Folly At Deep Brook

Two years ago this month, 2,500 gallons of fuel oil leaked from the heating system at Reed Intermediate School. Most of it contaminated the soil under and around the school, but some of it found its way downhill to the pristine Deep Brook, and from there downstream to the Pootatuck River, where the contamination was first noticed as a sheen on the surface of the river in Sandy Hook Center. It was a costly reminder of how vulnerable Deep Brook is to accidental contamination from nearby development. The town has spent $925,000 on the oil spill cleanup. It was a reminder that apparently has been forgotten.

After the State of Connecticut transferred 37 acres of land off Commerce Road to the Town of Newtown for economic development and another contiguous 34 acres for open space, the two parcels were reconfigured so that the open space would maximize the buffer between Deep Brook, one of the state’s rare natural trout hatcheries, and future commercial development. The move earlier this year was heralded as an enlightened use of the town’s resources at Fairfield Hills. Much of that enlightenment has unraveled in the Economic Development Commission’s (EDC) latest proposal for the tech park.

In an effort to secure “maximum utilization of the lot,” the tech park parcels have been reshuffled so that development will now edge to within 100 feet of Deep Brook and up a hill — a lot like Reed School, only closer. Community Development Director Elizabeth Stocker rationalized the change with a non sequitur: “We would always do everything possible to minimize environmental exposures to Deep Brook, but we need to be able to show the broadest possible application for economic development.”

It seems odd that the town is now so intent on squeezing every last inch of economic development potential out of its tech park when the very first inch has yet to be successfully marketed. We expect our land use agencies to chasten private developers when they place the environment in peril for the sake an extra buck. When the town itself does it, what are we to think? Does the community really sanction this kind of greed?

We have published several stories and photographs of volunteers from Trout Unlimited, Roots for Newtown, and the newly formed Pootatuck Watershed Association working in concert with representatives of the US Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources and Conservation Service planting trees to stabilize the banks of Deep Brook and to stave off siltation of the watercourse as it flows through Fairfield Hills. A similar effort is planned with the cooperation of the Parks and Recreation Department in Dickinson Park. These efforts have been financed through grants and donations and show that Newtown and its people care enough about precious natural resources like Deep Brook to contribute their own time, money, and materials to preserve them. These stories have made us proud of our town.

This latest move by the EDC to directly undermine those efforts is a slap in the face to all the people who have worked so hard on this conservation project. One of those local volunteers, James Belden of Trout Unlimited and the Pootatuck Watershed Association, put it this way: “Nearly every concern over water quality, open space, and lot configuration has been exacerbated under the new [tech park] plan. A project that addressed all concerns and truly benefited Newtown could garner cooperation; however the current path is one of noncooperation and utter folly.”

Fortunately, the tech park plan is still a work in progress that needs to be reviewed by appropriate local agencies. There is still time for the EDC to change course and give up this folly.