Water Quality—

Wetlands Officials And Cemetery Association Discuss Ram Pasture Issues

By Andrew Gorosko

Town wetlands officials and members of the Newtown Village Cemetery Association, Inc, met this week to discuss the association’s maintenance practices at the Ram Pasture, in light of water quality protection issues affecting Country Club Brook.

At the November 17 session, town Conservation Official Rob Sibley said that the association’s care and maintenance of its Ram Pasture property has raised issues of water quality degradation in the brook.

Mr Sibley has said that he wants the association to consider allowing the lawns of the Ram Pasture to grow into a meadow and also to reconsider its policy of open public access to the site.

The association, however, disputes the town wetlands agency’s view of the matter.

Country Club Brook enters the Ram Pasture near the intersection of Elm Drive and Sugar Street. The stream runs north-to-south on the 13-acre property, which parallels South Main Street and Elm Drive. Country Club Brook is a tributary of Deep Brook. The lower reaches of Deep Brook at Fairfield Hills are a native trout breeding area. The Ram Pasture is owned by the association, which allows public use of the site. The property is the location of the town’s annual Christmas tree lighting event and kite-flying festivals.

The town has issued the association a wetlands violation warning letter stating that its maintenance practices on the Ram Pasture must be reviewed because those practices may be contributing to streambank degradation and water quality degradation on the site. The streambank there has experienced “extreme erosion,” according to Mr Sibley.

Attorney Gregg A. Brauneisen represented the association at the session with wetlands officials.

Mr Brauneisen has advised wetlands officials that mowing that lawn at the Ram Pasture is permitted under the provisions of state law pertaining to wetlands and watercourses.

Ann Astarita, the town’s wetlands enforcement official, is seeking to learn what the association would do restore the property to enhance its environmental aspect.

Land Use Agency Director George Benson said the town’s review of environmental conditions at the Ram Pasture is part of an overall town review of local stream water quality.

“We haven’t just jumped on this out the blue…It’s an old stream that should be restored…We want to work with you to help,” he said.

“I don’t think we’ve gotten to the level of a completely adversarial relationship,” Mr Brauneisen said.

“It’s very difficult when we get to a point like this,” Mr Sibley said of the divergent views of the town and the association on the Ram Pasture issue.

Mr Sibley said the creation of a “buffer zone” adjacent to the stream would seek to keep streambank erosion from occurring. The “core issue” in the case is the presence of mowed turf directly adjacent to some stretches of the stream on the Ram Pasture, he said.

Creating environmental buffer zones are critical to preserving water quality, said Inland Wetlands Commission Chairman Anne Peters. 

The streambank’s physical stability is a key issue, Mr Sibley said.

Mr Brauneisen asked why the town mows its lawns directly adjacent to wetlands.

Mr Benson responded that wetlands officials are working with other arms of the town government to resolve such issues. The town has worked to improve environmental conditions along a stream running through Dickinson Park, he said.

Having a well-designed wetland buffer system on the Ram Pasture would be environmentally sound, Ms Astarita said.

The association has the responsibility to control streambank erosion along the brook at the Ram Pasture, Mr Benson said. “I think we should all work together to improve the water quality,” he said.

“You shouldn’t feel that you’re being picked on. It’s not about aesthetics. It’s about water quality,” Ms Astarita said.

“We’ve got a clearance of wetlands plants [near the stream]…We want you to come into compliance with the wetlands regulations,” Ms Astarita said.

Having wetlands plants directly adjacent to the stream would work toward the goal of improved stream water quality, Mr Sibley said. A streambank corridor of variable width consisting of wetlands plants would be environmentally beneficial, he said.

Any future dredging of Hawley Pond on the site would require a town permit, he said.

Mr Benson said wetlands officials would work cooperatively with the association to improve environmental conditions at the Ram Pasture in terms of employing “best management practices.”

Cemetery association president Maureen Crick Owen said that association members would consider the discussion held with wetlands officials on November 17 before responding to the wetlands agency’s concerns about stream water quality at the Ram Pasture.