Good for you Marjorie!! But I must repeat myself again....why bother discussing this topic since OBVIOUSLY NO ONE IN A DECISION MAKING POSITION IS LISTENING!!! Everyone with any concerns are unfortunatly just spinning their wheels.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
.why bother discussing this topic since OBVIOUSLY NO ONE IN A DECISION MAKING POSITION IS LISTENING!!! Everyone with any concerns are unfortunatly just spinning their wheels.
I'm sure this remark is made out of frustration than actual belief in what you wrote??? Things don't EVER have a chance of changing for the better if we don't keep knocking our heads against the wall. I've been frustrated as anyone but I'll spin my wheels until enough mud flies to force things to change...and I do believe change occasionally occurs.
Yes Michael, it was in frustration. And even though I agree with you, to a point, I believe that sometimes, in certain situations, we have to realize that we are just beating a dead horse. And I feel that way about the aquifer. Just look at it's history.
Sure, people's names get known around town after years of them fighting for what's right, joining committees to make a difference and giving of their time...but to now avail. Sometimes the fat lady does sing. Sometimes you have to just scream 'uncle'. Or at least you feel like it.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Okay senders you are elected to just do that!! Tell us how you made out!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Since everyone else is responding to the Jan. 22 letter, “Who is watching out for the aquifer in Rotterdam?”, Friends Of The Aquifer felt we should speak up as well. The truth is, every citizen that utilizes public water has to guard our sole source of drinking water. The watershed board was created after former Rotterdam Supervisor James Constantino opened Pandora’s box by allowing the Rotterdam Mall to be built in a sensitive aquifer recharge area. Project after project has followed, all allowed under watershed rules and regulations. The intent of the regulations are good — they just didn’t take into account the greed and stupidity of some our elected officials. No one thought a town would jeopardize its own drinking water. Under Mr. Constantino’s reign, an unlined dump was sited in Zone 3 of the recharge area, which is illegal under the law. When I asked the head of the watershed board technical staff why such a clear violation was allowed back then, he told me, “because your group wasn’t around.” And at that time, Mr. Constantino was head of the watershed board! Former Supervisor John Paolino allowed Long Pond and Putnam Woods to be built over the recharge, despite protests. The past Rotterdam Town Board had the final say on both of those projects and voted to go ahead. Unfortunately, Friends Of The Aquifer has had to concentrate on clear violations of the law, such as 100-acre dump where the first illegal one was sited, the construction and demolition dump debris being dumped by the state near the wellheads and the Marotta dump. We brought all these issues to the public’s attention. Currently, we are lucky to have some environmentally responsible officials willing to do the right thing. Friends Of The Aquifer simply does not have the staff or time to tackle every possible threat to our water. Ultimately, the responsibility for protecting the aquifer falls on each and every one of us. SHAWN SCHULTZ Pattersonville The writer is president of Friends Of The Aquifer.
Like Shawn says, EVERYONE must begin to speak up. And that means at meetings. Saying whatever on this board is fine but it doesn't come close to having your voice actually heard.
Despite all the development pressure on our precious water supply, we're not too late to prevent it from becoming worse. The water so far is still viable and we've got to make sure it stays that way.
ROTTERDAM Development continues around aquifer Protecting the water supply still a concern
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Aaron Mair points to a small, blue-andwhite street sign directly across the street from his Putnam Road home: Entering aquifer recharge area. It’s a message not lost on Mair, an out-spoken Rotterdam environmentalist and member of the Sierra Club. “This sign here is not an arbitrary sign,” he said. “In this area, the soil is very permeable and porous — it acts to recharge our drinking water.” The bustling commercial center along West Campbell Road to the edge of the Mohawk River and northwest down the length of Rice Road is the primary feeder for the Great Flats Aquifer, a 14-mile-long, 45,000-acre watershed that serves as the sole source of Schenectady County’s drinking water. For decades, this area has been the focus of fierce debate between developers looking to build on a flatland area off Interstate 890 and citizen activists concerned that any construction near the fragile ecosystem could cause irreversible damage to the county’s precious resource. Protecting the aquifer requires crafting acceptable land-use policies for the recharge zone and regulating activities in its most sensitive areas, said Rotterdam Supervisor Steve Tommasone, a member of the county’s Intermunicipal Watershed Board. “We have to make sure whatever we do, we put in the proper restrictions,” he said. “We can’t just say ‘you can’t build anything’ because obviously there’s private ownership of property.” Over the past two decades, property off West Campbell Road has transformed from rolling marshland to the town’s commercial epicenter. When Rotterdam Square mall broke ground in 1989, it was the first significant development along the edge of the recharge area. Plans for the mall were hotly contested by residents who feared runoff from the roofs and parking lots would taint the aquifer. In response to these concerns, the county created the watershed board, a regulating agency comprised of elected officers from the five municipalities over the aquifer. But despite nearly a decade of contention over the mall, Rotterdam officials approved the adjacent Schermerhorn Hollow Village shopping center on 35 acres over the recharge area. Two years later, they approved a Burger King and a 35,000-square-foot retail center called Hollywood Plaza. Development interests along West Campbell Road then shifted from commercial to residential. In 2003, Amedore Homes received approval for a 52-unit condominium development called Putnam Woods; members of the Sierra Club protested the development when it broke ground two years later, claiming the deforestation of the property would deprive the recharge area of a natural filtration device. Most recently, developers have started construction on Long Pond Village Apartments, a 192-unit cluster of apartments abutting the mall. The first phase of the project, three towering structures near an area of the aquifer considered most sensitive by town and county officials, is already up. RUNOFF SYSTEMS PROMISED In each case, developers pledged to create systems to collect runoff from impervious surfaces and mitigate the level of contaminants reaching the recharge area. When Wilmorite planned Rotterdam Square’s 800,000-square-foot foundation in the mid-’80s, they rerouted the Poentic Kill around the periphery of the property and funneled runoff from the massive parking lot into a retention pond at the northwest end of the property. The pond filters runoff into the Poentic Kill and through several drainage pipes to wetlands. When the pond fills, mall workers collect water samples to be analyzed by a private laboratory for chemical pH and suspended solids, such as oil or salt. Collecting water samples and monitoring the retention pond are the mall’s only maintenance obligations, according to representatives from the Macerich Company, the California-based retail developer that bought the property in 2005. When there’s no runoff in the pond, the company doesn’t do any sampling, said Hal Wainerdi, the mall’s operations manager. “We report there is no overflow,” he said. Results from the tests are sent to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Rick Georgeson, a regional spokesman for the DEC, said recent testing has shown no significant toxicity in samples from the mall. “If there was a pattern and there was a number of violations, we would take action against them,” he said. Similar retention pond systems were created for the two shopping plazas adjacent to the mall, but neither is required to test for contaminants, Georgeson said. Developers of Long Pond Village, on the other hand, must have a sampling and analysis program in place to ensure contaminants are being adequately purged from storm water before it filters into the ground water system, according to a set of 26 conditions of approval issued by the planning board in 2005. Long Pond’s developers were also required to give the town a 10-acre conservation easement and to pay for a major upgrade to the town-operated sanitary sewage pumping station. The facility moves effluent from the mall, Putnam Village, Schermerhorn Hollow Village, Hollywood Plaza and Burger King to a storage basin near the Kmart parking lot; a pumping station moves sewage uphill to the town’s treatment plant near Burdek Street. Rotterdam Public Works Director Michael Griesemer said the funding has allowed the town to install new motors and safety controls at the station as well as a stationary generator that will help limit the chances of a failure near the aquifer overlay zone. He said the station’s upgrades have created a system capable of serving all the development planned for West Campbell Road. “Right now, that system is top notch,” he said. CRITICS NOT CONVINCED Still, critics argue these systems don’t always work as planned. Mair said the failure of the town and watershed board to enforce their protective mandates has created incomplete mitigation systems that now threaten the health of the aquifer. He said there is evidence that many of the systems built by Wilmorite nearly two decades ago are starting to fail. He said the dikes used to create the retention pond have ruptured at times and the redirected Poentic Kill is now choked with sediment. Mair said road salt used each winter in developments like the mall, its adjacent commercial plazas and Putnam Woods and on area thoroughfares is slowly leeching into the aquifer, creating water that has gotten noticeably harder in nearby homes. If something isn’t changed, he believes the water quality will suffer. “It’s not a question of if it will happen to our water supply,” he said, “It’s a matter of when.” Mair faulted the watershed board for not ensuring the systems built by developers are properly constructed and maintained. Without enforcement officers watching out for violations, he said the board instead relies on citizen activists, who lack the tools needed to adequately protect the resource. And if the aquifer is tainted by development, Mair said fixing it won’t come cheap. Building a water treatment plant would place an unprecedented financial burden on the county that would far outweigh any economic benefits from further development. But county groundwater planner Jason Pelton said the quality of water has remained the same through West Campbell Road’s development because of the watershed board’s intense project scrutiny. “We haven’t seen any degradation of ground water,” he said. “We have some of the highest quality water in the state.” Pelton said the watershed board frequently tests the water and hasn’t seen any noticeable changes. In addition, he said, the board has become increasingly attentive to complaints lodged by town officials or residents. “People don’t understand that there are methods in place to protect the aquifer,” he said. “We’re a pretty active board.” AGGRESSIVE REVIEWS Enforcement and regulation over the aquifer have markedly increased over the last four years, said Ray Gillen, a commissioner with the watershed board. He said the board now aggressively vets any developments in the recharge zone to ensure the projects don’t pose a threat to Schenectady’s drinking water supply. “We’ve been very aggressive in our reviews,” he said. “It’s sometimes caused some issues, but we’re not backing down.” For example, Gillen said, the Long Pond project was put through years of extensive review by the board before it was given a goahead. He said the same scrutiny is being taken with recent plans to develop the former Flying W and Main Florist properties off Campbell Road; both projects have been held back because they didn’t comply with the regulations laid out by the board. Gillen said the watershed board has also taken a proactive stance toward identifying violators and fining them for activities that could pose a threat to the aquifer. In 2006, the board cooperated with the county Department of Health to fine Michael Marotta, a Rotterdam Junction property owner who operated an illegal junkyard over the aquifer recharge area of Route 5S in Pattersonville. “[The aquifer] is one of the great assets of the county,” he said. “Not enough was done in the past, but now we feel there’s a good review process in place.” TOUGHER LAWS Local leaders and county officials are lobbying for stronger state public health laws to govern land use over the aquifer. Last year, state Sen. Hugh Farley sponsored state legislation to toughen penalties for violations of rules relating to possible contamination of water supplies. The legislation would increase fines from $200 per violation to up to $1,000 per day. Farley said the bill is now on its third reading in the senate and has strong bipartisan support. Tommasone said the new law would provide municipalities with an added tool to keep developers and landowners in check. He said continued study and regulation of the aquifer’s sensitive zones, coupled with steep penalties for those who break watershed laws, will help keep the aquifer a viable drinking source for years to come. “We have to make sure whatever we do in these areas, we don’t add to the potential destruction of out most valuable natural resource,” he said.
BRUCE SQUIERS/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Aaron Mair, a member of the Sierra Club and a Rotterdam environmentalist, stands Friday near a levee near Rotterdam Square mall, on top of the Great Flats Aquifer. Behind him, construction continues on Long Pond Village, a housing development.
This was a very interesting article with both sides stating a strong case. I would like to hear how other areas in the country, who have a similar situation, develop and monitor their aquifers. (if they even do)
Before the mall and before Lone Pine and all the other developments, there were gas stations located there. And main florist was in business for decades using fertilizer, I'm sure. And I'm sure that decades ago there was nasty run off from GE. And there was not the technology available then that there is now to monitor the situation. And above all...there is the ROAD!! Pure petroleum. And with that comes gas and oil leaks from vehicles. Who was monitoring the aquifer then?
So is the aquifer actually 'safer' today? Perhaps!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Other areas aren't as lucky as we are as they don't have an aquifer to supply their drinking water. NYC has to pipe it in from the Catskills, Cohere county, and reservoirs along the NY-Pa. border. LA has to pipe it in from Lake Havasu and we all know what happened to parts of Georgia, Tenn. and Florida. We are so lucky to have this resource so close to us with such excellent water and I sure hope that the officials who have the control over the aquifer will pass the laws to protect this precious resource.
Gillen said the watershed board has also taken a proactive stance toward identifying violators and fining them for activities that could pose a threat to the aquifer. In 2006, the board cooperated with the county Department of Health to fine Michael Marotta, a Rotterdam Junction property owner who operated an illegal junkyard over the aquifer recharge area of Route 5S in Pattersonville.
Sorry folks, but in my opinion Marotta was used as the sacrificial lamb. Let's face it here, it was a concern of 'appearance' as over actual 'safety' of the aquifer. Who's monitoring the SI Group. No mention of them.
One has to almost believe that with all of the decades of the aquifer going unchecked, and our water supply still pristine, there shouldn't be too much of a panic now! Just keep it in check from here on.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Sorry folks, but in my opinion Marotta was used as the sacrificial lamb. Let's face it here, it was a concern of 'appearance' as over actual 'safety' of the aquifer. Who's monitoring the SI Group. No mention of them.
One has to almost believe that with all of the decades of the aquifer going unchecked, and our water supply still pristine, there shouldn't be too much of a panic now! Just keep it in check from here on.
Oh, but SI was talked about....their need of tax reprieve and the development(smart planning)that will take place around 5S and the thruway out there....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
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BRUCE SQUIERS/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER 
