“Immediately after July 1, 1932, the War Department will, in as far as it has legal authority, take all necessary steps to acquire the land upon which the water supply and system of the Village of Highland Falls is located, including the purchase, at a price mutually agreeable, of the interests therin which said village now owns in the water-shed from which this supply is obtained,” the letter reads. “When the water shed is acquired, the War Department will guarantee to said Village of Highland Falls the right to the use of the water up to the capacity of the said Village of Highland Falls present water-shed without charge.”
That’s one paragraph of a four-paragraph letter from 1931 that the Village of Highland Falls has in its possession. It’s dated Feb. 28, 1931; on War Department, Washington letterhead; and signed by the Secretary of War at the time, Patrick Hurley. The U.S. president that year was Herbert Hoover.
It’s a letter that Highland Falls Mayor Joe D’Onofrio is currently “hanging my hat on” in a request to West Point to allow the village to tap into water flowing into West Point as the village struggles with very low reservoir levels.
Currently, a copy of the letter is in the hands of Alan Mack, Orange County’s deputy commissioner for the Department of Emergency Services. He’s given a copy to the county’s lawyers to look at to see if it has any current legal standing.
While the board waits to hear from West Point — initial requests were met with an offer to potentially sell some water to the village — they met in a special meeting Saturday morning to review several other options they have to secure more water for the community as the Bog Meadow Reservoir level remains low.
“We are in the ‘drought alert’ level of the EPA standards,” D’Onofrio said. “The last measurement (Water Superintendent Jack Sibley) took was Friday at 10 a.m. and the level was 43 percent then.”
Should the village get down to 25 percent capacity that would be considered a drought warning, and significant water restrictions would be put in place. D’Onofrio reminded residents to continue to conserve water where possible.
The 43 percent capacity from last Friday is after the number was in the upper 30 percent range a week earlier, but it can be assumed, the mayor said, some of the water from recent rains had made their way into the reservoir.
At the meeting the board considered several options to secure more water, if needed. Those include the use of a Rt. 9W well (just north of the water plant) which is said to possibly yield 130,000-150,000 gallons per day; and asking the Black Rock Forest Consortium for permission to pull additional water off Jim’s Pond, another reservoir that feeds into Bog Meadow.
The mayor also updated the board members on expected repairs to leaks at three residential properties, and the work that an engineering firm will be doing to see if the capacity of Bog Meadow can be increased in years ahead. He noted that while the reservoir is low, some dredging work has already been done on it, also to help increase capacity.
