Shaff is talking out both sides of his mouth...

How do you keep your customers convinced they are getting the purest water in the world all the while convincing them they need to spend billions of dollars to improve it? By pretending your hands are tied. Let me put the finest point on this: PWB has not done everything it can and should do to legally avoid construction of mind-bogglingly expensive projects we don't need.

In March of 2009 I directly asked EPA for the deadline to cover reservoirs. EPA replied quiet clearly: the rule doesn't name a deadline, each city sets their own deadline. Our water bureau negotiated a fast-tracked compliance schedule and handed it to EPA in March 2009 with only 24 hours notice to City Council. PWB does not want to save us money, they want to grow the bureau on our backs.

While PWB was gearing up to party with their consulting buddies, NYC was diligently compiling data and building a case to argue for an extension on the deadlines. To anyone that has read the NYC documents, it is clear that they plan to leverage their research into an alternative to unnecessary projects. They haven't just won a delay, they've won.

PWB hasn't put forth the kind of effort you or I would put into finding a legal alternative. My uncle used to say, when it comes to breakfast the hen, she is involved, but the pig, the pig is committed. PWB's acting like a bunch of chickens at a time when what we need is something more akin to a boar.