Local residents came out in force last week to vigorously oppose a city plan to blast away rock with explosives at the Jerome Park Reservoir.

The controversial plan is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) contentious Croton Water Filtration Plant project currently under way in Van Cortlandt Park. The project has been plagued by massive cost overruns, federal fines, construction delays and contractor turnover.

Last Thursday, at the Croton project’s monthly oversight meeting, DEP officials vaguely outlined a plan to blast out rock to construct a shaft that connects a water tunnel from the reservoir to the filtration plant.

The original plan in the project’s final environmental impact statement (FEIS) called for using a large drill, called a hoe ram, to dig the shaft. It also says there will be no “surface blasting” at the Jerome Park Reservoir.

DEP design director Paul Smith said the blasting plan would save time (16 weeks, rather than 26) and reduce noise.

Residents, park advocates, members of the oversight group, and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, voiced serious concerns about the new plan and demanded the DEP produce a new study on how it would affect the community, which includes several schools and residential buildings.

DEP officials said it had yet to make a final decision, but presented the blasting plan as a no-brainer. The agency didn’t, however, offer any evidence that the plan would indeed be less noisy and disruptive, aside from a short and inconclusive video of both the blast and the drilling method. The DEP said a new study would not be needed because the blasting would have less of an impact than hoe ramming.

When asked how they were sure it would be less noisy and take less time, Smith said, “Experience.” Smith added that he couldn’t actually guarantee blasting would be quicker and that it would involve at least some hoe ramming.

Also new to residents was the DEP’s plan to cart away debris from the reservoir site by using trucks that would travel to and from the site using Goulden Avenue (which borders the reservoir), a plan not included in the FEIS.