Sewers in Old Lyme are not needed

Today, 10 October 2014 at about 11:50 AM I write now what I remember of what I said without notes at a Selectman’s meeting on 6 October 2014 held at 3:30 in the afternoon.

I was the third of four men who spoke during the Public Comment part of the Agenda. The other three were Todd Machnik, Gary Yuknat and Harold Thompson.

I stated that I have been a resident of Old Lyme for over 40 years, and a public servant to the Town for many of those years. I was even a Selectman for about 10 years. I do not support the proposed sewer project at the beaches.

I stated that too many of the people who are involved in this sewer project are involved because someone recruited them. I spoke to the responsibilities of the Sanitarians, who all receive the same education, have to pass the same exam, and the fact that they disagree on how to apply what they learned, depending if they are employed by the CT Department of Health or by the CT DEEP. What I said, in essence was that dealing with the DEP over the past forty years was frustrating because their employees with whom I tried to work were dishonest. I said “they lied”, and those were my exact words. I gave two examples of their lies; the first example was that after a failure at the treatment plant near Middletown, human waste was traced as it moved down the Connecticut River and east on our shore until it reached Stanhope Beach and the mouth of the Four Mile River where it polluted the area around Point O’Woods.

The DEP spokesman and the DEP Commissioner used this human waste to claim that POW was polluting and POW required sewerizing. The second example I gave was that the DEP went on to say that the absence of migratory fishes in the Four Mile River confirmed their charge. I responded that there are no migratory fishes going up the Four Mile River because there were several impoundments on that river that these fish could not get over or around. I pointed out that there were dams, shown on official maps to prove what I stated.

I concluded with a statement that I could fill a book with more of their lies.

M F Roberts