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Residents oppose pumping station application
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - May 15, 2008)
The zoning board hearing of an application by United Water to expand an existing water tank site entered its fourth month Wednesday and continues to draw an unwavering crowd of opposition.
Residents of the area known as “Upper Montvale” were notified of the application to house a pumping station and a 155-gallon tank to store a disinfectant in January and have opposed it ever since. To argue their side – that the expansion is not only not unnecessary but also inappropriate for the residential neighborhood, comprised of streets including Hickory Hill, Partridge Run and Sunrise Drive – nearly 200 of them have joined forces as a grassroots organization called Montvale Cares.
“We’re not having any of it,” said Pam Smith, an
Upper Montvale resident and president of Montvale Cares, in an interview before the zoning board meeting of May 14.
According to United Water, the need for the expansion of the site dates back to 1959, when the water tank was erected on Chestnut Ridge Road near Summit Avenue to supply Montvale residents with water. The tank used no pumps, transporting water to lower grades by gravity; at the time, there were no homes at a higher elevation.
When homes were built at higher grades in the following decades, the water company was granted a permit to supply Upper Montvale with water from
Rockland
County on the condition that
Rockland have a water surplus.
United Water’s director of operations, Gary Harstead, has testified that
Rockland
County now has a water deficit and suspects that New York could revoke the utility’s permit, cutting off
Upper Montvale ’s water supply.
However, there has been no formal threat of revoking the permit and cutting off water, prompting
Upper Montvale residents to ask, “Why now?”
“What company is that proactive that they’ll spend so much money when they don’t have to?” asked Smith. “That really sent a signal that this was a much larger project than they were [letting] on. We got organized, had a meeting and decided to fight this the right way.”
Montvale Cares hired Strasser & Associates, a Paramus-based law firm, to represent them. Instead of showing up at monthly zoning board meetings “with our fists in the air,” said Smith, area residents now have professionals asking questions about the application on their behalf. Smith hopes that Montvale Cares can convince the planning board that United Water does not have the best interests of the residents in mind.
As an example, Smith cites the inclusion of a tank to store sodium hypochlorite, a disinfectant similar to but stronger than household bleach, in a double-walled tank in the application.
United Water representatives have testified that water in the tank is currently disinfected periodically by manually adding the bleach solution, which is transported to the site by a pickup truck.
But Smith said that the utility has failed to provide records of ever having delivered chlorine to the tank.
United Water maintains that the only intention in this application is to anticipate a potentially serious problem – no water reaching the residents of
Upper Montvale .
“We are a responsible utility who wants to serve Montvale the best it can,” said United Water attorney Daniel Gielchinsky when the hearing began on Jan. 30. “This proposal is smart and appropriate planning. The writing is on the wall.”
But according to Smith and other residents, the project, if approved, will change the look and feel of the neighborhood, decrease property values, and pose a safety hazard.
“We just feel that it’s way overkill,” she said. “This type of facility does not belong next to homes.”
The next meeting of the Montvale Planning Board is scheduled for Wednesday, May 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
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