ALBANY – The State Public Service Commission put the brakes on any plans to move forward with development of a desalination plant in the Hudson River off Haverstraw.
The PSC said on Thursday the plant is no longer needed and directed Rockland County’s contracted water company, Suez, Inc., formerly United Water, to submit a three-part strategic plan to better manage the county’s water supply over the next decade by using conservation, leak control, and incremental new supply measures.
The decision to scrap the river plant was hailed by environmental groups.
Scenic Hudson Director of Environmental Advocacy Hayley Carlock said the decision to stop the desalination project is the best for the health of the Hudson River.
“The plant was proposed to be on Haverstraw Bay, which is one of the most valuable habitats, if not the most valuable, in the entire Hudson River, a vital area for endangered Sturgeon among other sensitive species and would have withdrawn massive amounts of water every day to put them through an energy intensive reverse osmosis process to remove the salt from the water and then would have discharged a concentrated, briny solution back into the Hudson River,” Carlock said.
Peggy Kurtz of the Rockland Water Coalition called the PSC’s ruling “a truly groundbreaking decision that looks forward to a water policy for the 21st century, in which we must steeply reduce our impacts on climate and strengthen our community resilience in the face of climate change.”
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