file photo by Derek Michalski
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Upper Saddle River NJ, ENVIRONMENT & HOME VALUES: Does drinking water quality affect house prices? GreenUSR home values are still in decline. How about air pollution and other forms of environmental impact (100 acres tree removal, etc.). Perhaps it is time to study the following concept?
“Our findings indicate that water‐related health hazards exert a detrimental and measurable impact on higher property values, with the average duration of the warning period per sector clearly emerging as the dominant factor. More precisely, market segmentation suggests that the higher the price of the property, the sharper the decline in market value because of this factor. In the current case study, the most severely affected properties of the upper third segment of the market experienced drops in value ranging from 5.2 to 10.3 percent of mean sale price.” – from Journal of Property Investment & Finance.
GreenUSR – (Upper & Saddle River, Ramapo and Pascack Valley Communities) is A Facebook group dedicated to improving and protecting environment of Saddle River, Ramapo and Pascack Valleys communities. If you are a resident or a friend of any of Saddle River Valley communities or you’re concerned about environmental issues then this is your page! We don’t care about politics and/or any political games. Thus any political post will be deleted. Period.
On September 25, 2018 GreenUSR volunteers documented two egregious examples of clear and undisputed stormwater pollution on part of Toll Brothers. On the Upper Saddle River side the stormwater (that contains remediated soil that allegedly is laden with arsenic and lead) was being diverted directly into county storm drain (see Part I of our community reporting).On the Mahwah side on East Crescent Avenue in front of Toll Brothers model Home the storm water was discharged directly onto the street and down the steeet in two storm drains. NO SILT FRNCES were observed and NOBODY was attending the site at 4:05 pm. The only crew observed was the one working inside the model home.
Holly Schepisi immediately was notified and she alerted appropriate authorities as this was not the first time of Toll Brothers’ stormwater violations at this site. Last time our brave Assemblywoman was assisting us with same type of stormwater violations was August 11, 2018 (same violations, same location East Crescent Avenue in Mahwah).The question remains. What will it take for Toll Brothers to get their act together? After nine months of Pleasant Brook/Saddle River pollution, after multiple documented stormwater incidents what would be the next logical step; shut the whole project down, major class action lawsuit or perhaps new leadership at the helm of Mahwah and Upper Saddle River M&C?
November will definately bring some clarification but the silt, white and brown construction crust and sediment will still be lingering in our brooks for years to come…………….sad what one reckless in my opinion construction company can do to once bucolic community. Really sad……
“Despite more wells tested under the PWTA, post-PWTA well owners forget or misremember arsenic test results more often, are more likely to report not knowing what kind of treatment they are using, and are not reporting better maintenance or monitoring of their treatment systems than pre-PWTA households. This suggests serious challenges to reducing arsenic exposure remain even when testing is a requirement. Furthermore, only a fraction of wells have been tested under the PWTA due to the slow pace of housing turnover. We recommend more public resources be made available to support private well testing among socially and biologically vulnerable groups.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5204457/
Of course it well if you have a polluted well you can’t even sell your house.
A couple of years ago, during a Village council campaign, the issue of the oil spill under the abandonned gas station came up. It was noted that the leaked gas was leaching towards the Stop & Shop and the houses there.
What happened after the debate and the election? What has the council done to clean up the mess? Was there even a mess?