Orange County officials and an outside law firm are scrutinizing the expanded environmental review for Kiryas Joel’s proposed water pipeline but have only one recourse — another lawsuit — if they and county lawmakers continue to find fault with the study.

Village officials filed the revised analysis last month to comply with a 2007 court order, which forced them to explain in greater depth some of the potential environmental consequences of their proposal to tap the Catskill Aqueduct.

The state appeals court ruling allowed Kiryas Joel to amend its review in a way that allowed no further public comments — a process that would likely have triggered another volley of objections to the proposed 13-mile pipeline.

The village has since closed its review with a statement summarizing the findings of the seven-year-long study. It still needs approval from New York City to tap the water tunnel in New Windsor.

County lawmakers will discuss Kiryas Joel’s revised study and the county’s position for the first time, when Orange County Executive Ed Diana, County Attorney David Darwin and Planning Commissioner David Church are scheduled to brief a legislative committee.

Diana spokesman Richard Mayfield said he doesn’t know if the county or its lawyers will release a written response.

“Counsel is still going through it, page by page,” he said. “It’s too early to make that sort of speculation.”

No one has threatened further litigation, although two lawmakers who helped steer the county into a lawsuit with Kiryas Joel in 2004 have just penned an opinion column challenging the village’s latest conclusions about sewage treatment capacity — a key issue in the dispute.

“Two major questions in Orange County’s lawsuit against Kiryas Joel still remain unanswered,” wrote Legislators Roxanne Donnery and Frank Fornario. “Where will the additional wastewater end up? Who will pay for it?”

The deadline Orange County met when it sued in 2004 came 120 days after the approval of Kiryas Joel’s first findings statement. That appears to make July 31 the deadline for a second lawsuit if lawmakers decide to file one.

(Source: Times Herald Record / YWN-112)