AN EVEN FURTHER Cabot Update… |

Jill Alexander of Whey to Go has sent me the following appeal:

Sue, could you please read the attached “sample” and encourage all the readers to send public comments? They can email their comments to Rodney.pingree@state.vt.us; Catherine.Gjessing@state.vt.us and please forward a cc: to 4reiki@fairpoint.net so that we can keep track of how many letters they receive. PLEASE help us before our wells go dry. Thank you. Also please encourage folks to write letters to the editors of these three papers: news@thehardwickgazette.com letters@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com and letters@timesargus.com; and let them know you care. Thank you.

I will add the sample letter to the “comments” section of this post and urge you to take a few moments to write to the State about this important water issue. This has the potential to set precedent regarding access to the aquifer that will impact everyone’s future.

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Monday night, the ANR held a public hearing so that neighbors to the Agri-Mark/Cabot facility could express their concerns.

Said ANR’s Rodney Pingree, chief of water resources:

The permit is pending, but we’re suddenly hearing about this from neighbors who say they’re being affected but don’t know how or why…There’s a lot of things that haven’t been documented. We want to take information at this hearing, but we aren’t prepared to point fingers at anybody. We need to get the full picture

.

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As reported last week, Agri-Mark is seeking a permit for three existing water wells which collectively withdraw 30 million gallons of water per annum. These wells have never been permitted and yet they are already in operation. The neighbors have been alarmed by evidence that their own wells are being depleted by the draw and have requested a public meeting with the Agency of Natural Resources to address their questions about the operation.

A public meeting has now been scheduled for this coming Monday, June 21 at the Cabot Town Hall (above the library), at 6:30 PM. The good folks who are being impacted by these wells are requesting that anyone who can make it to the meeting try to do so to give them much needed support.

These wells have never been subjected to impact studies or analysis of any sort, yet it seems that ANR is poised to grant them a permit to continue withdrawals. Why is Cabot allowed to drill wells without getting permits? Get over there on Monday night and ask some tough questions!

One thought on “AN EVEN FURTHER Cabot Update…”

Sue Prent says:

June 30, 2010 at 5:21 pm

Dear Editor,

Your recent article about Agri-Mark’s water wells in Cabot has been on

my mind. Since Agri-Mark, DBA Cabot Creamery, has a long history of

polluting and permit violations I highly doubt that they can call themselves good neighbors.

Who knows if the aquifer in Cabot is already polluted with chemicals?

Who is going to test for those chemicals in those poor people’s wells? What

has it done to their property values? What is going to happen if this

water is polluted with chemicals and is being released into the Winooski

River? With that much water being withdrawn by one huge company from

the aquifer, how does anybody know what affects that will have on the

Winooski River, neighboring wells, or the environment?

I don’t think they have treated the citizens of Cabot as “good neighbors” at all. Until an independent hydrologist is hired to access the impacts on the

water of folks within the protection area of that aquifer and regular

testing of surrounding wells by an independent company is accomplished,

nobody will ever get answers or a sense of security. I believe that

Agri-Mark should have to pay all expenses for all of these tests because

they created this “high risk” mess.

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