Riverkeeper Letter

www.riverkeeper.org 78 North Broadway, E House White Plains, New York 10603 t 914.422.
4343

October 14, 2014

VIA EMAIL AND FIRST CLASS MAIL

James E. Quigley 3
rd

Supervisor
Town of Ulster
1 Town Hall Drive
Lake Katrine, NY 12449

Martin Brand
Regional Director
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Region 3
21 South Putt Corners Road
New Paltz, NY 12561

Re: SEQRA Coordinated Review for Niagara Water Bottling Facility

Dear Supervisor Quigley and Regional Director Brand:

Riverkeeper, Inc. (Riverkeeper) respectfully submits the following comments regarding
the initiation of coordinated review for the Niagara Water Bottling Facility (Niagara) pursuant to
the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), N.Y. E.C.L. 8-0101, et seq and 6
NYCRR 617.6. On September 18, 2014, the Town of Ulster Town Board (Ulster Town Board)
passed a resolution declaring its notice of intent to serve as lead agency for the Niagara project
(Notice) and initiated coordinated review.
1

For the reasons set forth below, Riverkeeper strongly recommends that the New York
State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) instead serve as lead agency for
the purposes of SEQRA review of this action. We also urge that the description of the proposed
action provided by the applicant be revised to accurately reflect the entire project that has been
proposed to ensure the proper scope of environmental review. Finally, we recommend that the
list of involved agencies be expanded, if necessary, based on the revised description of the
proposed action, and if additional involved agencies are identified, that a new lead agency
coordination process be initiated based on that list, pursuant to 6 NYCRR 617.6(b)(3).

Riverkeeper is a member-supported watchdog organization dedicated to defending the
Hudson River and its tributaries and protecting the drinking water supply of nine million New
York City and Hudson Valley residents. As a signatory to the New York City Watershed

1
See Town of Ulster Town Board, Resolution Declaring Town of Ulsters Notice of Intent to be Lead Agency for
Coordinated SEQR Review for the Niagara Water Bottling Facility, SBL 48.7-1-29.2 (passed Sep. 18, 2014).
2

Agreement, we have a commitment to ensure that development projects in the watershed do not
adversely impact the surface water resources that provide unfiltered drinking water to
consumers. Accordingly, Riverkeeper is very concerned with any project in the New York City
watershed that proposes potentially significant disturbance of streams, wetlands, or their buffers.
Over the last three years, Riverkeeper has also been engaged, with Lower Esopus communities
and other stakeholders, in advocating for the protection of the Lower Esopus Creek from adverse
impacts related to Ashokan Reservoir operations.

From public documents that we have been able to obtain, it would appear that the
proposed action at issue involves:

1) the construction of an approximately 415,000 sq. ft. water bottling facility and
associated parking and infrastructure in the Town of Ulster;
2) the proposed sale of up to 1.75 million gallons per day (MGD) of municipal water
from the City of Kingston to Niagara for operation of the facility;
3) associated infrastructure improvements that may be necessary to facilitate the
delivery of Kingston municipal water from Cooper Lake Reservoir in Woodstock
to the project site in the Town of Ulster, including the potential for construction of
an additional 12-inch transmission main to the proposed water bottling facility in
the Town of Ulster; and
4) the potential for increased withdrawal of water by the City of Kingston from
Mink Hollow Brook, a Class A trout stream which is a part of the New York City
(NYC) drinking water supply watershed, and/or the Saw Kill, a Class A trout
spawning stream that is a tributary to the Lower Esopus Creek, and diversion of
that water to Cooper Lake so that it can be piped from there into the City of
Kingston municipal supply system to facilitate the sale of water to Niagara.

SEQRA requires that the potential environmental impacts of the entire action be
evaluated, even when a certain agencys decision-making only relates to a part of the action.
6 NYCRR 617.3 (g). To ensure that the environmental review for the proposed action is
comprehensive and includes an evaluation of all potentially significant environmental impacts,
the Town Board must require the applicant to provide a full description of the entire proposed
action and a revised list of all involved agencies based on that re-defined action.

In addition, the Town Board must ensure that it has contacted all involved agencies in the
context of coordinating the selection of lead agency. To make certain this has been
accomplished, we urge the Town, if it has not already done so, to reach out to other potential
involved agencies in addition to those identified by the applicant (including potentially the
Towns of Woodstock, Esopus and Kingston) and the City of Kingston (as distinct from the
Board of Water Commissioners), as well as potentially the New York City Department of
Environmental Protection, to determine whether other approvals may be required with respect to
the acquisition of water from Mink Hollow Brook, the Saw Kill and/or Cooper Lake, and with
respect to construction of the facilities necessary to transmit water from these water sources to
the proposed bottling facility. If additional involved agencies are identified, lead agency
coordination should then be re-initiated pursuant to 6 NYCRR 617.6(b)(3)(i), with notice
provided to the complete list of involved agencies.
3

Finally, with respect to the selection of an appropriate lead agency, SEQRA sets forth a
number of criteria to guide that selection in the case of a dispute, including 1) whether the
impacts of the action are likely to be regional or statewide rather than primarily local, 2) which
agency has the broadest governmental powers and 3) which agency has the greatest capability for
providing the most thorough environmental assessment of the proposed action. 6 NYCRR
617.6(b)(5)(v). The proposed action has the potential to significantly affect a wide range of
resources in several different jurisdictions. These include, but are not limited to, impacts from
construction and operation of the Niagara facility, a new discharge of wastewater from the
facility into Lower Esopus Creek (which will require a SPDES permit from NYSDEC), the sale
of up to 1.75 MGD of municipal water supplies, construction and operation of additional
infrastructure needed to provide water from the City of Kingston to Niagara, and continued
withdrawal of water from Mink Hollow and/or Saw Kill creeks (which will require a Water
Withdrawal permit from NYSDEC in February 2015), which has the potential to affect
streamflow, fisheries resources, and provision of water to the Ashokan Reservoir, part of the
NYC drinking water supply system.

Based on these criteria and the nature of the proposed action, NYSDEC is clearly the
most appropriate agency to serve as lead for the coordinated review of the entire action that has
been proposed. Given the regional and statewide significance of the potential impacts, NYSDEC
has the broad powers, capabilities and expertise to evaluate the different environmental resources
that will be affected by the action, and will be better positioned to coordinate review of all facets
of the action between federal, state, and local agencies, whereas local agencies are
understandably more focused on local concerns. Accordingly, Riverkeeper strongly urges
NYSDEC to serve as lead agency for the proposed action.

Thank you for your consideration of this important matter.

Sincerely,

Kate Hudson
Watershed Program Director

Cc: Daniel Whitehead, NYSDEC Region 3 Permit Administrator
City of Kingston Water Department and Board of Water Commissioners
City of Kingston Common Council
Town of Ulster Zoning Board of Appeals
Town of Ulster Water and Sewer Departments
Ulster County Department of Health
Ulster County Department of Public Works, Highway and Bridges Division
New York State Department of Health
New York State Department of Transportation
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District
4

Ulster County Industrial Development Agency
Town of Esopus
Town of Woodstock
David Warne, New York City Department of Environmental Protection

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www.riverkeeper.org 78 North Broadway, E House White Plains, New York 10603 t 914.422.

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