Cold Spring Avoids DEC Fines

Village says sewage treatment issues rectified
Cold Spring will not face financial penalties following four instances in which fecal coliform and biochemical oxygen demand discharges from the wastewater treatment plant on Fair Street exceeded acceptable levels.
According to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the discharges occurred between August 2024 and August 2025.
The DEC issued a Notice of Violation in October that could have resulted in penalties of up to $37,500 per day. A state inspection of the plant in September identified three other infractions: an expired operating permit, an unlicensed assistant plant operator, and the use of an uncalibrated flow meter.
At the Wednesday (Dec. 10) meeting of the Village Board, Mayor Kathleen Foley shared recent correspondence from the DEC stating that the agency was satisfied with the measures taken to address the violations and that no fines would be levied.
Foley addressed what she described as "a lot of misunderstanding" about the violations. She noted that wastewater discharges and village drinking water are tested twice daily and that the village was not "caught" in the violations.
"We reported our own violations" to the state and the Putnam County Health Department, she said, adding that municipalities are allowed up to four discharges that exceed acceptable levels before the DEC will inspect a plant.
"At no point was raw sewage or untreated water discharged into the Hudson River; it was always treated," Foley said, explaining that the fecal coliform levels were immediately brought back to the acceptable range after bacteria levels in the plant's digesters had dropped.
The village is paying tuition for Landon Wood, an employee of the water and wastewater department, to be trained as an assistant plant operator. He is expected to be licensed by June. In the interim, the village has contracted with a licensed operator as needed. Foley said the village began using a second licensed plant operator in 2022, but the employee later found work elsewhere. Following the state notice, the village also had the plant's flow meter calibrated and is updating its operating permit.
In other business …
The Village Board held its annual reorganization meeting. Foley, trustees Andrew Hall and Tony Bardes, and village justice Luke Hilpert, each of whom was elected in November, were sworn in. In addition, the board approved appointments to various boards and staff positions. The Poughkeepsie Journal was named the official newspaper for legal notices, while the Putnam County News & Recorder was dropped. The Highlands Current will continue to be used as an alternative. In most cases, a newspaper must have mostly paid circulation to be an official paper.
The mayor was authorized to sign an intermunicipal agreement with Putnam County for the collection and distribution of sales tax. The nine county municipalities will collectively share 1 percent of the sales tax collected by the county, with a minimum of $50,000 annually. "It's a small victory - just the beginning," Foley said. "Now we press for more."
An engineering inspection on the work on the pedestrian tunnel was scheduled for Monday (Dec. 15).
Foley clarified why two crews have been working on trees in the village. Brothers Tree Service has been removing dead trees on village property, and Wright Tree Service is trimming trees near power lines for Central Hudson.
The Cold Spring Police Department responded to 115 calls in November, including 27 assists to other agencies, nine traffic stops, eight motor vehicle accidents, eight alarms, eight assists to members of the public, two persons in crisis, two disputes and single calls for a domestic incident, fraud, harassment, lost property, menacing, noise and a missing adult.
The Cold Spring Fire Co. answered 13 calls in November, including seven activated alarms, a confirmed carbon monoxide incident, two motor vehicle crashes with injuries and single calls for a mountain rescue,...