By Patricia Henighan, Walden
The front page article, “Project Sailfish approved” represents a sad future for the Town of Montgomery. It could also mean that the residents of Walden may be boiling their drinking water.
The two year fight to defeat this project brought together many residents who attended countless public meetings presenting many strong objections to why and how this kind of project would change the character of this Town as well as cause serious environmental degradation. The Town of Montgomery Conservation Advisory Council expressed particular concern over the effect of a 20,000 gallons per day stormwater release to Tin Brook and the possible threat of a malfunction of the wastewater treatment plant that could add sewerage to this intermittent flowing brook.
As a result, some attendees formed a Tin Brook Watershed Alliance that would take up the cause of being an advocate for this little-appreciated brook. Getting support from the Wallkill River Watershed Alliance, our group decided that if Sailfish claims to be following “best practices” in this construction then it is important to know what the health of Tin Brook is right now before any runoff and discharge takes place.
A proposal was given to the TOM Planning Board asking that this monitoring of the Brook be done at the expense of the project applicant both before and during the construction phases.
Unfortunately, the Planning Board did not act to do this. However, the Tin Brook Watershed Alliance is now in the process of compiling all the past data on any monitoring done on the brook with the goal of presenting the current state of its health. In that way, once Sailfish gets underway, we can then monitor the brook for any impacts and take action as appropriate.
If anyone is interested in helping with this effort to protect our Tin Brook watershed, please attend our Thursday meetings at 7:30 pm at Wooster’s Grove in Walden or contact the Town of Montgomery Conservation Advisory Council for more information. Remember, there is more than one way to skin - a fish!