KIRYAS JOEL – The village has advanced its controversial pipeline project, years in limbo, by complying with a court mandate to elaborate on parts of its environmental-impact study.

The filing responds to questions Orange County raised in a 2004 lawsuit over Kiryas Joel’s proposal to tap the Catskill Aqueduct, most notably how the village and county will treat additional sewage Kiryas Joel will generate as its population grows.

The document, filed in March with various government agencies, appears to end an environmental review that began in 2002. A state appeals court ordered the amendment nearly 18 months ago.

The village wants to build an underground pipeline across eastern Orange County and tap one of New York City’s massive water tunnels as a permanent water source for its booming population, which now relies on wells in the village and the surrounding Town of Monroe.

But neighboring communities waged fierce opposition in 2004 out of fear the new supply would fuel overdevelopment and an expansion of the village. That led to the county lawsuit, challenging the adequacy of the environmental review.

Kiryas Joel and every other community in the upstate counties that New York City’s water tunnels cross are entitled by law to draw water from them.

The status of Kiryas Joel’s application to take up to 2 million gallons a day is unclear. Angel Roman, a deputy press secretary for city Department of Environmental Protection, refused to say anything Tuesday except that his department has received the amended environmental statement.

Orange County Executive Ed Diana’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The pipe would take one of two paths, each stretching roughly 13 miles, to connect to the aqueduct in New Windsor. One would cross Blooming Grove and Cornwall; the other would go through Woodbury and Cornwall. The estimated cost in 2003 was $25 million.

The limited sewage treatment capacity in southeastern Orange County gave pipeline opponents their most potent weapon to challenge the project in 2004.

In its amended statement, Kiryas Joel argues that the treatment plants in Kiryas Joel and Harriman are adequate or can be expanded to handle the village’s increased wastewater for the foreseeable future.

That is partly because of a successful lawsuit by the village to block neighboring communities from sharing the added capacity from a recent expansion of the county-owned plant in Harriman.

(Source: Times Herald Record / YWN-112)