Date: Fri 12-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-aquifer-protection

Full Text:

PAGE ONE

In The Cause Of Clean Water

The Planning and Zoning Commission last week invited the public to comment on

its proposed aquifer protection regulations, and they got an earful from local

developers who thought they had gone too far in their efforts to protect the

town's groundwater resources. No one likes to see their options limited,

especially business men and women who have the livelihoods of themselves and

their employees on the line. The proposed aquifer protection regulations would

bring a new set of limits to options for landowners located on the town's

eight square-mile "sole source" aquifer and its recharge area in Newtown and

Sandy Hook.

Everyone involved in this debate, from the staunchest clean water purist to

the most unbending advocate for unfettered enterprise, has to recognize one

underlying reality: Newtown's habit of polluting its groundwater has to

change. From the septic pollution that resulted in a $32.5 million sewer

system to the chemicals in the ground on Appleblossom Lane that forced a $1.5

million water line extension, our collective thoughtlessness in casting our

waste into the environment has come back to haunt us in very expensive ways.

The proposed regulations currently under review in the Planning and Zoning

Commission's public hearing (scheduled to resume on February 25 at 8 pm in

Newtown Middle School) are an attempt to shift Newtown's focus from expensive

cures to prevention. It's not that prevention costs nothing; many of the

developers present at last week's portion of the hearing suggested that this

dose of prevention would cost them plenty. It's just that the costs of

unchecked contamination can be unending and are often imposed not on those who

are responsible, but on those unlucky enough to live in the path of the plumes

of pollution left by others. All too often, the responsible parties are long

gone when it comes time for the clean-up.

As the Planning and Zoning Commission fine-tunes these regulations, it will be

important for it to carefully weigh the concerns of property owners and

developers who will be directly affected by the new rules. Perhaps there are

ways to mitigate the economic effects of the regulations on people with plans

to develop their properties. Perhaps there are instances where prohibited

activities might be allowed but tightly regulated. The bottom line, however,

is that our resolve to stop the pollution of Newtown's largest source of clean

drinking water has to come before the pollution takes place, not after the

fact. The proposed aquifer protection regulations at long last demonstrate

that resolve.