Westchester Joint Water Works Safe Drinking Water Act Consent Decree, Westchester County, New York

On June 24, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with the state of New York, reached a settlement agreement with Westchester Joint Water Works (WJWW), Town/Village of Harrison, the Village of Mamaroneck, and the Town of Mamaroneck for violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s maximum contaminant level under the Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule and to resolve a longstanding violation of the requirement to install filtration.

Under the consent decree, WJWW is designing, constructing, and operating a filtration plant estimated to cost $138 million and paying a civil penalty of $600,000. Additionally, the company agreed to spend approximately $900,000 on a project to modify an extended detention basin in the Rye Lake portion of the Kensico Reservoir and manage invasive species in the area, improving the quality of the waters that supply WJWW’s drinking water. The state of New York filed a Complaint in Intervention in this action for WJWW’s violations of state law and failure to construct and operate a filtration plan as required by a state court judgment.

The filtration plant will protect the public health of approximately 120,000 people. The construction and operation of the plant will protect against exposure to microbial contaminants, including giardia and cryptosporidium, and reduce the formation of disinfection byproducts such as HAA5 and total trihalomethanes.

On this page:

• Overview of Westchester Joint Water Works
• Summary of Violations
• Overview of Consent Decree
• Supplemental Environmental Project
• Comment Period
• Contact Information

Overview of Westchester Joint Water Works

Westchester Joint Water Works (WJWW), a non-profit public benefit corporation consisting of member municipalities, Town/Village of Harrison, the Village of Mamaroneck, and the Town of Mamaroneck, owns and operates a community water system that directly and indirectly supplies drinking water to approximately 120,000 residents of Westchester County, New York. WJWW obtains its water from the New York City water supply system: the Delaware Aqueduct and Rye Lake (the eastern portion of the Kensico Reservoir).

Summary of Violations

The WJWW Water System exceeded the maximum contaminant level for the five regulated disinfection byproducts known as HAA5, violating EPA’s Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Since the mid-1980s, epidemiological studies have supported a potential association between disinfection byproduct exposure and bladder cancer and suggested an association with colon and rectal cancers. Additionally, EPA has concluded that the data supported a potential health concern that exposure to chlorinated drinking water or disinfection byproducts may cause adverse developmental or reproductive health effects. 

Although WJWW has taken certain short-term measures to mitigate risk, they have failed to implement necessary corrective actions—including building a filtration plant required by an EPA administrative order and state court order—to ensure long-term protection of the residents of Westchester County, New York, who drink water provided by the community water system.

Overview of Consent Decree

WJWW will design, construct, commence operation of, and thereafter continuously operate a filtration plant for the Rye Lake surface water source, estimated to cost $138 million. WJWW is required to commence operation of the filtration plant by July 1, 2029, in compliance with the filtration, disinfection, monitoring, and reporting requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Additionally, WJWW will undertake interim measures prior to construction of the filtration plant to ensure protection of public health, including providing public notice for disinfection byproducts MCL exceedances; undertaking a distribution system flushing program; and performing source water monitoring.

WJWW will prepare a written report to identify any potential environmental justice impacts of construction of the filtration plant, provide an opportunity to members of the public to submit comments in writing identifying any such impacts, host at least one public meeting at which members of the public may provide such comments verbally, and ensure that such meeting is accessible to all who wish to attend, including through the use of technology (for example, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, adequate translation) when feasible. If any environmental justice impacts are identified, WJWW shall mitigate any such impacts to the maximum extent possible consistent with construction of a filtration plant.

Supplemental Environmental Project

Under the consent decree WJWW agreed to spend at least $900,000 on a supplemental environmental project to modify an extended detention basin in the Rye Lake portion of the Kensico Reservoir and manage invasive species in the area. A supplement environmental project or SEP is a project included as part of an enforcement settlement that provides a tangible environmental or public health benefit. This supplemental environmental project is expected to improve source water quality in the Reservoir by decreasing natural organic material and turbidity.

Comment Period

The proposed settlement, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is subject to a minimum 30-day public comment period and final court approval. Information on submitting comment and access to the settlement agreement is available on DOJ’s Proposed Consent Decree web page.

Contact Information:

Chrisna Baptista
Water Enforcement Division
Office of Civil Enforcement
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW (MC 2243-A)
Washington, DC 20460
(202) 564-4272
[email protected]