New York Counties Threaten to Sue Over Bay Pollution Diet

Santulli launches fight against unfair EPA regulations

Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli is seeking the support of leaders from 16 counties in New York that are part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed to take legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Santulli is proposing litigation in response to pending EPA regulations developed to clean up the polluted Chesapeake Bay. Even the EPA has admitted that if the other five states that feed the Chesapeake Bay met New York State wastewater quality standards, the Chesapeake Bay would not be polluted, he said.

"This is probably one of the greatest outrages that I've ever had to deal with as long as I've been in this office," he said during a press conference Thursday.

The cost of the upgrades to the wastewater treatment plants in Chemung County alone would be more than $30 million, with annual operating and maintenance costs estimated at $1.8 million, according to Santulli. The cost for the 16 counties in New York to meet the standards is estimated between $2 and $4 billion, he said.

This was the single most popular story in the "Bay News" today, picked up by seven different papers (a testament to the power of environmentalism by press release, I'm sure).  Needless to say, the bay is a long way downstream from the New York Counties that ultimately drain into the Bay, and it's difficult to convince the counties to pay for further improvements that are likely to have little influence on their standard of living.

So it looks like the Bay "Czar" may get his fight.