08/30/2008
Opinions flow freely at speakout on well testing
Mid-Hudson News Network

POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess County residents at a hearing this week argued the two sides of the latest effort to mandate the testing of private wells.
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“Targeted testing is not scientific, it is Russian roulette,” Hopewell Junction resident Nancy Foster said during the speakout session on Thursday. “In our community, we have houses that sit side by side, one with contamination and one without. Unsuspecting homeowners deserve to be protected.”

Foster lives on Creamery Road, near the Hopewell Precision EPA Superfund site where chemicals were dumped several decades ago, contaminating several wells in the area.

The new well-testing bill – approved by the county Legislation but facing a possible veto by County Executive William Steinhaus – would mandate the testing of any private well in the county at the time of property’s sale. The seller would incur the cost of the test, estimated at around $600.

The public hearing was required by county law before Steinhaus can take action on the bill. But Steinhaus wasn’t at the meeting to offer his own comments on the issue, and his absence angered many who attended.

Another Creamery Road resident, Anne Kover, argued that if a similar law had been passed 20 years ago, before the chemical TCE, was found in her well, her teenage son wouldn’t have the neurological disorders from which he suffers.

Her son, Matthew Kover, 18, also spoke at the hearing.

“My mom knows there are some things I can and can’t do,” he said, struggling to get his words out.

“If you pass this bill,” he said, as if speaking to Steinhaus, “there won’t be other kids like me.”

Comments against the bill also were made at the hearing.

“There is no scientific basis for this law. This is not helping those who aren’t selling homes,” said East Fishkill resident Joseph Petinella.

LaGrange resident James Hanson said residents shouldn’t be saying “the sky is falling when it’s not.”

Hanson said science “should be the dictating force here, not emotion, not passion. If we have an issue, then we need to address it.”

Hanson also said that if homeowners are concerned about their wells, they can have them tested on their own.

“I think it’s incumbent upon you, if you have this fear, to take this upon yourselves,” he said. “This is not supposed to be a mandated item.”