Doesn't believe Lynn

To the editor: Last week I was overjoyed to finally see in print, what I have known in my heart and mind for the last 40 years — that the deplorable water quality in Pinecliff Lake is due to the poorly functioning sewage treatment plants that process the effluent of 65 percent of the families draining into Belcher’s Creek. Yes, Mr. Lynn, 65 percent are on the MUA circuit and 35 percent have their own septic systems. How your intuition can deduce that the individual septics are atfault is beyond me. And accusing Doris Aronson of taking her water sample from someone’s toilet? The lady who has worked tirelessly since she set foot in this town about 30 years ago? The one who has been given awards by our town council, Skylands Clean and the Pequannock River Coalition, for defending our environment? The one who is a professor at NYU (and was, when you attended there) teaching Research Methods and Research Ethics? You, who wanted a town sewage treatment plant in the sand pit at Random Woods, are accusing her? Tell me it is not a conflict of interest to serve on the MUA board and the Environmental Commission (as you and Joe Elcavage do. And what of conflict of interest on the part of Steve Sangle)? Yes, Mr. Lynn, the gentleman “doth protest too much.” And dirty politics on the part of Jim Warden? Please. Doris needed someone to fish her out of the creek if she fell and to document by photograph, that her samples were indeed taken from the Bald Eagle Village sewage plant outflow pipe and sand filter. Jim was on vacation and available to assist. The samples were not taken after a raging storm or Doris, (68 and Lyme disease patient) would have been swept away. Doris used sterile sample cups, made for the purpose and refrigerated the samples before prompt processing by Garden State. I noticed in your ranting that you agree that phosphorus and nitrates are causing the weed growth in Greenwood Lake. From what source did you attribute the phosphorus and nitrates? Did you not note that Doris Aronson tested the phosphates at the outflow pipe? The levels were 100 times that in a normal stream. The MUA has been cited 58 times between 2001 and 2003 for violations of treatment protocols, especially in failure to precipitate the phosphates out of the sewage effluent. (This process is called secondary sewage treatment). And no sewage treatment can remove nitrates from sewage because all nitrates are soluble in water. Pinecliff Lake serves as a settling tank for the Belcher’s watershed. Pinecliff’s plants remove some of the nitrates. But plenty continue on to fertilize the weeds in Greenwood Lake. Doris has helped save us from more of this insanity by fighting the high density development of Stamford Village, Random Woods, Eagle Ridge and now Valley Ridge. How much insult do you expect the swimmers in Pinecliff Lake to take? Tell people that your lake is supplied by water from sewage treatment plants (not even tertiary treatment) and see how anxious they are for a swim in your lake. When I moved here in 1967, and had my first swim in Pinecliff, after having summered at Lake Juliet in Kinnelon, I was appalled at the clarity of the water. I took home a sample in my swim mask and checked it out under the microscope. It was thick with Paramecium. They eat bacteria. Try your intuition on that one. I volunteered to test water samples all along Belcher’s Creek, and find the source of the pollution. I was so naive, then. Who would have thought that sewage from thousands of hook-ups would be discharged into streams? Three years later, I got a return letter from Bob Roe’s office at the DEP, telling me my letter got caught in a paper clip on the back of a file and they were so sorry that I never received a reply. Yeah, right. Of course we can expect the DEP, in the person of Pat Rector, to blast Doris’ data. After all, they approved the licenses to pollute, that these plants have acquired. But we could not bring that up at the Water Allocation meetings because that is a different department in DEP. One hand washes the other, but the washwater is definitely tainted. One hand allocates the water and the other hand allows it to go, in illegally treated form, into our recreational lake and then to Greenwood Lake and Wanaque Reservoir. So, Mr. Lynn, I ask the readers and the citizens to evaluate the credibility of Doris Aronson and of the MUA spokespersons. And Les, come over for a swim at PLCC. Bring Joe and Steve. Judy Foester West Milford