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A watershed row

Putnam County Executive Robert Bondi should rethink his veto of the Legislature’s plan to use $2 million of watershed funds to extend a successful septic-repair program.

Bondi has said he thinks that the program, which would be paid for out of a portion of what’s left of the $32 million that New York City gave Putnam County to protect water quality in its Croton reservoir system, unfairly rewards a few private homeowners. Not so. Everyone benefits when the drinking water supply is clean. Ann Fanizzi of the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition summed it up when she told The Journal News, “Since when is the maintenance of water quality a private matter?”

Bondi has said that the septic repair program constitutes an illegal “gift of public funds” to private individuals. That view is so narrow it ignores the obvious public benefit of a clean water supply. Even though some homeowners benefit from help with their septic-repair costs, the assistance hardly comes without strings attached.

via: A watershed row | lohud.com | The Journal News.

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