Sunday, February 07, 2010

Knowingly Permitting Pollution . . .

From New Hartford Online Blog: "It seems we've heard this song before" . . . The song was an "oldie" but not a "goodie." The post makes clear that both the County and the Town knew of the problems with their sewers at least 10 years before the Consent Order was signed but did nothing.

But the situation is worse than just dilly-dallying on solving a problem. Per a 3/20/1997 letter from DEC to the Town planner:
The connection of yet another 141 dwelling units (Applewood) to the wastewater system tributary to the Oneida County Sewer District's Sauquoit Creek Pumping Station will continue to compound the severity of the wet weather flow condition at the station.
Translation: Government knew it was permitting an increase in the amount of sanitary waste being dumped into the river when it allowed new developments to connect to the system.

Why were the new connections allowed when it was known that the system could not properly handle the additional waste?

Answer that question and you will know who is responsible for our sewer mess and who should pay to fix it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Umm, good question. Perhaps we should be asking the State DEC why they didn't enforce their own guidelines. Something stinks, I smell a rat.

Rubber Ducky said...

Strike,

The owner is a Mr. Barkette who is tied in with the Town's Republican politicians. He and Roger Cleveland are good "friends."

You should go up there and drive over the roads that were "accepted" under the Reed Administration. Roger Cleveland said he looked at them, however, pictures tell a different story. The roads are crumbling and falling apart.

Guess who will be picking up this tab for road repair?

Lastly, did you know that the Town plows these roads. This is more like Private property gone wild.

Strikeslip said...

DEC certainly has some 'splainin' to do.

Frankly, to me its all politics and who knows who. NH became an easy place to put development after the state taxpayers installed 840. Developers in the town were connected to Republicans in the Town who were connected to Republicans in the County. Republicans controlled the governorship at the time (and, thus, DEC). Everyone knew they were exacerbating a problem by allowing more sewer connections but they all looked the other way. When the Governor became a democrat, the chain was broken and the consent order followed.