The following article is written by Ken Dufty.
Do we need to start talking about the impact on the aquifer that the HRSD project could cause? No one is talking about it. What are the true implications of dewatering our aquifer? Have we learned nothing from watching the pump down of the Potomac starting in 1946 after the formation of the HRSD and the first project at the Navy Base? A 220 foot drop in that aquifer and now they have to flush their toilets into their drinking water, claiming they can “pump” the land back up to combat saltwater intrusion because they did not monitor what was happening as they developed on steroids because there was no barrier regarding wastewater disposal.
That aquifer had hundreds of trillions of gallons of water in it, is thousands of feet thick, and stretches from Georgia to New Jersey. And they overpumped it and had to build a 500 million dollar pipe from Lake Gaston so they could survive and grow to another day where they again resumed theirs overpumping.
The ESVA draws from a cereal bowl-like finite water supply formed partially by a meteor strike. The water we drink from the Yorktown-Eastover complex took 10-30,000 years to perk down there through the confining units. We need to adopt and implement the recommendations in the HFESVA report in real-time…like now.
Many on the shore share these concerns and are troubled that the aquifer issue is not being talked about or factored into planning discussions.
For more data and information, read the USGS publication Hydrogeologic Framework of the Virginia Eastern Shore.
Exmore is being told that because they are in the Paleo channel, there is absolutely no issue with the availability of groundwater. However, as an HFESVA report documents, the paleo channel is a conduit for saltwater intrusion and actually cuts across three aquifers.
While the recent water quality report found chloride levels at 14mg/l +/- in Exmore’s drinking water. The report also cautions that because of the rate of transmissivity in the Upper and middle Yorktown, we are only seeing saltwater intrusion from pre-development timeframes. Thus, we should not be whistling past the hydrogeological graveyard and should be pursuing the report’s recommendation on page 24, last paragraph.
Indeed, I have about given up speaking to the Planning Commission and the BOS because I am speaking to a stopwatch and a gavel.
Like many of you, I have been doing this work for a very long time, and for nearly a decade as chief advisor to the Republican majority of the Rensselaer County Legislature in Troy, NY. Not once did they ever silence a constituent who took the time to come to the monthly meetings, warning them they only have 3 minutes and then countering what they said after they speak, not giving them a chance to respond because they blew out their time limit at the mike. And now both county governing/advisory bodies have decided they will no longer read into record citizens’ comments that were sent in through the mail or the net. They simply dismiss them by saying “they are part of the record”
About the Author
Very well written, but truly, I do believe that Mr. Dufty is talking to a wall.
I personally can vouch for the fact that he was very effective at protecting the RIGHTS of common citizens without HUGE COIN in their pockets or political clout to have their voices heard on matters of public concern related to environmental harm, and no, Mr. Dufty was not a “tree hugger,” a derogatory term applied by ******* idiots to those who have concerns about a tomarrow that always come around, like chickens coming back home to roost.
Twice, Mr. Dufty forced the corrupt New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the chief threat to our environment here to the north of you, to have to hold public hearings where common citizens not only were afforded the opportunity to present evidence and expert witness testimony, but more importantly, the opportunity to cross-examine the “experts” the state was relying on to support the issuance of permits that would have adversely impacted the residents of the areas where the permits were issued.
Because of Mr. Dufty’s efforts at EDUCATING the citizens not only as to their rights, but more importantly, how to insure those rights through these hearings, one permit was modified to protect the citizens and one permit already issued in draft form was revoked, something that in my experience had never happened before, and hasn’t happened since, because when Mr. Dufty left this area, enforcement of citizen’s rights left with him.
Now, if we are dissenters, we don’t even get three minutes!
We get nothing at all, because our voices are silenced.
We can present all the evidence we want and it gets ignored.
There are no public hearings.
What happens is conducted on ZOOM, where you need a password in advance from the DEC (deceit and endemic corruption) to attend, and if you are a dissenter, you don’t get a password, which means you are out in the cold.
If you do get a password, that is largely worthless because there is a mute function on ZOOM where you don’t get to speak, only listen.
So there is no challenge, no ability to cross-examine, and thus, no equal protection or due process.
And now, you people are getting a dose of the same from the sounds of things.
Here is the model from corrupt Democrat-controlled NYS that the Planning Commission and the BOS down here need to adopt so they don’t even have to look at Mr. Dufty, let alone listen to him, or anybody else, for that matter, simply freeze him out by not giving him the link, and that will fix him but good for daring to disagree with the narrative being peddled by the Planning Commission and the BOS:
February 22, 2022 @ 11:58 AM
TO: Brittany O’Brien-Drake, NYSDEC (Destroyers of the Environment and Communities)
Subject: Project update in Poestenkill.
Hello Brittany.
The single link to the Zoom is below.
You’ll need to register to get the link.
The host will have everyone muted except for the speaker(s), as I previously mentioned.
He tells me this will work.
Best,
Greg
end quotes
And yes, it works great for keeping out the riff-raff and troublemakers who dare to question the narrative, so it would be a sure cure for troublemakers like Ken Dufty to shut him the hell up.
yes, in the beginning all the powers that be were saying that the HRSD sewer would NOT bring more development since the Shore is losing people , has not grown for ages, and this is not going to happen…and yet ..Rob’s reasoning for asking for money from Gen
Assembly etc and the reasoning of the people who spoke at the court in favor of HRSD ,SAID it was for economic development on the Shore……….doesn’t that mean MORE people? And thus more houses…affordable or not….and thus more use of water.! ……. our precious water..the drinking kind….No moves have been made for new housing and business buildings to incorporate a gray water system into the new building plans…..and thus REUSE water …this is done all over the world..and this is an ideal place to do just that…There could be a chance that with HRSD every residence and commercial building with an individual drilled well ( those using a water tower source will already be monitored)
will have a water meter on it…and thus HRSD can deduce the from the water input reading how much effluent would have to be treated and thus,, your charge from HRSD . Be creative….how can you use less water? Don’t wait until you are charged for it..!!! The aquifer is there and is being monitored, whether you can SEE it or not!!…Just ask those in Virginia Beach who were there years ago when they ran out of water!!!!! sandra Beerends.. franktown va. . 1, 2022……great article ..hopefully will make us “think”….and hopefully ACT in a positive way.
“Every nation gets the government it deserves.”
– Joseph de Maistre
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“The government you elect is the government you deserve.”
― Thomas Jefferson