Date: Fri 24-Apr-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

edink-Earth-Day

Full Text:

Ed Ink: The Earth And Us

When you think of it, it seems odd that we have to designate an Earth Day as

we did this week. No day has ever dawned but by the grace of the earth's

steady spin. The very definition of our day is inextricably linked to the

earth; there is no day that is not an Earth Day.

It is a kind of conceit to suggest, as we always do on Earth Day, that it is

up to us to determine what is best for the earth and then to work on its

behalf. The earth will go on regardless of what we do. In the long run, it

may, through our negligence, go on as a place unfit for human life like every

other planet in our solar system. But it will go on. From the earth's

perspective, what we do is neither good nor bad; it is simply cause and

effect. So on Earth Day, we probably should not reflect on what is good for

the earth, but rather what is good for us. Here in Newtown, it turns out we

are doing some things that are very good for us.

Most of our local efforts on behalf of our living environment have to do with

mitigating our own impact on the land. On one, very basic level, we resolve to

pick up our own trash. "Lose the Litter Day," sponsored again this year by the

Newtown Lions Club, is slated for Sunday morning. It is a time for volunteers

to roam the roadways cleaning up after those people who have rather perverse

notions about "giving back to the town." You can pick up bags, gloves, and

even a road assignment if you need one, from Lions volunteers in front of

Newtown Middle School on Queen Street from 9 am to 1 pm on Sunday morning.

Even more significant is the recent completion of Newtown's $32.5-million

sewer system. In several areas of town, our own septic wastes were

overwhelming the capacity of the land to absorb them, creating health hazards

in some of Newtown's most populous areas. The public works project, the

largest and most expensive ever undertaken by the town, presented gross

disruptions of our daily lives for three years. But this spring, most of the

pavement is patched, and grass is taking root on the landscape's excavation

scars. Most importantly, we are no longer contaminating the ground in our new

sewer district with our own wastes.

The town has also secured, with the cooperation of the state, large tracts of

land on the Fairfield Hills campus for agricultural use, preserving it from

the intensive development that has been percolating in other areas of town. We

know of no other town in Fairfield County with 300 acres of farmland right in

the heart of town. At Fairfield Hills, at least, the place's name will

continue to be related to what is rather than what used to be.

Newtown has fallen short in one key area, however. Last October we urged

Newtown's Conservation Commission to begin work on formulation of

aquifer-protection regulations for the town. We renewed that plea in January.

It is now the end of April, and still, nothing has been done. The state

Department of Environmental Protection is in the process of formulating model

aquifer-protection regulations, but that effort is expected to take at least

the rest of the year. Meanwhile the Pootatuck aquifer, which underlies tracts

of land that are zoned for industrial and commercial uses, remains

unprotected.

Newtown cannot afford to wait around for the state to come up with

aquifer-protection regulations when the press of development weighs so

heavily, right now, on the town's natural resources. The Conservation

Commission, which has been designated by the Legislative Council as the town's

aquifer-protection agency, should live up to its responsibility in this area

and address the issue without further delay.

We should not think of the protection of our town's largest supply of clean

drinking water as an eco-goodie-two-shoes kind of issue that we tip our hats

to once a year on Earth Day. We have to remember we are not doing it for the

earth's survival -- we are doing it for our own.