Preservation of Granite Pointe Site is Crucial to Protect Area Drinking Water
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Regina Blakeslee and Edward Levine
The recent Stone’s Throw investigative report on the long, complex history of Granite Pointe, the forested promontory of 28.8 acres wrapped on three sides by Amawalk Reservoir and granted final subdivision approval by the Town of Somers to be converted into a 23-unit one-acre “clustered” housing subdivision, was both revealing and alarming.
The fact that “approximately 35,000 Yorktown and 2,500 Somers residents” depend on and pay for Amawalk’s municipal water to be delivered to our homes should have residents up in arms about what is going on within Somers borders – on this beautiful land that juts into and buffers our primary local drinking water supply.
We assume that water filtration plants are removing all of the impurities in our water, and therefore, we don’t have to worry about our tap water. This is a false premise because science tells us that forests of old-growth, with significant trees and diverse plants, play a crucial role in maintaining water quality. They do this naturally by absorbing and filtering pollutants, such as excess nutrients and sediment from runoff, preventing both from entering and degrading the drinking water supply.
In case you missed the article, The Examiner provided a vital service to our communities through its in-depth, eye-opening investigative report on Granite Pointe, published both on the web https://www.theexaminernews.com/concerns-linger-over-granite-pointe-project-preservation-on-the-table/ and in a magazine-style insert, https://www.theexaminernews.com/archives/westchester/Examiner12-5-23-ST.pdf.
As the investigative report on Granite Pointe pointed out, Northern Westchester Joint Water Works (NWJWW) and other area treatment plants remove a wide range of contaminants to ensure safe and clean water for Yorktown and Somers residents. These man-made filtration plants are necessary and effective.
However, doesn’t it make sense to have forests providing a first line of defense? Forests give off oxygen and absorb air pollutants, provide shade, cool the water and air temperature and serve as needed habitat and food web sources for terrestrial and marine wildlife. They keep the water fresh and clean for human consumption and for fish and other aquatic life. In other words, they help maintain fresh water quality and biodiversity. They are vital to a watershed!
We need natural filtration services and man-made filtration to ensure fresh, clean safe drinking water. Harmful algal blooms are dramatically overtaking our drinking water reservoirs, increasing in size every year. They are the thick green muck you see at the water surface in warmer months, as you drive along the New Croton and Amawalk reservoirs.
Algal blooms kill aquatic life and release toxins that contaminate our water and cause illness in humans and animals. Just as our medical system is finally learning that it is as important to prevent illness as to treat it, we are learning from forests and water how vital it is to protect the health that is still there.
Protecting and preserving 28.8 forested acres of a panoramic promontory that juts into our primary drinking water supply is ethically the right thing to do. A wooded habitat, adjacent on three sides to a local drinking water supply, is not a suitable land parcel for the Town of Somers or any town to give away for conversion to a large, “clustered” housing subdivision.
It would be sinful to allow another housing development with its extensive lawns, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, leaf blowers and lawn mowers to be built adjacent to a public water supply. How can residents support action like this that will only further degrade water quality and imperil environmental and public health?
Increased drinking water pollution equates to increased costs for residents, as new and more sophisticated water treatment plants with more harmful chemicals, more equipment, and more personnel will be required to comply with water quality regulations.
Now is the time for concerned residents in Yorktown and Somers to contact their elected state, county and town officials and let them know that immediate steps must be taken to purchase this land known as Granite Pointe from the owner/developer in order to preserve Amawalk Reservoir for current and future generations and for all living things.
Regina Blakeslee and Edward Levine are Yorktown Heights residents.
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