Protect the Partrick Wetlands
and our Community

Well Water is not the only Health Issue Letter to the Editor

The recent activity to partially ring the Partrick Wetlands with public water is the latest evidence that the Town fears the liability they have from the dump adjacent to the land and that development could create a disaster.

ARS Partners have tried to spin this as a positive for the neighborhood and to lessen the heat on them as they proceed through the approval process. The problem is they have missed a few points.

According to ARS' own hydrology diagram the potential leachate from the 32,000 cubic yards of unknown waste buried on the site could move due south from the dump, threatening Crawford, Lowlyn and Partrick Road properties' wells. 90% of Partrick and all of Crawford and Lowlyn will not have access to this new water extension and no plans have been made to cover these roads. And with good reason, without disturbance of the land there is no reason to have public water there.

But a major issue both the Town and ARS have skirted is the harm that physical contact and inhalation of the contaminants already reported on the ARS land will have. During the recent Planning and Zoning hearings two doctors and an environmental expert discussed the impact and outlined the harms of contact and inhalation of arsenic and other contaminants could cause.

Offering public water does not solve this very basic issue. The new inhabitants of the cluster development, the workers constructing it, and those of the surrounding community could be in jeopardy as blasting and excavation throw these contaminants into the air to be inhaled or settle on things that will be touched. Even minor parts per million of some of these contaminants are toxic to humans and the animals of the wetlands.

This is a grave health issue that again the Town and of course ARS seem eager to avoid. Proper independent testing of the land must be done. Finding out what exactly is on that land and in the dump must be known before any approval or conditional approval can be made by the town.

Jamie Cochrane
64 Partrick Road