Water is something we take for granted and thankfully, here in Rockland County we have some of the best water in the country. But, if you get your water from a well or from United Water or from another public utility that gets its water from the Ramapo River Basin Aquifer, your source of water it at risk by uncontrolled and un-managed development particularly in areas on top of and adjacent to our sole-source-aquifer.

The key concern that ROSA’s members have for this project is that the extremely minimal and limited input from experts on this project were offered by experts paid for by the developer.  Rockland County recommended against this project and cited concerns about the water.

The Patrick Farm property is partially on top of the sole-course Ramapo River Basin Aquifer and is adjacent to the headwaters of the Mahwah river. We must be concerned about how this development can:

• contaminate the water supply during development from land on top of the aquifer
• contaminate the water supply by changes in the runoff caused by the elimination of a large percentage of trees on the property
• changes in the imperviousness of the land caused by the dense multi-family development on top of the aquifer
• changes in the grading of the land caused by 500K+ cubic yards of soil being moved around to accommodate 500 units on only 200 acres of land
• post development contamination by cars, landscaping pollutants, homeowner pollutants. and road salt pollutants.

The Town of Ramapo zoning and planning department had a responsibility to demand the developer more fully address these water concerns in the environmental reviews associated with the project and pay for the town to hire a truly independent set of experts to evaluate the project and its impacts and recommend method to mitigate the developments impact on our sole-source water supply.