Editor, The Spotlight;
By the time this letter appears in the Spotlight, Albany County Law B — the Drinking Water Protection Law — will have been passed with bipartisan support in your legislature. This law, which I have co-sponsored with county legislator Mike Mackey, will protect residents with private wells from the effects of blasting when the Kinder Morgan gas pipeline crosses the county. However, since it isn’t only the people who depend on a private water supply who need protection, we are proposing an expansion of the law to include people who depend upon public water supplies.
Twelve years as supervisor of the Town of New Scotland have convinced me that public water supplies are also vulnerable to contamination. For example, the Clarksville Water District was polluted with high levels of nitrates only weeks before it was to be put into use. Fortunately, a local hydrologist designed a series of interceptor wells, which made the water available to the residents of Clarksville. It appears that the contaminated water had traveled through crevices in the limestone, which is so common in the area.
Another example is that of North Road residents, who had their private wells ruined by an “oil spill” cleanup company, which was under contract with NYSDEC. After much negotiation, DEC was forced to extend the Clarksville water line along North Road — and to Upper Flat Road and Stove Pipe Road — in order to remedy the situation.
Dangerous gasoline and other byproducts don’t belong in our drinking water. Pipeline blasting near the Vly Reservoir will be very close to the North Road pocket of waste oil and could unintentionally release some of this pollutant into the Vly Reservoir. The reservoir already has 60-years-old gas transmission lines passing under its water. Adding a new gas line a quarter-mile away, with explosive charges clearing the way, opens up the possibility of shockwaves damaging the existing lines or opening up fissures that could allow North Road problems to become Bethlehem Water District problems.
Public water supplies deserve the same protections that private well owners in Albany County will now receive. Everyone is entitled to adequate supplies of clean, potable water. We need to insure that it’s preserved. Don’t take it for granted.
Herbert Reilly Jr.
Albany County Legislator, 33rd District
