News from Skylands CLEAN, Inc.

Protecting water in Highlands

Sunday, January 27, 2008

"Water supply, housing linked" (Page L-1, Jan. 20) should be a wake-up call to every well owner in the Highlands region. It truly is a harbinger of things to come, as it signals some council members' willingness to approve more development than the current water supply can support, in direct conflict with the Highlands Act.

What is the council's justification for approval of the 275-unit Canfield project in a Mine Hill area that is already short of water? It has conditioned the approval on the township finding more water. To that end, the town can use the Highlands Council's flawed "conditional water availability" analysis to show that water can be provided. This analysis relies on the notion that if a developer can just conserve and put 125 percent of the water used by a development back in the ground, then it can build and reduce the water deficit at the same time.

Sound crazy? It is. If more development could fix our water shortages, we wouldn't even need the Highlands Act. Considering that 60 percent of Highlands watersheds are in a deficit, this new policy provides a major loophole for the development community to exploit.

Who will lose out if the developer fails in mitigating the shortage? Only the new homeowners who will live in this development, and surrounding neighbors and businesses who might have to rely on suddenly dry wells.

Those of us who rely on Highlands water should be outraged at the council's blatant disregard of a critical water shortage in approving this project. They should make their voices heard at upcoming public hearings, Feb. 6 in Morristown and Feb. 11 in Paterson.

Robin O'Hearn
Ringwood, Jan. 22
The writer is executive director of Skylands CLEAN Inc.