“I don’t think that anyone benefits from reading these preliminary — it’s more complicated than it may seem on the surface,” Ronan said. “And part of it would be that when we’re ready to go public we’d like people to be able to understand whatever decision we make and why we made it.”

Questions remain

Ronan said that a bond sale would be necessary to finance purchasing NYAW, and that the fair market value of NYAW may ultimately be determined in court. He estimated the cost could be in the range of $200 million — double the upper limit of an estimate he gave at the WASENC’s last meeting, in April 2013, of $50 to $100 million.

“If it was done 20 years ago, any bonds … would have been paid long ago,” Denenberg said at the July 16 protest. “Four and a half years ago we could have gotten started. So we want no more delays. We want to see the feasibility. We want that study, and we want to know how this water authority is going to do its job.”