SAUGERTIES – The issue of ending the discharge of millions of gallons of turbid water into the Lower Esopus is now in the hands of the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the agency that operates the Big Apple’s water system in the Catskills.

A consent decree between the state and City of New York does not go far enough to correct the problems, said Hudson Riverkeeper Paul Gallay.

“The Lower Esopus has been regulated to a distant third in the priorities between the New York City water supply avoiding flooding in local communities and protecting the Lower Esopus Creek, and they haven’t done nearly a good enough job in their consent order,” he said.

Gallay said there must be local community participation for change and the discharge of water into the creek only to avoid flooding, and those should be with clean water.

The comment period on the consent decree ended last week.