Toronto Reservoir ‘tribunal’ scheduled

Posted 8/21/12

MONTICELLO, NY — The New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) move to close a section of shore area at the Toronto East public access of the Toronto Reservoir once again received a large …

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Toronto Reservoir ‘tribunal’ scheduled

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MONTICELLO, NY — The New York State Department of Health’s (DOH) move to close a section of shore area at the Toronto East public access of the Toronto Reservoir once again received a large amount of attention at the Bethel town meeting on September 28.

Once again, Supervisor Dan Sturm read a list of steps the town has taken to try to persuade DOH to changes its position on the access area and allow the public to once again use the sandy area of the access facility.

The reservoir supporters have pressed town officials to bring a lawsuit against DOH to force them to rescind their order to close most of the access because they deemed it to be a bathing beach.

Peter Conway, a member of Friends of Toronto (FOT) who have advocated for keeping the access area open for 14 years, said DOH officials were not being honest with them. He told the board a DOH staffer named Michelle Glover-Brown initially said DOH had received two complaints about the access and repeated that assertion when five members of FOT turned up at the DOH office in August. He said two weeks later Glover-Brown asserted they have received “many” complaints.

Another FOT member, Dr. Hermann Goldfarb, said another DOH staffer, Christine Westermann, told him that DOH representatives have seen as many as 50 people swimming in the reservoir at the access area, when typically there are just two or three people at the access, unless a demonstration has been scheduled. This lead to speculation that a property owner or two who are opposed to the access were told in advance about the DOH site inspections and arranged to have many people at the access.

Regarding the filing of a lawsuit by town officials, the new town attorney Karen Mannino said that a lawsuit would likely be seen as an illegal gift to the FOT because the town had no real interest in the public access.

Bob Barrett, who has been fighting the reservoir battle as long as anyone, countered that the town does have an interest in it and said there is a security guard at the site, keeping people off the sandy part of the shore area. He noted that town officials would not allow security guards to operate on Jeryl Abramson’s property until they had been vetted by the town.

Sturm said there would be a DOH “tribunal” at the government center on October 19, and the public is allowed to attend, but it’s not clear whether the public will be allowed to speak.

In any case, the public won’t be able to properly prepare any remarks, because details about the matter, such as who filed the complaints and the exact statutes that reportedly are being violated have not been made public.

It is clear, however, that there is a dispute about the classification of the access. Robert Gates, an executive vice president with Eagle Creek, the company that owns the reservoir, on September 16 wrote a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency which requires the access be available to the public as a condition of a permit to operate the hydroelectric plant.

Gates wrote, “It is the Department of Health’s position the area is a bathing beach and [has charged] that Eagle Creek has been in violation of its regulations. Our consistent position with the New York State Department of Health is that the Toronto East Access Area is a properly non-permitted informal swimming area.”

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