Upzoning Will Protect The Aquifer

To The Editor:

I am in favor of rezoning the aquifer protection areas to conform to the E.P.A. and state guidelines for the type of development which is acceptable over a stratified drift aquifer such as the Pootatuck. Our state has recommended a minimum of one home per two acres for a residential area.

This proposed rezoning is not being singularly imposed on Newtown. It is statewide and should have been done years ago. Newtown’s and other towns’ current zoning regulations over a stratified drift aquifer pose a substantial risk to the quality of drinking water.

According to the Housatonic Valley Council of Elected Officials’ Regional Planning Bulletin #5, “It is also important to remember that stratified drift aquifers are part of a stream belt hydrologic system which includes streams, ponds, wetlands, and occasionally continuous belts of stratified drift, so that contamination of one element of the system can affect the other elements.”

With Newtown’s current zoning an proposed density, I have two major concerns if we do not rezone the aquifer areas and there should be contamination to our water. They are:

1. Without potable water, people’s property value would be greatly diminished and possibly our town would not survive as so many areas (Fairfield Hills Campus, The Borough and many individual wells) depend on this sole source aquifer.

2. Since the guidelines for development over a stratified drift aquifer have been recommended and Newtown does not follow these guidelines and contamination results, the probability of getting Federal or State financial aid for clean-up is unlikely and could fall solely on the taxpayers of Newtown.

We should all support the planning and zoning commission’s initiative in changing these laws to meet the state’s recommendations.

Penny Meek

40 Butterfield Road, Newtown                                    March 8, 2000