think tying in would be a great thing. It's a matter
of timing,'' said Joel Rea, a spokeswoman for PRM Realty
of Chicago, which plans to build Lake Walton Park.
The
other two developers -- Toll Brothers of Pennsylvania and
Thylan Associates of New York City and Fishkill -- did not
return phone calls.
The
developers' plans already called for supplying central water
to their subdivisions with new community wells. The three
developments will also be part of a Hopewell Junction sewer
district that, when built, will discharge treated waste
to the Fishkill Creek.
The
central water and sewer infrastructure will allow developers
to cluster buildings closer together, preserving some outlying
open space, Morabito said. That's a central tenet of ''smart
growth,'' which seeks to balance development with environmental
protection and preservation of a community's character and
resources.
Because the developers already planned to supply water from
community wells, however, the size and layout of the subdivisions
are unlikely to be affected by the availability of water
from the pipeline. Using Hudson River water instead of well
water would, however, allay concerns about depleting groundwater
in neighbor's wells, Morabito said. Instead of pumping water
from the ground and discharging it to the creek, which empties
into the Hudson, the water will come from and be returned
to the Hudson.
East
Fishkill resident Joseph Cavaliere agreed. The amount of
new building in town troubles him, and he said new developments
should conserve as much open space as possible. Since new
developments often opt to provide central water in order
to build more homes, piping it in from the Hudson is preferable
to digging new wells, he said.
''You can only take so much from the wells. I look at the
pipeline as a good thing to do, to be sure there's more
water around,'' he said.
Bert
Glassberg, however, sees the pipeline as promoting more
growth in East Fishkill than the school system, local roads
or the taxpayers can handle. ''If the pipeline goes through
there, then that area will be developed,'' he said. ''Yet
another development. Already they're talking about the need
for new schools.''
Impact
may grow
The
pipeline's usefulness and impact may grow in the future.
The town has plans to connect various small water supplies
in and around Hopewell Junction, and there are early discussions
about expanding the water district, Morabito said.
Having
central water is attractive to developers. It allows them
to build more homes on less land, and often satisfy a community's
desire to preserve some open space or create more affordable
housing, said Mario Johnson, a spokesman for the Hudson
Valley Builders Association.
''It's
a big draw, definitely. If we had more opportunities like
that,'' Johnson said about the Central Dutchess Water Pipeline,
''it would lend itself to better planned developments.''
Critics
of the pipeline had worried the availability of water would
bring with it a rush of development through the center of
the county, creating traffic and consuming open space.
''This will have a major impact on the town development,
imposed on them by the county. There are lots of issues
still out there, and I think people are just ignoring them
as if they're not going to be a big deal,'' said Roy Budnik,
a Town of Poughkeepsie resident and environmental consultant.
''Anything that encourages development outside of our already
developed areas is encouraging sprawl.''
Town
officials in Poughkeepsie, LaGrange and Wappinger, however,
said the pipeline will not pass through undeveloped areas,
and that water from the pipeline will have little or no
effect on development
In Wappinger, the water can be used as a backup supply --
if it is affordable, Supervisor Joseph Ruggerio said.
It
also might supply water to one industrial area of town,
Hackensack Heights near the Dutchess County Airport, where
businesses like Southeast Container now use groundwater.
It could help the town attract more business, Ruggerio said.
''Infrastructure
is always a major asset when you're trying to recruit employers,''
he said. Town water systems already pipe water to other
areas through which the pipeline will pass, according to
town officials in Wappinger, LaGrange and Poughkeepsie.
''I'd
be more concerned if this pipeline was in the eastern portion
of the town, where we have low- density zoning. There might
then be some pressure to open that area to more development,
or higher density development,'' LaGrange Director of Planning
and Zoning Joachim Ansorge said. ''But considering that
it basically runs through the southwest portion of the town,
that's the area that we had designated for higher density
zoning to begin with. It really shouldn't change the character.''
Even
if the towns don't have immediate use for the water, the
infrastructure could be important in the future, said Joan
Pagones, president of the Association of Dutchess County
Mayors and Supervisors. As supervisor of Fishkill, she said
her town stands nothing to benefit immediately, but could
far in the future. Lines can be built branching from the
main line if capacity is available from the Poughkeepsie
water treatment plant.
''The
possibility will always be there to benefit by it,'' Pagones
said.
Copyright
© 2005, Poughkeepsie Journal .
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