Lighting, Water & Sewer

Lighting

Rock Ledge’s thoughtful planning, with a strategic focus on community values, includes plans to ensure a comfortable and unobtrusive environment, guaranteed never to be a burden on the Town and the development’s neighbors. Exterior lighting will be minimized and will include dark-sky-compliant light fixtures to minimize light pollution. The design and character of exterior lighting will be of a residential scale appropriate to Rock Ledge’s architectural features.

Water and Sewer System Upgrades

For a sustainable development to operate successfully, it is crucial to arrange for the public ownership and operation of sewer and water utilities.

Rock Ledge is served by a reliable centralized private water supply and distribution system and a wastewater treatment plant, with an existing New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)-approved discharge point and wastewater collection system.  Both systems have been designed, permitted and operated according to all State and local requirements while reliably serving the prior, more intensive and recent uses of the property.

Rock Ledge will upgrade both water and sewer systems to the design standards of the NYSDEC and New York State Department of Health, as well as the Dutchess County Water and Wastewater Authority because the county agency will own and operate the systems, which is its mission County-wide. The Town’s taxpayers will take on no risk of having to takeover, operate or finance the improvements at any time in the future.

Both systems have been regularly maintained and previously permitted by NYSDEC, or the Dutchess County Department of Health (DCDOH), and have recently been the subject of an extensive existing facilities conditions and capacities engineering analysis.

The DCDOH has provided a “Flow Confirmation Letter” establishing the average daily quantity of water needed to meet all project water demands.

Engineers for the project have held ‘Presubmission’ Zoom calls with engineers for DCWWA and DCDOH to review the requirements and authority concerns for updating required permits including:

• Reviewing the existing infrastructure engineering analysis with regulators and requirements for the upgrade design and treatment processes that must be followed and standards that must be met. It is important to note that the involvement of DCWWA adds further requirements to the design and processing standards to further assure that the environmental, reliability and community protections and assurances are in place.
• Extensive hydrogeologic groundwater testing, and establishment and development of additional wells, documented that an ample water supply is available for residential uses, fire protection and initial landscaping. Testing of neighbors’ wells showed that they would not be impacted by the development’s uses.
• A video inspection of existing sewer-collection lines was performed to determine the existing conditions of collection pipes. Designs for the sewer-collection lines to serve the new condominiums call for a gravity-fed system without the need for pumping facilities.
• Also discussed were the requirements for the separate Water Supply and Wastewater Engineers Reports and the preparation of the revised Water Supply Application and Wastewater Discharge Permit Applications, all of which are under preparation by Rock Ledge’s consulting engineers.
• Rock Ledge and the community also are fortunate that no environmental impacts are expected from the construction of a treated wastewater outfall line and discharge structure. The existing NYSDEC outfall structure has a history of discharging reliably treated wastewater. What is evidenced for permitting and State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) purposes is that plant operations have a history of environmental performance that meets NYSDEC tertiary and stringent discharge limits. Its history of performance demonstrates that Rock Ledge will have no wastewater impacts on the receiving waters because of the upgraded design and because the development will produce less waste than was allowed under NYSDEC permits for the property’s previous uses.
• The involvement of the DCWWA has already been documented by DCWWA Board and staff actions and the preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding contract, which is being finalized.
• The water and sewer systems as has progressed under SEQR to the point where a consideration of a SEQR Lead Agency finding of no significant impact is demonstrably supportable and appropriate.