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"The reason for the overflows is rainwater in the system—not under capacity." Robert Butterworth, Monday, April 20April 29, 2009 He must have repeated the same talking point a half dozen times during his presentation. The sewer spills are caused by inflows of rainwater not a lack of capacity of the system. Just six days later, at the close of a long, sunny weekend, a sewer line erupted on Saddle River Road sending a wide stream of sewage directly into a Federally protected River that flows into New Jersey. The Monday meeting at the County Legislature featured a progress report relating to the $50 million in repairs ordered by the New York DEC to stop sewer spills around Ramapo and elsewhere in the County. Robert Butterworth, spokesman for Stearns and Wheler, the company hired by Rockland Sewer District #1 to find and help fix the problems, insisted again and again that the spills were not a result of an undersized system that hs been overwhelmed by population growth. It was inflows of rainwater. His engineering firm identified problems involving catch basins, roof leaders, yard drains, holes in manholes, and cracks in pavement around manholes—all allowing too much storm water into the sanitary sewer system. It’s rainwater that’s the problem—rainwater. At the end of the week, on Sunday, neighbors reported the following event: Once again, there has been an extensive sewer spill at the
manhole cover which is behind the pumping station off of East Saddle
River Rd. (Saddle River S &T Club). At approximately 7:10 PM on
Sunday, April 26, raw sewage was erupting out of the manhole
cover and into the nearby East Saddle River. We did report this to
the Sewer District #1 and NYDEC as soon as we saw it. Photos show
force of the flow which flowed directly into the river for
approximately 1 hour that we recorded. Also noted additional flow
percolated with great force out of the broken pipe area at the Club
rear service entrance. Saddle River was noticeably cloudy entire
width of the river at the entry point and continuing for at least 50
yards. Flow contained tampons, tissue, condoms. Source from the two manholes
Sewage flows downhill directly
to the River
Crosses the bridge and directly flows from two directions
It will be interesting to read the spill report once it’s prepared by Rockland County Sewer District #1—a report that must be filed with the DEC and the Board of Health. This site has had numerous spills in the last five years, and a number of fixes have been attempted. This is also the area most in contention regarding a lawsuit filed by Upper Saddle River. More interesting, though, will be just how hard Mr. Butterworth rides the apparently misguided talking point that these spills are all due to rainfall at his next public appearance. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday there wasn’t any rain, and it only took one the system six days to blow up his sales pitch. Besides the illegal and dangerous spill into the River, the engineer also doesn’t have logic on his side. If the system is being overwhelmed by rainfall today, why wasn’t this same system overwhelmed 10 or 20 years ago? I think I remember it raining in Ramapo in the 70s and 80s and 90s. Could the explosive growth in the region have something to do with it? Here are some additional facts to consider: 1. The architect of the out-of-control growth in Ramapo also serves as the Vice Chairman of the Rockland County Sewer District #1. And, no surprise, Vice-Chair Christopher St. Lawrence has consistently denied the frequency and severity of the sewer spills. 2. St. Lawrence and his board, hired Mr. Butterworth’s company. 3. As Stearns and Wheler began their work for St. Lawrence’s Sewer Commission, they started sending checks to the Vice Chair’s personal fund (Friends of Christopher St. Lawrence) and the other two Supervisors totaling more than $14,000 in the first 19 months of the company's employment. We’ll look at all of these issues in Part Two of this story. Michael Castelluccio
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