Washington, D.C.—The Haverstraw Water Supply Project, a proposed desalination plant in Rockland County, New York, could generate as much as $5 million in annual profits for United Water New York, but community members would ultimately pay the price in the form of increased water rates, finds a new report released today by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Entitled Not Worth It’s Salt: How Rockland County Could End Up Paying for an Unnecessary Desalination Plant, the report recommends approaches to meeting the area’s water needs that include conservation, improving existing water infrastructure, and better stormwater management and land use planning, among others.　

　"United Water New York’s proposed desalination facility for the Hudson River is a classic example of how the interests of private water companies starkly conflict with the needs of the customers to whom they are providing this essential resource," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "Rockland County residents have voiced a preference for conservation and other low-cost, low-impact water-delivery options, but United Water has instead chosen to pursue a high-tech method that would boost its profits."

Construction of the proposed Haverstraw Water Supply Project is expected to cost up to $105 million in 2008 dollars. United Water will recover its costs through a New Water Supply Source surcharge, which water users will have to pay.

In addition to these financial costs, the Haverstraw Water Supply Project would use two to three times as much electricity as a similarly sized water treatment plant, and only produce three-quarters of the water, all while potentially adding to carbon emissions, polluting the Hudson River, and contribute to flooding.

"United Water could recover up to two million gallons of water a day simply by fixing leaks in the area’s infrastructure system, almost the same amount expected to be produced from the plant," noted Hauter.

Similar desalination projects in other parts of the United States have been fraught with problems. Tampa Bay’s plant, perhaps the most notorious example of the failures of desalination, is unable to consistently produce the 25 million gallons a day it was supposed to, and came online years behind schedule and millions of dollars over its predicted cost. A smaller plant in Swansea, Massachusetts, went over its $18 million original budget before its scheduled date to come online. Desalination projects currently proposed in California are being met with considerable resistance from local groups.

In Rockland County, local residents have formed the Rockland Coalition for Sustainable Water, which in addition to opposing the plant, is working to educate stakeholders about safe and affordable means of establishing a sustainable source of drinking water for the area.　

　A subsidiary of the French multinational company Suez Environnement, United Water New York and its parent company maintain　 track records of high-profile privatization failures around the world, as communities have ended their contracts due to poor system upkeep, service problems, and other issues.

Not Worth It’s Salt: How Rockland County Could End Up Paying for an Unnecessary Desalination Plant is available at: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/not-worth-its-salt

Food & Water Watch is a non-profit organization working with grassroots organizations around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. Through research, public and policymaker education, media, and lobbying, we advocate policies that guarantee safe, wholesome food produced in a humane and sustainable manner and public, rather than private, control of water resources including oceans, rivers, and groundwater. For more information, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

###