A water provider to Harrison and Mamaroneck paid the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $1.26 million last month, after it settled with the agency this summer for violating the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
Westchester Joint Water Works (WJWW) – a nonprofit public benefit corporation with local member municipalities – paid $1.26 million in civil penalties after the EPA detected drinking water contaminants in 2019, and agreed to install a $138 million water filtration plant at its Rye Lake water source.
WJWW’s member municipalities include the village and town of Mamaroneck, and the town of Harrison. They operate as owners of the water corporation, according to WJWW business director David Birdsall – sharing in the revenues, expenses, and income.
The civil fines paid to the EPA came from each municipality’s water fund reserve, which is financed by WJWW’s customers. Harrison paid about $704,000 in fines, the village of Mamaroneck paid roughly $351,000, and the town of Mamaroneck paid approximately $211,000, Birdsall said.
WJWW sent a letter to its customers alerting them of the finalized settlement on Nov. 7, Birdsall said.
The city of Rye gets its water through Veolia Water Technologies, which purchases about 35% of its water from WJWW and the other 65% from the Aquarion Water Company in Connecticut. There are, however, approximately 350 Rye properties that are fully served by WJWW – referred to as the organization’s out of district users.
According to the settlement, WJWW supplied drinking water to its 120,000 Harrison and Mamaroneck customers that exceeded legal limits for “certain chemicals resulting from the [water] disinfection process” in 2019, which may have “potential” associations with certain cancers, as well as developmental or reproductive health effects.
“Public water systems have the critical responsibility of ensuring that our communities have safe drinking water,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the EPA’s settlement announcement. “Thanks to today’s settlement, Westchester Joint Water Works will finally construct a long-delayed drinking water filtration facility to protect the Westchester County communities it serves.”
The EPA also stated that WJWW, beginning in 2019, has taken “certain short-term measures to mitigate risk to its consumers,” but still needs to construct the filtration plant to fully comply with safe drinking water standards.
WJWW has asserted that its water supply has been safe to drink all along – emphasizing that the 2019 violation was addressed swiftly with an “aggressive” contaminant flushing program, and that adverse health outcomes come from long-term exposure.
“There are health implications in regard to long-term exposure of high levels of disinfection byproducts,” said Paul Kutzy, WJWW manager. “At that time, in 2019, there was a question of water quality, but we took measures … to prevent any additional violations.”
Kutzy said WJWW samples for contamination every quarter. At the time of the 2019 violation, WJWW determined that there were “barely” higher-than-legal amounts of contaminants for three consecutive quarters.
The Safe Drinking Water Act was originally passed in 1974 and amended in both 1986 and 1996.
Kutzy noted WJWW hasn’t constructed a filtration plant, in part, because the organization has asked the EPA in the past for certain treatment exceptions – claiming their water quality already meets safety standards.
Even so, the organization is ready to build the new plant, he said.
“We’ve been working diligently to move the filtration project forward,” Kutzy said. “Our number one priority is to protect the safety of our drinking water supply and the health of our residents. And to be clear, the water supply to Westchester Joint customers has been and continues to be safe to drink.”
WJWW, which was formed in 1927, is set to break ground on the $138 million filtration plant south of Rye Lake in early 2025. The settlement requires that it must be operational by July 1, 2029.
This story was updated on Dec. 2 to clarify how Veolia Water Technologies and WJWW serve Rye residents.