Rockland’s Water Supply to Get Boost from Orange County

As Rockland County’s northwest corridor continues to grow exponentially, so does its need for adequate water. That challenge may be improved by a major upgrade to a sewage treatment plant in neighboring Orange County.

Currently, the water from Orange County’s sewer plant is piped into the Ramapo River. From there,  Rockland County’s northwest wells capture the river’s water and further treat it to become potable for residents and businesses. With the growth of Rockland and influx of residents, this system has been unable to keep up with the demand.

Orange County Sewer District #1, located in the Village of Harriman, is now preparing for a major expansion to the facility’s aging infrastructure that will increase production from six million to nine million gallons a day. The project, undertaken by Albany’s Delaware Engineering, gave a presentation to the Harriman Village Board on Tuesday evening, September 9th, to outline the $186 million expansion.

The NYS regulatory review for the system is projected for August 2026 and will then go out for bid. The state-of-the-art expanded facility is to be completed within 24 months of final approval, and the expectation is for full operation to begin by 2029.

Rockland has had its water worries; several years ago, United Water, now Suez, planned to build a desalinization plant in Haverstraw to help ease the problem by proposing to desalinate water from the Hudson River. That plan was canned by the Public Service Commission. Now that Orange County is planning this expansion and extensive upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant, things are looking up for potable water in our own county.