photos by Derek Michalski
June 25,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Mahwah NJ, Heavy police presence during Toll Brothers’ Open House in Mahwah at Apple Ridge construction site over the weekend.
Probably never in the history of these three Bergen County towns Mahwah, Ramsey and Upper Saddle River residents who live along East Crescent Road heard so many drivers honking their horns. On June 24, 2018 Saturday afternoon over the course of four hours hundreds of drivers drove by and honked their horns sometimes 3, 4 and even 5 and more times in solidarity with the protesters who were all lined up along the road on East Crescent Avenue in Mahwah. The protest was aimed at Toll Brothers accused by some residents of Ramsey, Mahwah and Upper Saddle River of massive pollution of Pleasant Brook over the course of the past six months. The subject of this pollution was extensively covered by local and regional media. First CBS did a story which aired on April 23, 2018 on CBS NY News, than FIOS NJ one run all day reports from the site on. Also owned by USA Today media concern NJ Bergen Record wrote extensively in an article titled “Residents want backyard stream tested for arsenic, lead because of construction runoff”.
Link to CBS story:
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/04/23/bergen-county-brown-streams/
Link to FIOS NJ One coverage:
Link “The Record” story:
https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/2018/04/28/residents-want-backyard-stream-tested-arsenic-lead-because-construction-runoff/549503002/
Apparently this matter is not going away anytime soon said Derek Michalski, one of the community organizers of the protest. We are still waiting for our Mayor and Council to show us the results of the water tests and for the assurance that appropriate Superfund is being set up to provide for the cleanup of potential contamination of Pleasant Brook as well as drinking water wells in the corridor of Pleasant Brook. Many residents of bucolic once Upper Saddle River still rely of private wells as a source of their drinking water. Many USR residents scared of potential toxic and carcinogenic contaminants being arsenic and lead allegedly intentionally released into our streams and aquifer by Toll Brothers over the course of the past six months are switching from private wells into the city water but the issue is not should they switch or not.
The issue in my opinion is the following- why environmental disaster caused by cutting corners by one of the largest developer in the country makes our residents’ life more difficult and more expensive as a consequence – said Derek Michalski.
photo above Derek Michalski and Lisa Glick
Mahwah PD cars parked in the “Arsenic Field” at the Toll Brothers construction site – a name coined by GreenUS.org volunteers after CBS run a news story on April 23, 2018.
