CUDDEBACKVILLE - The Dragon Springs religious compound has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against it alleging that sewage runoff from its mountaintop property was polluting the adjacent Basher Kill stream.
In a response filed last month in U.S. District Court in White Plains, an attorney for Dragon Springs argued that the two neighbors and environmental group that sued in January failed to present any data from their stream tests to support their claim that levels of fecal coliform bacteria from sewage had jumped.
The plaintiffs also didn't test any sewage discharge or sample the Basher Kill upstream from Dragon Springs to show the compound was the source of any fecal coliform found in the stream, attorney Adam Stolorow wrote. He cast the lawsuit as an attempt to prevent the construction of new buildings that Dragon Springs proposed in 2018,
The plaintiffs plan to submit an amended complaint by Friday to address the legal flaws Stolorow alleged in his response.
Dragon Springs is the secluded refuge and worship center that the Falun Gong,created in western Orange County two decades ago. Its grounds include a performing arts school and college and are home to Shen Yun.
At a press conference announcing the federal lawsuit, E. Christopher Murray, the plaintiffs' lawyer, displayed a chart of fecal coliform readings from lab-tested water samples that the plaintiffs took from the Basher Kill on five occasions in 2020 and 2021. He said all but one exceeded the legal limit, and the most recent sample, taken Aug. 11, was more than seven times the limit.
The Basher Kill empties nearby into the Neversink River, which then flows into the Delaware River. The suit alleges that Dragon Springs contaminated both the Basher Kill and Neversink with sewage and had widened the Basher Kill with excessive stormwater runoff.
Wastewater at Dragon Springs is discharged into the ground from a septic system and a small treatment plant. Stolorow contends that fecal coliform levels are monitored by the state Department of Environmental Conservation through monthly discharge reports the compound submits.
Dragon Springs' proposed expansion would include a 920-seat performance hall, a parking garage and a sewage treatment plant that could handle up to 100,000 gallons a day. The town of Deerpark Planning Board ordered Dragon Springs in 2019 to do further environment studies to analyze the potential impact of its plans, which it hasn't submitted to the town yet.
The plaintiffs allege that in spite of the lull in the board's review, construction activity at the compound appeared to accelerate in 2021.
Dragon Springs says it has developed 70 of the 427 acres that Falun Gong members bought in 2000. Property records show the group has expanded its land holdings to more than 1,100 acres in Deerpark, Mount Hope and Otisville, of which about 870 acres are contiguous.
Among the existing features of its gated campus are a temple built in the style of the Tang Dynasty, a 132-foot-high pagoda with Buddhist statues inside, covered walkways, and residence and meditation halls.
Shortly after the federal lawsuit was filed, Dragon Springs served notice in state Supreme Court that it would bring its second religious discrimination lawsuit against Deerpark for alleged selective enforcement, retaliation, and "malicious interference" with religious observance of the new year.
Three months later, its lawyers still haven't filed the complaint in that case. They couldn't be reached on Monday to say if and when they planned to proceed with the lawsuit.
https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/local/2022/05/03/dragon-springs-rebuts-suit-alleging-its-sewage-runoff-polluted-stream/9613173002/
