17 months.
For 17 months every rain event in Upper Saddle River results in the water of the Pleasant Brook, and its connecting tributaries to run brown with mud from the construction at Preserve at Upper Saddle River and Orchard Ridge at Mahwah.
Mud which has been toxic. And might still be.
It is not normal for streams to run brown after rain, unless significant amounts of soil are washed away. There are ordinances to stop this, but they seem to apply only to residents.
The same residents who would be fined if they had mud runoff or pool water going into the street. Or streams. But what about Toll Brothers? Do they just get away with it? Or are they paying continuing fines? Now that they have run underground pipes near the construction site there is less opportunity for anything to actually be seen. Unless you are downstream.
Residents still question the safety of the soil, and wonder if their wells are safe.
2 Upper Saddle River residents have campaigned tirelessly for truth and information, gathering evidence, harassing authorities, looking for answers and a solution. The town engineer has waxed and waned with magical figures and attempted to explain why it is safe and of no consequence. The town administration has dismissed all evidence as it wasn’t done by a PE. Still the evidence exists.
Maybe an independent evaluation would be in order to allay fears.
Maybe Toll Brothers could address this, rather than keep their silence, hoping it will go away.
The cascading mud no longer covers the street (Carlough Drive particularly) but the waters that connect from the construction site still run brown.
Meanwhile the Saddle River has been freshly stocked with trout and people are fishing in the clean, clear water.
But not Pleasant Brook.
The new neighbor in town has left quite an impression.
Good article! We *know* the soil at Apple Ridge is still toxic because it was only remediate to 20 mg/Kg of arsenic. That’s still 4000x times higher than the maximum contamination level for water (5 ug/Kg) (notice the change in unit from milli (m) to micro (u)!
Please also include the new names of the developments in your article (one is ironically called The Preserve) so that Google searches will find it and warn prospective buyers of the toxic contamination. Thanks.
Done and thanks for the figures!