It may have been a weekday afternoon, but the November 30 public hearing on a proposed new water plant was packed.

More than 50 people filled a room at Penfield Town Hall to comment on the plant, which the Monroe County Water Authority plans to build in Webster. The authority, which has a plant in Greece, says it needs another one to improve the security and reliability of the water system. 

The hearing was hosted by the State Department of Environmental Conservation. But while it was intended to address issues the DEC will consider before granting permits for the project --- like wetlands and Lake Ontario water use and quality --- the hearing became a forum for other, larger issues.

At the outset Richard Metzger, the Water Authority's chief engineer, discussed the authority's reasons for wanting the plant. While the county's population is flat, he said, the number of households has increased and demand for water is rising.

And anticipating an objection that would be raised in the hearing, that the plant will encourage sprawl, Metzger countered: "This project does not extend distribution service." Rather, it increases capacity. That, of course, would make it easier to extend distribution in the future, he acknowledged. But whether that happens "is controlled by the towns, villages," and other municipalities that are affected, not by the Water Authority, he said.

Speakers during the public hearing were about evenly divided on the plant. Supporters cited new construction jobs and the need for a back-up for the Greece plant in case of emergencies. Opponents cited sprawl and the potential for Lake Ontario pollution from the plant's backwash. Rochester Business Alliance CEO Sandy Parker said her members are concerned about the plant's expense, when the need hasn't been adequately demonstrated.

And County Legislator Paul Haney trotted out statistics from the Water Authority itself that countered assertions about a growth in demand. For example, the authority pumped 21 billion gallons from Lake Ontario in 1995. Slightly less than nine years later: 19 billion. The estimate for 2005: 18.5 billion. And for 2006, 18.3 billion. Hardly the sign of growing demand, said Haney.

Haney also suggested that the Water Authority could use the excess capacity from the new plant to force the city to hand over its system to the Water Authority. Under an agreement that expires in 2008, the county pays the city to provide water to a portion of Monroe County. If the county builds a new plant, it might not need to get water from the city. That would deprive the city of valuable revenue at a time when it faces substantial costs to upgrade its own water infrastructure.

And, said Haney, in addition to giving the authority a virtual monopoly over the region's water, a takeover of the city's system would give the county control of the city's upland watershed, which consists of two pristine Finger Lakes, Canadice and Hemlock.

The value of that much lakefront property, if it were ever developed, would be staggering, said Haney. And Haney insisted, without substantiation, that developers already have their eyes on the watershed.

"I can tell you for a fact that meetings between well-placed developers with strong ties to the local political machine that controls the authority have already been held to discuss getting hold of that prime real estate," Haney said. Haney declined to identify those developers to City Newspaper on the record.

All of the objections to the plant may be meaningless. The public testimony will be collected by the DEC, but the ultimate decision about whether to issue permits for the plant's construction rests with the agency, not the public. 

Water Authority officials announced at the start of the hearing that they had agreed to delay construction for 18 months to negotiate with the city. But Haney noted that that was an essentially meaningless compromise. Pressure on the city to cede its system "exists from the moment the permits are granted," he said.