by Peggy Kurtz and Gale Pisha
 Laurie Seeman of Sparkill Creek Watershed Alliance holds the 2015 Environmental Champion award presented to the Rockland Water Coalition by Judith Enck, director of EPA Region 2 (right). George Potanovic of the Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment, and Peggy Kurtz of the Sierra Club’s Lower Hudson Group, also share the spotlight at the presentation in Manhattan. |
The Rockland Water Coalition has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's highest honor, the Environmental Champion Award, in acknowledgement of the group's successful fight against a desalination plant in Rockland County.
Judith Enck, administrator of EPA's Region 2, presented the award to representatives of the coalition at a ceremony in Manhattan along with other winners of the award from New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands who have significantly contributed to improving the environment and public health.
The Atlantic Chapter of Sierra Club was one of the founding organizations of the Rockland Water Coalition, which formed in 2008 to oppose Suez/United Water's plan for an environmentally destructive desalination plant to treat Hudson River water for Rockland's drinking water.
The coalition grew to over 30 local, regional and national environmental and civic groups. The collaborative effort resulted in a decision last November by the Public Service Commission that the water company shelve its desalination plans and instead examine safer and less costly alternatives, including water conservation, efficiency and other water sources.
Rockland County created a task force of stakeholders, including elected officials, environmentalists and Suez/United Water, to come up with a water resources management plan that we hope will be a model for the state and region.
Currently the task force is working with nationally renowned water expert Amy Vickers to ensure that Rockland will have a safe, affordable supply of water for decades to come. Vickers is the author of the national water efficiency standards for U.S. plumbing fixtures and a groundbreaking book on water conservation. Her work is financially supported in part by the Rockland Water Coalition to symbolize citizens' continuing involvement in Rockland's water planning.
The Rockland Water Coalition was further honored on the floor of the New York State Assembly by Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee for its grassroots work in stopping this massive desalination project.
The work of the Coalition continues as it works on and with the task force to develop a sustainable water management plan and as it stays vigilant on proposed development projects which may pose a threat to Rockland's water supply. Join us at our monthly Sierra Club meetings to get involved! Find our meeting schedule at http://atlantic2.sierraclub.org/lowerhudson/ (for Rockland meetings, click on the Rockland/Desal tab) and the Rockland Water Coalition at http://www.sustainablerockland.org.
Peggy Kurtz and Gale Pisha are co-chairs of the Lower Hudson Group Desalination Committee.