Dear Editor,

On Jan. 19, we gleaned a great deal during the Conservation Commission meeting on the proposed Exide clean up of lead from Mill River, but unfortunately not all good news. Clearly, the town must be a leader and not leave it up to the state or the companies that have contaminated Mill River. 

We learned that Mill River, our town's largest river, is listed on the Environmental Protection Agency's "impaired" rivers list. We learned that this stretch of Mill River is not only contaminated by lead from Exide, but by chromium from Superior Plating. However, there is no plan to clean up both toxins: in fact we don’t even know the full extent of the chromium contamination, nor will we by the time the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) is likely to approve Exide's lead cleanup plan. 

This means that we will still have an impaired river after the Exide lead cleanup and there will be another cleanup project with all the disruption that goes with it, sometime in the future.   

The DEEP and Exide have been haggling over the lead cleanup for 20-plus years, so what is the sudden emergency to get the lead out starting this spring? Especially when our town may be left with Mill River still contaminated with chromium and facing another future cleanup, the extent of which will not be known until extensive testing is done by Superior Plating?

We also learned that DEEP is now allowing almost double the lead concentration to remain in portions of the river in the upstream, more-residential area than it is in the downstream, more e-commercial area. Exide's counsel told us they don't need to apply for a wetlands permit, claiming our conservation commission has no wetlands authority over this massive project in and along Mill River. Can you imagine any other property owner being allowed to work with large equipment in and around a river, dredging sediments, without a wetlands permit? 

Let's not repeat the mistakes and failures of the Fairfield Metro Center by being hasty at the expense of doing the job right the first time. Let's not cut out our own conservation department's ability to enforce wetlands regulations on our town's rivers and wetlands – all natural treasures that must be protected.

As a child growing up in Fairfield, I participated in the Mill River Wetlands program as most public school children have for decades, and in that program, I learned the incredible value and function of the river, and how we must be good stewards to it. 

There are two important calls to action: First, our first selectman and town officials must pressure DEEP and take other appropriate action to ensure complete and concurrent testing for, and remediation of, all contaminants by all responsible parties. Second, our conservation commission must demand a wetlands permit application be filed for this project so we can properly monitor and protect our resources. In this way, our public officials can show us with actions rather than words that they have learned the lessons of the Metro Center debacle.

Sincerely,

Alexis Harrison