NOYAC CITIZENS
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Sag Harbor, NY
Julie Penny-Chair
George
Tucker-Vice-Chair Carmine Martino-Secretary
RESOLUTION
OF THE NOYAC CAC TO MEET WITH A. MARTIN PETROVIC/AND, OR, TO FIND OUT THE RESULTS OF A. MARTIN PETROVIC'S FINDINGS AT GOLF AT THE BRIDGE AS
PER THE "7 TASKS" HE WAS TO PERFORM AS PER THE TOWN BOARD RESOLUTION
OF FEBRUARY 13, 2001
The
following resolution was unanimously adopted by the Noyac Citizens Advisory
Committee on April 24, 2001 contingent with these further amendments made
thereto and approved in its finality on June 7, 2001 and stated herewith:
Whereas the draft Comprehensive Update
of 1996 by Land Ethics, Inc., said that no golf courses should be built over
sole source deep-water recharge aquifers; and
Whereas, this admonition was
conveniently dropped from later versions of the Comprehensive Update for which
the taxpayers paid around $500,000, and
Whereas the golf course will be
allowed to use--besides chemical nitrates--34 different pesticides, herbicides,
and fungicides, one of which 2-4-D is a component of Agent Orange; and
Whereas these chemicals are either carcinogenic, endocrine
disrupters or mimicers, fetotoixins, neurotoxins, impair the immune system and
therefore pose health dangers to humans and wildlife; and
Whereas in the Developer's own DEIS and FEIS a matrix of comparison between
114 homes in cluster development versus the golf course and lots show that 114
homes would use 3,447 lbs of fertizers per year opposed to the golf course's
29, 899 lbs per year (9 times as much) and 785 lbs of pestcides per year for
114 homes versus 1420 lbs per year for the golf couse (2 x's as much) and a
nutrient loading of .0.1 ppm for 114 homes and .13 ppm for the golf course (13
x's as much); and
Whereas the Planning Board hired
the Independent Consultants A. Martin Petrovic and Thomas Cambaeri in 1998 to
do an INDEPENDENT REVIEW AND REPORT ON THE INTEGRATED GOLF COURSE MANAGEMNET
PLAN, WATER QUALITY RISK ASSESSMENT PLAN AND GOLF COURSE MANAGEMENT PLAN AND
GOLF COURSE MONITORING PROTOCOL FOR GOLF AT THE BRIDGE ["Petrovic &
Camberari Report"]; and
Whereas the Planning Board never once
asked Petrovic & Cambareri if the golf course should be sited over a
sole-source deep-water recharge aquifer--one that is in the
"core-corridor" of a NYS designated Special Groundwater Protection
Area, and
Whereas the final INDEPENDENT REVIEW AND
REPORT ON THE INTEGRATED GOLF COURSE MANAGEMNET PLAN, WATER QUALITY RISK
ASSESSMENT PLAN AND GOLF COURSE MANAGEMENT PLAN AND GOLF COURSE MONITORING
PROTOCOL FOR GOLF AT THE BRIDGE was issued in January 1999, and, had only to do
with "mitigation" rather than the issue of whether it should be built
in such an environmentally sensitive place; and
Whereas said "Report" included
around 60 recommendations and safety measures, some of which were to be
accomplished prior to the construction of the golf course, and
Whereas A. Martin Petrovic
specifically told the Planning Board in
September 1998 to get a copy of the "Natural Resources Management
Plan" ["NRMP"] that the applicant was to give to Audubon
International as part of their Signature program as it dealt with the issues
they were dealing with at the time; and
Whereas the Planning Board and Department
of Land Management pointedly never
bothered to get the NRMP despite Dr. Petrovic's 1998 request to do so, and the
South Fork Groundwater Task Force's and the Noyac CAC's repeated requests for
them to do so; and
Whereas Audubon's Envrionmental Planner,
Dr. Miles Smart, mercilessly critiqued the incomplete "NRMP" submitted
to Audubon by the developer in his memo to the director of Audubon
International's Signature Program, Nancy Richardson, which Ms. Richardson
consequently faxed to Jeff Murphree of Southampton Town's Department of Land
Managment on March 11, 1999; and
Whereas the Town to this day does not know
if all of those critiques were consequently rectified; and
Whereas Jeff Murphree of the Department
of Land Management withheld such report from Julie Penny of the South Fork
Groundwater Task Force despite her efforts to look at the Golf at the Bridge
file prior to the Planning Board vote of April 22, 1999 approving Golf at the
Bridge; and
Whereas the Planning Board, in spite of
this savage critique, okayed Golf at the Bridge on April 22, 1999; and
Whereas the Town Board resolutions
of January 14, 1997 and July 1997 and
the Planning Board resolution of April 15, 1999 made specific resolutions that
the applicant was to follow which included the Recommendations set down in the Petrovic & Cambareri Report; and
Whereas the Planning Department and the
Department of Land Management demonstrated no oversight of the construction of
the golf course at Golf at the Bridge that has been going on since the summer
of 1999; and
Whereas, starting in August of 2000 until
the present, the chair of the Noyac Citizens Advisory Committee started to ask
pointed questions and make Freedom of Information Requests, including what was
done with the $5000 applicant paid the Town that was suppose to go to a
baseline study of Trout Pond; and
Whereas, said questions and FOIA requests
exposed that the Town had no notion of what was going on at Golf at the Bridge,
and hadn't attempted a baseline study of Trout Pond; and
Whereas under the aegis of the Town
Trustees, the Board of Trustees finally commissioned a study of Trout Pond
starting in October 2000; and
Whereas no one in the Town had any
knowledge of which chemicals had been
applied to the golf course and at what amounts, or the results of the
monitoring, or, any other aspect of the
things that needed to be done prior to and during construction,
save for grading and drainage; and
Whereas the Town never asked Audubon
International if it had a list of the chemicals applied to the golf course thus
far, and monitoring results if any; and
Whereas on November 3, 2000 the Department
of Land Management wrote a 10-page, 27 point memo with subheadings having to do
with the Certificate of Occupancy, and what was "Not relevant to issuance
of the Certificate of Occupancy", and what the department needed to
"Verify" ; that was to be "Verified" and "Conditions
not met" and "Condition
satisfied; and
Whereas said memo mentions: one
"condition not met", three "conditions satisfied" and 58 things that needed to be verified, among
them # 8: "Any structural features needed for slope stabilization shall
require submission of a plan for review and approval by the Town Engineer
(where's the plan?); and (#26) which says "the golf course may not be
occupied or USED unless and until a Certificate of Occupancy is issued" ;
and
Whereas the Town Board passed a
resolution on February 11, 2001 to hire the Independent Consultant, Dr. A.
Martin Petrovic to perform "7 Tasks" to make sure that the applicant
had complied with the Town Board and Planning Board resolutions approving Golf
at the Bridge; and
Whereas a study of the Town's resolutions
and recommendations of Dr. Petrovic and Dr. Cambareri shows that more than
"7 Tasks" need to be done; and
Whereas these aforementioned resolution
included the recommendations of A.
Martin Petrovic and Thomas Camberari in their final report, dated January 3,
1999, on Golf at the Bridge that they had prepared for the Planning Board; and
Whereas in February 2001 a drainage pipe
with 2 feeder pipes created a 2-3 foot deep gully running off the developer's
property onto adjacent property for approximately 1/3 mile; and
Whereas a police complaint was filed by
Trustee Scott Strough regarding said pipe; and
Whereas the Developer's Engineer, John
Raynor, wrote a letter to the Town Engineer, Thomas Talmadge, dated March 12,
2001, regard said pipe neglecting to say that the 2 feeder pipes vacuumed up
the wet tees and discharged into the large pipe. And in which Mr. Raynor imputed the runoff to topography and not
the route cause of the gully--that is, the drainage pipe itself; and
Whereas the Town Engineer, made no
mention of these 2 feeder pipes in his March 14, 2001 memo to Jeff Murphree in
the Department of Land Management after his inspection of the site; and
Whereas contrary to Mr. Raynor's
assertions that it has flowed like this for eons, it has not, as it was once
heavily wooded, and although the direction of
runoff was downhill, it is unequivocally the pipe runoff that created
the gully; and
Whereas in February there was no silt
filter or hay bale in place to staunch the flow of the drainage pipe; and
Whereas the Town Engineer, Thomas
Talmadge, had once worked for John Raynor, and it's uncertain if this friendly
bias played a role in his not issuing a "Stop-Work" Order or issuing
a violation for said run-off, and, referring the matter to Code Enforcement;
and
Whereas letters from the Chair of the
Noyac CAC to the Town Engineer, and Toiwn Consultant McLean Associates dated,
April 4, 2001, and, April 20, 2001, respectively, regarding said pipe, have
remained unanswered; and
Whereas McLean Associates in their final
inspection report of July 25, 2000 of the clearing, grading of the golf course,
Vincent A. Guadiello specifically states that "It should be noted that
during construction erosion control measures (hay bales / silt fencing) have
been implemented at several locations through the site"; and
Whereas this particular site had no hale
bales or silt fencing when visited by the Chair of the Noyac CAC, Scott
Strough, Town Trustee, and, others, in early February 2001; and
Whereas these things were not installed
until after the pipe was discovered by citizens who then complained to the Town
in February 2001; and
Whereas the two feeder pipes led up to a
tee and were used to "vacuum" excess water from the tee when wet; and
Whereas the tee contain nitrates, and the
feeder pipes acted as conduits bringing said nitrates into the large pipe and
off the property; and
Whereas in a letter dated February 28, 2001, the Chair of the Noyac
CAC asked Jeff Murphy and David Casciotti to take soil and water samples to
test the nitrates from this outflow pipe and gully; and
Whereas Jeff Murphree and David Casciotti
did not commission such simple and cheap testing; and
Whereas it was only because it was
discovered by the public that any remedial action was taken later on, after the
fact--that is, the installation of hay bales, silt fencing, etc.; and
Whereas a Freedom Of Information request
filed by the Noyac CAC's chairperson on March 30, 2001 asking for the results
of the "7 Tasks" that Dr. A. Martin Petrovic was to perform as per
his contract with the Town in its resolution of February 7, 2001 has remained unanswered; and
Whereas these 7 Tasks, were tasks that were
to have been done BEFORE the construction of the golf course, not AFTER; and
Whereas the chair of the Noyac CAC
reminded the Town that it was in default for not answering the March 30, 20001
Freedom of Information Request regard said Tasks by a letter dated April 15,
2001; and
Whereas the Noyac CAC chair informed the
town that they were in default for not answering the Freedom of Information
request of March 30, 2001 on April 15, 2001; and
Whereas the Town (Jeff Murphree) sent the
Chair of the Noyac CAC a letter that it would take until May 10, 2001 to answer
the FOIA requests; and
Whereas the Town sent a letter to the
Noyac Chair, dated May 7, 2001, not answering the FOIA request because of
litigation at Golf at the Bridge,
referring said chair instead to the Town attorney regarding her FOIA requests; and
Whereas
the Noyac CAC chair contacted Robert Freeman, Freedom of Information Law
Officer for New York State; and
Whereas
he informed the Chair of the Noyac CAC that in spite of litigation said chair
is entitled to have her FOIA requests answered by the Town as a member of the
public, under a decision of 1984: -- Farbman v. NYC Health & Hosp., 62 N.Y.
2d 75 (1984); and
Whereas the Town has no knowledge that the developer is complying with
any of Audubon's International's criteria or protocols; and
Whereas the NYS designated Special
Groundwater Protection Area, a deep water recharge sole source aquifer under
Golf at the Bridge is the best and most voluminous reservoir of groundwater on
the South Fork; and
Whereas the residents and the Noyac CAC
have lost confidence in the Town's ability to protect the health of its
residents; to protect its groundwater from degradation; to protect Trout Pond,
due to past indifference and negligence in overseeing this matter; and based on
the withholding of information has grave doubts that there will ever be true
oversight at the golf course; and
Whereas the Noyac CAC feels oversight can
only be truly accomplished by including Noyac residents on an oversight
committee working with the town and its independent expert; and
Whereas formation of such an oversight
committee has been ignored by the Town Board in spite of a resolution by the
Noyac CAC, dated February 8, 2001,
asking that some of its members to be on such a committee; and
Whereas the Planning Board resolutions of
March and April 2001 will allow a temporary storage unit for chemicals which is
antithetical to the independent consultants,
Petrovic & Cambarari recommendations,
and, antithetical to Audubon International's protocol; and
Whereas there appears no point to having
temporary storage as the site plan said there can be NO USE WITHOUT A
CERTICIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY AS PER THE MEMO OF JEFF MURPHREE DATED NOVEMBER 8,
2000; and
Whereas such memo states: "26.
The golf course may not be occupied or used until a Certificate of
Occupancy is issued." ; and
Whereas such memo states "15...M With
respect to the Integrated Golf Course Management Plan, the applicant shall be
required to specify which version of handling and storage will be used. Stand alone buildings with storage and
handling separated from other work environments are best (page 13)"; and
Whereas such memo states in "
15...N. With respect to the Integrated
Golf Course Management Plan, the applicant shall be required to make any below
ground storage tank that may contain corrosive materials to be a double wall
tank in accordance with the provisions of Article 12 of the Suffolk County Code
(page 13)"; and
Whereas such memo states in "16.
Failure by the applicant or the golf course operator to comply with any of the requirements, conditions or
recommendations of the integrated Golf Course management Plan (ICCMP), the
Integrated pest management Plan (IPM), the Water Quality Risk Assessment (WQRA) and Golf Course
Monitoring Agreement (GCMA), ...shall be considered violations";
and
Whereas the Planning Board in its
resolution of March 29, 2001 is allowing the swapping of fertilization rights
from other lands in the Aquifer Protection Overlay District; and
Whereas the developer has used up all of
his allowable 15% on the golf course and has nothing left for fertilized
vegetation in his subdivison; and
Whereas there is nothing written
in the Town Code that allows for swapping of chemicals; and
Whereas allowing this swap only condenses
into a smaller area the concentration of nitrates, whereas, it would remain
more dilute if nitrates were spread out on properties farther afield and not
concentrated at the pinnacle of our watershed; and
Whereas
a Freedom of Information Request was filed by the chair of the Noyac
CAC on March 30, 2001 requesting the
Locations, Tax map #'s, Size of each parcel that the developer wanted to swap
for fertilization for his subdivision; and
Whereas Jeff Murphree of the Department
of Land Management replied on April 9, 2001 that "The locations of the
properties the applicant will sterilize to allow fertilized vegetation on the
residential lots will be determined when a site plan application is filed with
the Planning Board for a specific lot." ; and
Whereas this indicates that the Town
doesn't even know which properties Mr. Rubin intends to swap as these
properties are to be determined at a later date; and
Whereas land within the Aquifer Protection
Overlay District (APOD) is not all equal.
Their
importance varies greatly. Not all of
the APOD is in the "core corridor" of the New York State designated
"Special Groundwater Protection Area." The 512-acre Golf at the
Bridge/Subdivision property is in the "core corridor" and happens to
be the best and most voluminous deep-water recharge watershed reservoir on the
entire South Fork, and
Whereas under the old zoning, 65% of the
property, or at least, 335 acres would have remained in "natural"
open space with its hydrogeologic, ecologic, wildlife and aesthetic benefits
intact, and
Whereas to get the zone change, the
public was led to believe Rubin's dedication of 150 acres of open space was in exchange for the Quasi Public
Service Use District (QPSUD) change-of-zone to allow the golf course,
and
Whereas
Paragraph "20" page "14" of the Planning Board's
April 15, 1999 Resolution approving Golf at the Bridge reads: "The
applicant shall submit a Deed of Dedication for the Open Space/Trial corridor
required as a condition of the change-of-zone." and
Whereas the subdivision parcel was not
part of the zone change; and
Whereas the dedication was for the golf
course and the dedication was accepted by the Town Board in 1999; and
Whereas the chair of the Noyac CAC was
asked to, and, has served on a Committee with the Southampton Board of Trustees
for an Environmental Assessment and Analytical baseline Study of Trout Pond
along with Dr. Robert Turner of Southampton College, since October 2001; and
Whereas, Dr. Turner's preliminary studies
of Trout Pond shows an elevation of nitrates from the eastern stream
entering Trout Pond, such nitrates
being of as yet undetermined origin; and
Whereas a meeting was to be held with
Independent consultants for Golf at the Bridge, Dr. Petrovic with a conference
call with Dr. Thomas Cambareri on May 23, 2001 which was to include Dr. Turner
and Julie Penny, Chair of the Noyac CAC; and
Whereas the Noyac CAC Chair was verbally
told on May 21, 2001, that she could not attend said meeting by the Trustee's
attorney David Falkner because her name was on a suit as plaintiff brought by
the Group for the South Fork regarding the Golf at the Bridge subdivision; and
Whereas on February 11, 2001 a
resolution was passed by the Town Board contracting Dr. Petrovic's services for
approximately $10,000 to ascertain if certain aspects were complied with at
Golf at the Bridge and
Whereas the Town having entered into
such contract, the results of which should be made available to the public, the
Noyac CAC wishes to see the results of the Tasks imposed by the Resolution of
February 2001.
THE
NOYAC CAC THEREFORE RESOLVES TO ASK THE
SOUTHAMPTON TOWN BOARD TO RELEASE THE RESULTS OF DR. A. MARTIN PETROVIC'S
FINDINGS OF HIS "7 TASKS" AND THE RESULTS OF ANY OTHER OF HIS
FINDINGS IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE RESIDENTS, THE GROUNDWATER, AND TROUT POND
FROM THE EFFECTS OF CHEMICALS APPLIED TO GOLF AT THE BRIDGE & TO MAKE SURE
THAT THE DEVELOPER IS IN COMPLIANCE WITH ALL RECOMMENDATIONS AND
RESOLUTIONS SET FORTH BY THE PLANNING BOARD /AND, OR, THAT THE NOYAC CAC BE
PERMITTED TO MEET WITH A. MARTIN PETROVIC TO DISCUSS THE RECOMMNEDATIONS AS SET
FORTH IN THE "PETROVIC & CAMBAREI REPORT" OF JANUARY 1999.
South Fork Groundwater Task Force
PO BOX 2360 Sag Harbor, NY 11963
Phone/Fax: 631 - 725 - 6200
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