County Board Passes Rogowsky’s
Sewer District Consolidation
---Operations and Maintenance Costs―But Not Capital Costs―to be Shared Equally by the County’s 13 Sewer Districts---
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 12, 2006
Contact: Marty Rogowsky, Tel: 914.9952834, Rogowsky@westchesterlegislators.com
At its final regular meeting of the year on December 11, the County Board of Legislators passed a law, drafted by and argued for by County Legislator Martin Rogowsky (D, I, WF - Harrison), that will consolidate the operations and maintenance (O&M) costs of the county’s 13 sewer districts into a single administrative account. The change means that, effective in 2007, the 13 sewer districts will share the total cost of O&M equally, terminating the long-time practice of billing each district for actual costs expended by that district.
Rogowsky, the Board’s Majority Leader, who has championed the cause for consolidation during his eight years as a County Legislator, applauded his fellow legislators for finally addressing a long-standing inequity in the system.
“Taxpayers in the Sound Shore communities are paying 3 to 4 times more in sewer taxes than other Westchester residents,” said Rogowsky. “The Sound Shore sewer districts shoulder a disproportionate share of cleaning up Long Island Sound to comply with unfunded federal and state environmental mandates. The problem is that other communities are benefiting from, but not contributing to, the cost of upgrading treatment facilities on the Sound. By consolidating operational costs as we are with this legislation, we’re taking a step in the right direction--- toward consolidated sewer lines on a county level.”
Rogowsky noted that the source of a specific environmental problem comes from many sources not necessarily close to their environmental victim. “Take acid rain. Pollution of New York’s Adirondack region can be traced to the distant smoke stacks of Mid-West factories. The point is that the Sound Shore communities are cleaning up an environmental problem, the pollution of Long Island Sound, which has many sources that don’t adhere neatly to the municipal boundaries you see on a Westchester County map. Until today’s legislation, our sewer tax structure did not reflect that reality.”
