KATHY HOCHUL Governor AMANDA LEFTON Commissioner
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February 26, 2026
Mayor and Village Board Village of Red Hook, Village Hall 7467 South Broadway Red Hook, NY 12571
Re: Sanitary Sewer Overflows at 01A & 01B WWTPs – Notice of Violation Order on Consent DEC Case No. R3-20250610-54
Village of Red Hook WWTP SPDES # NY0271420
Dear Village Officials:
On February 20, 2026, and February 24, 2026, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation received NY-Alerts for Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) at both wastewater treatment plants identified above due to excessive hydraulic loading at the plants. This is also due to insufficient capacity of the process units to process the influent flows to the plants. This indicates the bypasses of the critical process units, and as a result, the plant effluent was only partially treated with disinfection before it was discharged to the tributary of Saw Kill.
The unpermitted discharge of partially treated sewage into the waters of the State is a violation of Article 17 of the Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) and is subject to penalties of $ 37,500 per violation per day pursuant to the ECL.
As you are aware, the Village of Red Hook is currently under an Order on Consent (Case No. R3-20250610-54) with the Department to address violations of the SPDES permit. Pursuant to the Order on Consent, the Village has implemented temporary or interim measures to prevent SSOs and to comply with the SPDES permit limits. It appears that these measures are not effective, as they did not prevent these violations. As a result, more aggressive actions must be taken to address the violations and to implement the additional short-term upgrades described in the submitted Engineering Report, WWTP Upgrade, January 30, 2026. Towards this end, by March 20, 2026, please provide a schedule of implementation for actions and shortterm upgrades to address these violations.
The Department anticipates your compliance with the requirements of the SPDES program, which we will take into consideration before making a final determination regarding appropriate enforcement action for these violations.
Region 3 | Division of Water 21 South Putt Corners Rd. New Paltz, NY 12561 | www.dec.ny.gov | (845) 256-3000
If you have any questions, please contact me at (845) 256-3147.
Sincerely,
Vijay Gandhi EPS
cc: Meena George, PE, RWE, NYSDEC Ashley Johnson, OGC, NYSDEC Robert Flores, Delaware Engineering, D.P.C. Leslie Coon, H2O Innovation