2004 ended like no other in the decade-long battle over the Croton water filtration plant, with work beginning in Van Cortlandt Park, the site the city has preferred for the project for at least five years.
 

The die was cast in the summer of 2003 when the state legislature, led by Bronx Democrats, voted to allow Mosholu Golf Course in the park to be used for the project. The city gained the support of state lawmakers from the borough by promising the expenditure of $240 million on Bronx park improvements. Nevertheless, the community and park organizations that had long fought construction of the plant in the borough were unbowed. They banded together and told anyone who would listen that the Eastview site in Westchester was much more suitable for an industrial facility of this size. Over the summer, they met with members of the City Council, which was responsible for approving the details of the plant-for-parks deal, and even took some of them to see the Eastview site.

But that effort had disappointing results when the Council overwhelming approved the city’s plan in the fall.

Plant foes were given good reason to hold out hope, however, when a judge issued a restraining order in a suit brought by the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park. But the judge eventually lifted the order and dismissed the suit entirely. The Friends are considering an appeal while three other suits, brought by Bronx Environmental Health and Justice (BEHJ), the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, and the town of Eastchester, are still pending.

Meanwhile, the bulldozers press on. The city is in the process of constructing what it calls an “ornamental” construction fence on Jerome Avenue and it has already set up a DEP office in a former storefront across the street.

But the city’s determination, and legal right, to proceed with the work, has not stopped the protests. Members of BEHJ and a political group calling itself 100 Bronx Democrats turned up for what was planned — it was cancelled late in the afternoon — to be a meeting with the new Bronx Parks commissioner Hector Aponte with signs denouncing the plant. They wanted Aponte to promise not to spend any of the $240 million until the lawsuits were settled.

Meanwhile, as required by law, the Department of Environmental Protection is setting up a Facilities Monitoring Committee that will meet quarterly. Representatives of the three surrounding community boards will sit on the committee, as will a designee of Council Member Oliver Koppell, whose district the site is in.