County Sewage Plant Could Boost Capacity And Help Kiryas Joel

Harriman - Preliminary results of an experiment at the Orange County-run sewage treatment plant in Harriman suggest that new filter technology could boost its capacity by 50 percent and would cost almost $25 million to install.

The draft report confirms the capacity boost that consultant Camp Dresser & McKee predicted in 2003 and offers another way to expand the 30-year-old facility, which has been pushed past its limit and mired the county in lawsuits. For years, the state had banned new sewer hookups because the beleaguered plant couldn't handle any more.

When a judge ordered the village of Kiryas Joel last year to supplement its environmental review. Kiryas Joel has asked the judge to reconsider the case, partly based on the Camp Dresser & McKee's report about the sewer-plant test. Its lawyers argue that the county acted in bad faith in its lawsuit by failing to disclose it was testing technology that could boost the Harriman plant's capacity again.
County officials said they wouldn't comment on the report until the final version is released and cautioned that changes had been made since the draft was written.