WHITE PLAINS - Three Westchester County Legislators, Peter Harckham (D-Katonah), Judy Myers (D-Mamaroneck) and John Nonna (D-Pleasantville) Tuesday called for the creation of a New York State environmental bond fund to finance water quality protection projects.

The fund would address the upgrade of out-of-date sewage treatment plants; the construction of new sewage treatment plants; MS-4 storm water compliance; septic system repair; and upgrades and construction of new water filtration and distribution systems. 

“Westchester County is in dire need of protecting our water supply,” said Nonna. “A new environmental bond fund would provide Westchester County and its constituent municipalities with the wherewithal to improve our water supply systems and wastewater treatment facilities.”

Harckham noted a March 2008 DEC report that cites “the conservative cost estimate of repairing, replacing and updating New York State’s municipal wastewater infrastructure is $36.2 Billion over the next 20 years.”   He said in Westchester, a recent state consent order has obligated four Westchester County Sound Shore sewer districts to a $235 million upgrade to treatment plants to remove nitrogen from the Long Island Sound.

The county’s east-of-Hudson watershed towns are also looking at an estimated cost of more than $200 million to implement new MS-4 storm water requirements.