Committee members call draft report too long, warn against defaulting to RPCs

At the Aug. 18 meeting, members pushed for a more concise draft and a neutral presentation of regional entity options. Catherine Dimitruk said she was concerned the report "appeared to be presented as the default regional entity" for Regional Planning Commissions without evidence the RPCs had volunteered to serve in that role, and she urged reorganizing the report to present options more neutrally.

Gianna Petito opened the discussion by outlining five themes from submitted comments: "model design, equity and cost effectiveness, costing methodology, phasing and pilots, and overall report clarity." Members including Christine Dougherty and Luce Hillman argued that watershed-scale regionalization, aligned with existing watershed planning and Clean Water Service Providers, could produce greater phosphorus reductions than county-based models.

Several committee members recommended pilot programs to test regional approaches in real-world watershed segments before recommending statewide adoption; Jenny Patterson emphasized pilots would help evaluate cost-effectiveness and equity. The discussion did not produce a final determination on model choice; DEC will incorporate member comments into a consolidated draft for September.