NORTH STERLING/WEKEPEKE AQUIFER–STERLING PLANNING BOARD, Z.B.A., AND SELECT BOARD ARE PRETENDING THAT “PISSING IN ONE PART OF THE POOL WON’T AFFECT THE REST OF IT”

The Sterling Planning Board, Select Board, and Z.B.A., courtesy of Z.B.A. member Joseph Curtin, are all behind reducing in size, arbitrarily, the North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer Protection Zone/Groundwater Protection District Zoning Overlay Map, by means of Annual Town Meeting Warrant Article 46, to promote industrial development in the Pratt Junction area at a time when Sterling’s existing Town wellfields, located elsewhere in Town, are inadequate to supply the Town’s needs. SEE three prior posts, this Blog, on this matter. Someday Sterling may want to sink some wells in that North Sterling area. If so, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection would act as an umpire and determine how much water the City of Leominster and the Town of Sterling could each pump out of that aquifer without degrading it. MassDEP has done that in cases of other competing municipalities tapping a single aquifer.

As Gary Menin, up for re-election to the Board of Health, noted recently, when it comes to the North Sterling/Wekepeke Aquifer area the Planning Board, Select Board, and Z.B.A. are all pretending that “pissing into one part of the pool won’t affect the rest of it.” His election opponent, Ms. Catalano, and the other two BOH members, Ms. Martin and Mr. Hoffman, have maintained radio silence on this issue, of course.

So, when it comes to the rest of the this year’s ATM Warrant, are you really buying what the Planning Board, Select Board, and Z.B.A. are selling???

J.G.