SMALLWOOD, NY — According to Nino Nannarone, co-chair of the activist group Friends of the Toronto Reservoir (FOTR), residents this summer have been making good use of the Eastern Toronto Reservoir Access. The access, which allows members of the public to use the reservoir for recreational purposes, is mandated as a condition of a permit issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Eagle Creek Renewable Energy, which owned the three plants and also the five reservoirs in the Mongaup River System, including the Toronto, agreed to maintain the access so that it could operate the plants. In November 2018, a company called Ontario Power Generation purchased Eagle Creek in a $298 million deal.

The FERC license to operate the hydroelectric plants expires in 2022, and Eagle Creek would like the people who use the reservoir and FOTR to support the renewal of the license that will stand for 40 years. But relations between the company and the access-users have not always been good. Woodstone Development, a company that built the gated community Chapin Estate, within which the access is located, has waged a battle with FOTR for some 16 years. Woodstone wanted to keep the public out of the gated community and were successful in doing so for a number of years. Eventually, courts ruled decisively in favor of FERC and the reservoir users.

In 2014, Eagle Creek joined with Woodstone Development and a homeowner in Chapin Estate to try to amend the FERC permit and prevent the public from using the reservoir for swimming. FERC rejected that attempt.

More recently, a Chapin Estate resident, Mark Bushel, prompted the New York State Department of Health (DOH) to close the access area because, as DOH ruled, it was being used as a “bathing beach” in violation of state law. Ultimately an administrative law judge and a DOH appeals court ruled, in 2018, that the FERC license trumped state law and the public had the right to use the access.

With all that as background, about 80 members of FOTR and their supporters met with Bob Gates, vice president of operations for Eagle Creek on August 3. FOTR wants Eagle Creek to agree to a few conditions before they support renewal of the permit.

The group would like Eagle Creek to maintain the gravel road that leads to the access and repair it once a year. They would also like the company to address the gravel boat launch, which washes out ever year, on a yearly basis. Further, they would like the access to be made more accessible by removing some vegetation. They would also like welcome signs be posted to the road where it enters the  gated community to balance the existing no trespassing signs.

Nannarone said he thought the meeting between FOTR and the executive from Eagle Creek went well. Gates did not respond to a request for comment.