Norwood News

The committee created to oversee the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant, the largest municipal capital project in the history of New York City, has not met since June, leading to more criticism of the agency in charge of the project, the Department of Environmental Protection.  

A meeting for the Croton Facilities Monitoring Committee (FMC) was scheduled for September, but committee members decided to cancel it when they learned the DEP was not prepared to address some of their concerns about the project’s enormous cost overruns and the details of some upcoming phases of construction, according to Committee Chairman Greg Faulkner.

The October meeting was postponed until Nov. 5 because of scheduling conflicts. Faulkner was in Washington, DC. 
In early September, the city comptroller’s office released an audit of the project’s cost overruns, saying the agency deceived the public with its early cost estimates, either deliberately or through gross incompetence.  

At least one critic of the meeting delays, says the timing of the delays is suspicious.

“This audit should be discussed in public,” said local Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, an outspoken critic of the entire project since its inception. “The decision to wait until after the election gives the appearance of a political motivation for the delay, namely to not allow the $1.5 billion cost overrun and the DEP’s initial false cost estimates to become political issues prior to the election.” 

Michael Saucier, a spokesperson for the DEP, said the agency was merely responding to requests made by the FMC and that there was no other motivation for the delays.