124- Water Water Water (and I don't mean this rain)

Hello.  I have been busy doing research.  Here is some of what has been happening:

 A. 

I found out that Town of Woodstock gave RUPCO the go-ahead to send the applications to DEC, even though DEC required that the applicant be the Town of Woodstock.  


The town, and also the Woodstock Times, has been writing about a "Joint Application," however this is the name of the application, not a description of an application with several applicants.  The application itself, if they had bothered to look at it, is designed to be sent to several agencies, for several purposes.  The functions and the recipients are the "joint" parties.  The applicant is supposed to be singular: Town of Woodstock.


To be fair, RUPCO could have prepared the documents, in the same way that an accountant prepares tax returns, in the name of the filer. However, RUPCO applied in its own name.


So, here is an example of what DEC got: In the section that was supposed to describe Woodstock's water supply sources, meaning the names, (and instructions even say to name each well,) RUPCO writes that ITS water source is Woodstock's water system!!  ("We'll turn on the tap. That's where our water is coming from.") Not really what DEC had in mind...  I have a feeling this application ain't gonna fly with DEC, in the application's current form.

 B. 

The new water numbers are here!! 2010 numbers.  Remember how in 2009, 32% of the district's pumped water was lost, and an acceptable percentage is around 10%?  Remember how Jeff Moran said last September 14, that there was a broken altitude meter on the Yerry Hill Tank and that it had been repaired finally around the first of the year (that means Jan. 1, 2010)? I remember because I just watched the Town Board Meeting from that September evening.  So, given this explanation, we should see our water loss back down to about 10%, right?


Uh-oh.  2010 losses are 24.4%  Now, remember that we had a two months long water emergency.  This means that water consumption was quite a bit lower than in 2009 (actually nearly 7 million gallons, or 12% less.)  However, we still lost 12 million gallons out of the 49 million gallons pumped.  Compare that to 2008, when we lost 4.3 million gallons out of 43 million gallons pumped.  Now that the Yerry Hill tank problem cannot be factored in, and the leak detection equipment is working, where IS the missing 15%, or 8 million gallons??  (I'm talking about 8 million gallons OTHER THAN the expected 10% loss to fighting fires, flushing hydrants, etc.)


Looks to me like our water district is terribly mismanaged.


 C. 

 If you look at all of this from a water district customer's perspective, we see that during the SEQRA process, the planning board did not study the water district capacity.  Neither did the town board or the planner or the town attorney or the water superintendent.  And after the SEQRA process, RUPCO and town attorney said it was too late.  This leaves the water district customer with the absence of management of his/her district in the form of studying whether there is sufficient capacity and pressure to add RUPCO's demand.


Now, RUPCO did do the analysis, they say.  Fine, RUPCO is entitled to write whatever they like. RUPCO used the DESIGN CAPACITY instead of the actual capacity.  Ours is a sixty year old water system.  There is decay, mismanagement, leaks, expansion after expansion, and it is clear that design capacity is not real capacity.  However, the town did not challenge RUPCO.  Even Kevin Hunter, the then Water and Sewer Superintendent, wrote a one page letter stating that the water system was designed to pump 300,000 gallons per day.  He did not write that this was current capacity.  In fact, he did not state what current capacity was, in 2007.  Whatever it WAS in 2007, it certainly is less now, since now we had a water emergency with demand as low as about 150,000 gallons per day, when no other town had water emergencies.


So, what's a group of water district customers to do? How about bring an Article 78 petition against Town of Woodstock, joining RUPCO and EVK Realty, LLC, (the current landowner,) to challenge town's mismanagement of water district over several years, and triggered by the consent to allow RUPCO to apply to DEC for water hookup???


Great idea, we thought.  So we did that.  Seven petitioners filed the petition on Wednesday. 
By the way, if you are a property owner in the Woodstock Water District, and also live in your property, and you feel left out, would like the town to know that you agree with us and will not stand for this mismanagement, and would like to join this petition, please email me: robinsegal@rocketmail.com


More later.
Bye.