Town land use agency officials are “restarting the clock” on an application from a local plant nursery that seeks to rectify a range of wetlands violations that a town inspection has uncovered at the business’s nearly 100 acres of growing areas at Huntingtown Road and Meadowbrook Road.

Steve Maguire, senior town land use enforcement officer, said that Planters’ Choice Nursery intends to present its plans on correcting the wetlands violations to the Inland Wetlands Commission (IWC) at a public hearing slated for 7:30 pm on Wednesday, November 14, at Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street.

On October 10, Planters’ Choice Nursery LLC/Newman Holdings LLC had started what was supposed to be an IWC public hearing on the matter, but at the end of that session, IWC members learned that the applicant had not made formal mail notifications of the session to the 107 property owners who have holdings within 500 feet of 140, 153, and 155 Huntingtown Road and 23 Meadowbrook Road, as is required for such a hearing. About ten people attended the October 10 session.

Consequently, Planters’ Choice withdrew its application and resubmitted a new application. The firm must now notify those property owners of the planned November 14 hearing in order to have a legal public hearing on its application.

Proposed work is intended to correct the wetlands violations by better controlling stormwater flow there to meet state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) standards. That work would involve slowing the velocity of draining stormwater to better control sedimentation and erosion, with the overall goal of improved surface water quality at the site.

According to information listed in the town’s computerized Geographic Information System (GIS), 23 Meadowbrook Road lies within the town’s Aquifer Protection Area. 140 and 153 Huntingtown Road are in the town’s Aquifer Recharge Area. The property at 155 Huntingtown Road is partially within the town’s Aquifer Recharge Area. Those areas are considered environmentally sensitive due to their proximity to the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer, the town’s sole source aquifer, which is the source of two public water supplies and widespread individual domestic water wells.

Mr Maguire said Planters’ Choice intends to have several environmental experts who have studied the properties’ environmental problems and how to correct them present their findings at the November 14 IWC hearing.

An underlying concern stemming from the various wetlands violations involves whether the residue of pesticides used by the nursery to keep its growing plants healthy have contaminated any sources of potable water. Residents living in that area draw water from individual domestic water wells.

Mr Maguire has said the town land use agency learned of the wetlands violations through complaints about various earthmoving activities, which were made by people who live near the Planters’ Choice properties. The firm is a grower and wholesaler of nursery stock.

In two May “cease and correct” orders, Mr Maguire informed the nursery that after an inspection, it was clear that unauthorized activities had occurred on the firm’s properties, including land clearing, earthen filling, grading, and the deposition of earthen material within regulated wetland areas.

Darryl Newman, representing his family’s nursery, told IWC members on October 10 that the firm is seeking to “appropriately remediate problems.” Such efforts would include controlling stormwater flow to reduce soil erosion and thus put clean water back into the watershed, he said. Mr Newman said the firm’s technical proposals in response to the wetlands violations would significantly improve surface water quality.

At that session. Mr Maguire asked about Planters’ Choice’s use of pesticides on its nursery stock, to which Mr Newman responded that the firm follows safety rules on pesticide usage. The nursery is willing to perform scientific testing regarding water quality, according to Mr Newman.

Residents who spoke at the October 10 session raised questions about the possibility of water runoff from the nursery’s fields possibly contaminating their domestic water wells.