ESP’s Final Act Was A Donation To Help Future Environmentalists

By Shannon Hicks

Environmental Study & Protection, Inc (ESP) was founded in mid-1973 by a group of Newtown citizens who felt that members of the community should be more aware of the threats facing the area relative to the natural environment and quality of life issues.

While the group has remained a quite presence for more than 30 years, it has become apparent to the current membership that there are other groups in town and the area that have also taken on similar battles with very positive results. After some consideration, the membership has decided to disband.

With that decision, another choice needed to be made: What to do with the money sitting in the group’s budget, which amounted to $4,000?

On May 23, current members of ESP met with Debby Osborne, chairman of the awards committee from Newtown Scholarship Association, and presented her with a check for that amount. ESP has donated its full budget to NSA with the request that it be given to one graduating high school student, in $1,000 increments, over a four-year span.

“This will be a wonderful use for this money,” commented Leo McIlrath, the current president of ESP. “The [money] ought to be helpful to someone entering college with the environment in mind.”

According to its bylaws, the aims and purposes of ESP included investigating and finding “those means of transportation, communication and use of energy which will be consistent and compatible with the conservation and protection of western Connecticut’s ecosystem.”

Priorities for ESP included public education, or informing area residents of environmental damage associated with super highways and other modes of transportation and providing information on less disruptive alternatives; environmental research, “to obtain data on specific environmental damage and disruption which would result from transportation proposals already in process of implementation,” according to the group’s original set of minutes; transportation research, “with the emphasis on mass transportation requirements, to obtain information on both freight and passenger transportation modes which would lead to minimal environmental damage and disruption.”

The group also aimed to maintain a core membership as well as to encourage its own growth. Over the years membership in ESP grew to more than 130 members, and the major issues addressed by the organization included ground and air pollution created by the Batchelder Aluminum Reprocessing Plant, the natural gas pipeline through Newtown, and CL&P’s proposal for a more powerful substation.

Four of the group’s seven leading projects focused efforts on protecting the Pootatuck Aquifer. There was concerted efforts to protect the wetlands when the Route 25 conversion to a “super highway” was proposed to run through the aquifer, the state’s proposal to build a high security jail on state property over the aquifer, the town dump and its proximity to the aquifer, and the establishment of town and state ordinances to protect the fragile property.

In 1978, ESP was one of four groups to file a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Transportation, and the state Department of Environmental Protection for violating their own clean air standards. The suit was in response to the then-possible expansion of Super 25 through Trumbull and possibly Newtown.

Aquifer protection was a major objective of ESP from the start, so in deciding to disband, the group’s current membership decided to make sure its financial collection would be contributed to a scholarship fund that would benefit a Newtown High School senior who plans a career in environmental studies.

The co-founding members of Environmental Study & Protection, Inc, were Attorney Seth Brody and Wanda Rickerbee. Members who have remained active during the past 10–15 years, according to Mr McIlrath, include Mr Brody and Ms Rickerbee, along with Andrea Boycee, Sue and Kevin Dunn, Dick Eigen, David Epp, Barb and Tom Gates, Tom Langner, Grayson Murphy, Mary and George Ondov, the late Attorney Bob Perry, and Curt Schneder.