Ridgefield Letter: APA Should Be Under Jurisdiction of New Inland Wetlands Board

Dear Neighbors,

You may have heard that there will be an important TOWN VOTE on Wednesday, September 4th at 7:30 PM at the Veteran’s Park Elementary School auditorium. Town residents will decide whether the Aquifer Protection Agency should reside within the Planning and Zoning Commission or with the new Inland Wetlands Board once elected in November.

We believe that the Aquifer Protection Agency (APA) should lie under the jurisdiction of the new Inland Wetlands Board.

Decades ago, one might have argued that our Planning and Zoning Commission was a perfectly fine place for our APA to reside, but Ridgefield has changed. As there is less and less land available for development, current and future building will create thicker congestion of residential dwellings and commercial businesses, exposing our aquifers to increased risk. Considering this, we believe that now is the time to make sure that our aquifers be protected by the most qualified and invested board in our community.

The current candidates’ qualifications are a compelling illustration as to why the new IWB is the right choice. We share some of the qualifications of the eight individuals running for IWB here: One is the current Director of Environmental Affairs for the town of Greenwich for four years and the town of Wilton for 23 years before that Another is a civil engineer Two of them are attorneys graduating with Certificates of Environmental Law from PACE, (tied for first place in Environmental Law Programs in the United States, by US News and World Report) Another is an Environmental Remediation professional with degrees in Environmental Conservation and Technology. Two of them have Masters Degrees in Landscape Architecture, one from Harvard and the other from the University of Virginia Together they have several decades of professional experience with site planning and engineering, stormwater management, grading plans, soil and sediment control measures, wetland mitigation design, natural resource protection, land-use and zoning, hydrology, and environmental conservation.

Frankly, their relevant affiliations, memberships, and certifications are too long to detail here. These folks not only share an interest in protecting our aquifers, but they have the legal and regulatory knowledge and experience to do so. We can’t imagine a more suitable team of residents to oversee our aquifers, water wells, and the water we drink.

As of today, the APA has the authority to protect our DEEP “Level A” aquifer - the public water system Oscaleta aquifer. Voting for the IWB to act as the APA is an important Step 1 in the process. Step 2 will be to change who has authority over other Ridgefield aquifers. Beyond the referendum vote to separate IWB from the PZC last year, this is likely one of the most critical decisions that Ridgefield residents will make.

Please show up on Wednesday night to cast your vote. You need to bring ID and be a registered voter in Ridgefield.

Thank you for your consideration.

Catherine Neligan

Daniel Levine

Jeff Hansen