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WPCNR PERSPECTIVE ’26. News & Comment By John F. Bailey. January 20, 2026:

The lead story on White Plains CitizeNetReporter today another announcement by Westchester County :

Beaches are closed due to unsafe, unhealthy conditions due to overflow of sewage from stormwater overflow into beach waters Saturday night.

According  to the county we received over 1.8 inches of rain overflowing the sewer systems neat the beaches.

I used to count new cases of covid daily, now I have a new count:

The number of times Westchester has closed a series of public beaches in the county this summer due to (let’s face it!) not just “unsafe waters” but polluted waters from sewers unable to handle the flow load.

I believe this is the fifth time beaches have been closed this summer due to sewer polluted waters.

This is not new.

Since I started this website, 26 years ago these beach closures have been happening every summer.

Nobody cares.

County administrations have paid lip service to fixing the sewer problem.

White Plains which is responsible for most of the  sewer and stormwater overflow  south is now increasing its sewer level contributions as more apartments in city are leasing up.

The question is can the  existing White Plains sewage system handle the effluent on its way?

Can we shove a  long ruler  into them and find out?

Can we get an official report from White Plains, New Rochelle, Port Chester, Mount Vernon and Yonkers on present sewer capacity to handle 2 inches of rain? That’s where the new buildings are.

The county at one point did a sewer analysis study of where the overflows are at the worst. We never got a recommendation from that report. I don’t need it.

Take a look at those beach closures today.

That tells you where they are and where they have been for many years.

This situation has been been given lip service by all administrations for many years.

Task forces do not get the job done. It is work and money.

The impact of the sewage problem this summer has caused:

1 Loss of revenue to the newly opened Playland. People come to swim in the pool but the beach closure prevents more people from coming and parking at Playland.

2.Admissions to the beaches through July have got to be down.

With the new County Executive Ken Jenkins in charge it appears the politics of task forcing your way through an ungoing crisis by appearing to do so is a thing of the past.

and hopefully the study done several years is done by now and we can target, design and fund sewer upgrades to elimnate this chronic sewer overflow.

I say as a person skeptical about how good the natural tides are at cleansing the beaches everywhere on Long Island Sound  within 24 hours and the Hudson River (where Con Edison turned off power to the Yonkers sewage treatment plant to save electric shortages yet polluted the pollution-stressed Hudson

I am very mentally adverse to betting my immune system against contaminated waters. I imagine there are a lot of people who feel that way.

We do not need another task force on the sewers that never actually does the job.

It is time to get the sewers done by next spring, so we can go to the beaches again.

People are miserable because they cannot swim at  our beautiful beaches

Ken Jenkins to the rescue, please?