Holy Cow! It's about time. This issue should have been reconciled YEARS ago. Water is a finite resource regardless of the weather. If we fail to secure our own wells now, we will be eventually be buying water decades from now. Please continue pursuing the wells, for our kids sakes. What ever it takes!

Several years ago, the Town and Village did not pursue the Star wells because we would have to clean up any pollution on the Star property as part of the deal. The wells were cheap, but the clean up costs were unknown.Further, if the Star wells were added to our Municipal system, they would have to conform to all Federal and State standards and requirements. Perhaps the KJ lawyers have found a way to elude these unknown costs ? Would not be a surprise. Further, to the best of my knowledge, the Cornwall Water district won the right to tap the Aqueduct if it ran through the community. This precident enabled many communities to tap accordingly. I do not believe ths Aqueduct runs anywhere near KJ,so how can they tap?? Perhaps the County has plans to tap,but who knows, since they dissolved the original Water Authority. Some interesting, perhaps embarassing political questions ??

Edward, the star wells were in operation and were never allowed to pump over 400,000 gallons per day. Since the Star Wells are in the same aquifer as the current Cornwall wells I would imagine that your current system would be able to meet the standards you mentioned.

As for the Pipeline, KJ would have to run a 13 mile pipeline to tap the Catskill aqueduct in New Windsor. That is what the Final Environmental Statement (FEIS) was for that the county is suing to stop because Kiryas Joel did not fulfill the requirements laid down by the court. Also, if that pipeline is run, NY City has stated that neighboring communities cannot tap into their pipeline.

The county under the new water master plan has some plans to tap the Delaware aqueduct for Newburgh. However, if the Water Master Plan is approved it will give the Water Authority the responsibility for all our water (based on the description of their powers documented in the NYS law that created the Water Authority.) I am still investigating that but it is frightening to me.

Mayor Gross is correct to try and reclaim the four wells because if he does not and the Water Authority runs a link to Kiryas Joel, which the new Water Master Plan would allow, Cornwall could have a problem. Especially since these 4 wells are rated to be able to pump up to 1.3 million gallons per day. However, they have never done much more than 250,000 to 350,000 gallons per day since they were created. The impact on Cornwall wells and water supply could be detrimental.

The Water Authority was not dissolved, the leadership was replaced by Mr. Diana and its responsibilities now report to the County Planning Department with a board that is made up of political appointees, a number of which are in the construction industry. Not one board member is an elected official. Mayor Gross? suggestion to have elected officials on the board is a great idea, Until we get rid of it.