MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - While it might not seem like it – considering the massive snowstorm that recently walloped northern Westchester – there hasn’t been enough precipitation to keep Mount Kisco’s main source of drinking water from suffering.
Byram Lake Reservoir, a 170-acre water body that supplies the village and parts of Bedford and North Castle, is currently below 83 percent capacity. It could actually be even lower, but at the moment there’s no way of accurately testing that.
It holds about 1.2 billion gallons of water. That doesn’t mean that the village has access to that 1.2 billion.
Small in comparison to other reservoirs such as Muscoot and Amawalk (part of the NYC water supply), Byram Lake is considered fragile because of its limited watershed.
The village also draws from wells in Leonard Park when necessary.
According to its most recent water report, these were turned back on in mid-December in advance of the Village Board’s Jan. 20 vote to declare a water emergency.
According to Village Manager Ed Brancati and Mayor J. Michael Cindrich, the abnormally dry – and in some periods, almost drought-like – weather conditions date all the way back to the fall of 2024.
Rather than chance having any major issues, the village went ahead and imposed water use restrictions.
The good news is that it’s winter, and there’s not a whole lot of lawn watering or pool filling going on.
But until restrictions are lifted, using water outside is prohibited and restaurants are barred from serving tap water unless specifically requested. The two car washes in Bedford are not customers of Mt. Kisco's water supply and are not effected by the restrictions.
According to the town/village code, violations are punishable by fines of not less than $250 nor more than $500, or not more than 15 days’ imprisonment—or both.
Corporate offenders face fines of not less than $500 and not more than $2,500.
“No water use outside should be an easier one to comply with at the moment, because it’s freezing outside,” Brancati said.
Cindrich emphasized Tuesday that the water emergency had nothing to do with the situation at The Chase, a residential development off Route 172 (North Bedford Road), where a water tank has been leaking a reported 3,000 gallons a day.
Brancati faced some blowback after erroneously stating at the board’s Jan. 5 meeting that the tank had been fixed.
He apologized for the mistake, explaining that it was the end of a long, four-hour meeting and he had been thinking of an earlier leak that had been repaired.
The village is on the case.
It’s been in contact with The Chase’s homeowners association and, with the help of village engineers, has identified a plan of action, Brancati said.
That involves installing two new pumps at the Stratford Pump Station as well as bypass and pressure-sustaining valves.
Brancati said the emergency project has been approved and all the village is waiting for are parts to arrive. The village intends to tweak the pump station so it can “mimic” the 250,000-gallon tank, which can then be taken offline and thoroughly examined.
Once the cause of the leak is determined, the village can put the project out to bid.
This isn’t Mount Kisco’s first rodeo.
Cindrich shuddered as he recalled that 10 years or so ago, a 500,000-gallon water tank on the former Swiss Benevolent Society’s property off Mountain Avenue had literally emptied itself overnight.
A lot of the water ended up in the basement of a home on the corner of Emery Street and Mountain Avenue and the road was “completely washed out,” he said, wondering why the facility’s alarm hadn’t sounded.
“The repair didn’t take that long, but these things do happen,” Cindrich added.
Cindrich also looked back at a circa-2009 drought and restrictions that were countywide.
“If your water sprinklers were on at 5 o’clock in the morning in some municipalities, you had a police officer banging on your door to give you a summons,” he recalled.
Although a little on the fence about things – considering that it’s winter and outdoor water use isn’t as big a deal as it is in the warmer months – Cindrich supported the restrictions.
“This little bit of snow that we’ve had does help, but I can’t be the [famed TV meteorologist] Frank Field of weather forecasters,” Cindrich said. “I haven’t read one forecast in the last 10 years that’s been accurate. We deploy people and the storms don’t happen. We don’t deploy people and the storms happen, so what we’re going to enact is a ‘preemptive strike’ to the worst case scenario.”
Cindrich took it a step further by talking about the village’s being “perpetually” under water restrictions and its ongoing efforts to shore up its “finite” water supply.
He pointed to the reservoir’s $26 million filtration plant—“another unfunded mandate.”
Cindrich noted that he and the village managers are working on a plan to tap into the Delaware Aqueduct [which feeds water to NYC]—“an infinite supply of water.”
Cindrich has also called for drilling test wells near Byram Lake to see if there is an aquifer that could be tapped instead of having to rely on the Leonard Park wells for backup.
“It’s a challenge,” he said, especially in light of the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s move toward requiring that all public water supplies that use surface water or groundwater under the direct influence of surface water be filtered.
The EPA has also implemented new national standards for contaminants like PFAS (by 2029) and revised rules for turbidity, which may necessitate upgrades to existing treatment methods.
“We’re not there yet,” Brancati cautioned.
“But it could, so we have to make a decision,” Cindrich responded.
Water use restrictions can also hurt the old piggy bank because, the mayor explained, it’s “in the business of selling water.”
The village is putting together a scope so it can solicit bids from contractors to drill test wells where the old upper reservoir used to be, behind the filtration plant.
Cindrich reiterated that the water emergency has nothing to do with The Chase water tank problem.
He said that when the upscale housing project was first proposed, the developer contended that a water tank wasn’t necessary. However, the village disagreed and began withholding certificates of occupancy “because the water pressure did not meet health department standards.”
Things ended up in court and eventually, a tank was installed, although not where Cindrich had wanted, which was on a separate piece of property.
The tank is between 25 and 30 years old, Brancati estimated.
“To me it’s unusual that a water tank should fail when it’s not aged out, and we’re going to explore that, right?” Cindrich asked the village manager.
“Yes, sir,” Brancati replied.
Making a vague reference to “an incident” with the Chase tank “a few years ago,” Cindrich hinted that a little sleuthing may be in order to see if that had anything to do with the “way the water tower is bleeding now.”
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