If a high-ranking City official lies to a New York Times reporter and the Times prints it, the paper has an obligation to follow-up with a correction, retraction, or further study to explain it.

A Metro Section story on Aug. 11, "U.S. Fines the City $30,000 a Day Over Delay in Water Filtration Project," reads:

"Steve Lawitts, the agency’s first deputy commissioner, said the plant’s 2003 projected cost of $992 million had been determined without calculating for inflation, which would have put the cost at $1.7 billion in 2007 dollars."

As per footnote 4 on page 81 of the DEP’s 2004 FSEIS Executive Summary on the Croton filtration project, the construction costs are, "based on 2.75% inflation, 6.4% interest, and 30-year life cycle."

Therefore, it is undeniable that this DEP official has, in plain language, lied to the NY Times.

This is not a harmless fib. In fact, Mr. Lawitts’ untruth cuts to the core of criticisms being levied on the DEP and the Croton filtration project by Assemblyman Dinowitz and others, including us, who have been alarmed by exploding costs, other budgetary inconsistencies, and gross political duplicity. It is our contention that over the years, the DEP’s statements and filings have contained errors, misstatements, and untruths in a direct attempt to unfairly sway both public opinion and legislative decision-making.

With recent questions about the integrity of the water system’s infrastructure, including the collapse of tunnels around the Jerome Park Reservoir, not only is the Croton filtration project suspect, so is the DEP’s ability to manage the entire city’s water supply.

Furthermore, given the recent behavior of the Department of Investigation, the city has demonstrated it is not capable of overseeing the DEP.

After a Riverdale Press story that accurately reported that community members were barred from a fact-finding meeting on the filtration project that, incredibly, the DEP was permitted to attend, the DOI blatantly and sophomorically attempted to cover up its own actions by calling the newspaper and blaming the community members themselves for not showing up!

In addition, there are serious questions about whether Christopher Ward was serving two masters as DEP Commissioner and recently about the agency’s handling of chlorine, a deadly toxin.

For these and numerous other reasons, we are calling on state and federal regulators to fully investigate the DEP, the Croton filtration project, and the agency’s management of the city’s water supply.

Karen Argenti

Gary Axelbank