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North Jersey Media Says Pollution Issue at Apple Ridge Nothing But Straw in a Storm Drain

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photos by Derek Michalski

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Upper Saddle River NJ, Upper Saddle Resident Derek Michalski, accused Toll Brothers, a land developer, of polluting his well water and the stream running behind his home in Upper Saddle River on Friday February 8, 2019. 

Toll Brothers is developing the former Apple Ridge Country Club and Apple Orchard in Mahwah.

How can you even be thinking about saving the planet and addressing the topic of climate change when two accomplished NJ Assemblywomen Lisa Swain (D) and Holly Schepisi (R) can not even save 5 miles of Pleasant Brook from Non-Stop 2 year long degradation. That little creek in Bergen County is an excellent example of what’s wrong with America.

Shame on Toll Brothers and its apologists for blaming (after two years of intentional discharged into Pleasant Brook) one clogged storm drain for unprecedented environmental disaster. Here is what was released to local newspaper by Toll Brothers: “the cause was this storm drain blocked by straw”. Truly amazing how you folks can sleep at night. And next we will hear how you fight to save our planet and our oceans.

A GREENUSR member called it ,“Such a systematic failure of local and state planning, zoning, code enforcement, regulation, oversight, accountability and government’s fundamental purpose of protecting the pubic”

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According to Chris Pedota’s of North Jersey Media (the Record ) the  BREAKING STORY and yes mystery solved! After long two year environmental pollution of Pleasant Brook/Saddle River with storm water runoff “The Record” announced today the culprit of the last incident was…………….”THE CAUSE WAS THIS STORM DRAIN BLOCKED BY STRAW” ………..Oh, what a relief!

And for over two years we thought something sinister was happening at this 100 acres of “Arsenic Field”. Thank God it’s only hay and straw and not pumps and excavators digging into poor Pleasant Brook. Mystery solved. Thank you Toll Brothers and all your faithful apologists. Now we can finally move on with our lives. Have a great summer!

5 thoughts on “North Jersey Media Says Pollution Issue at Apple Ridge Nothing But Straw in a Storm Drain

  1. You might want to proofread this.

  2. I was around when Western Union was built on Lake Street back in the 60’s. Combined the roof and parking lots were approximately 15 acres of impervious surface. If it were to rain 1″, that would mean 407,000 gallons of water would be collected and discharged. Over the past 50-years guess where the runoff went? Pleasant Brook. I drove by last week and both the building and parking lots are gone. The new construction will have less hard surface and will result in a less intense runoff and improvement to the stream flow. But maybe the wells down stream will have less water because of it too. There are no easy solutions to this situation. But get ready to dig deeper wells.

  3. local town engineers and planning boards are not skilled to match these big developers and municipalities have zero resources to watch what they do day to day. this is happening in several towns. so we shouldn’t be surprised

  4. This is the fault of the DEP, the LSRP & Boswell Engineering. Together, they allowed the circumstances that have lead to all this pollution, dumping, mud and Arsenic contamination of ground water. They will not correct it, because that would be tantamount to admitting that they made the fatal mistakes that created the repeated and abusive circumstances at Appleridge. This is an incredible example of government failure, and of government refusing to admit being wrong. It is shameful.

  5. Apparently this situation is nothing new as far as this builder is concerned. Just read the following links and watch the interview with Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel who has been documenting Toll Brothers’ storm water runoff violations for over 20 years now.”Basically, they appeared to be out of control,” said Bob Murphy, agent for the Canton Conservation Commission. ”Everything that could go wrong went wrong, and they didn’t seem to care.”

    Here is the link: https://graphics.boston.com/globe/spotlight/toll_brothers/stories/day2_bar2.htm

    ”Basically, they appeared to be out of control,” said Bob Murphy, agent for the Canton Conservation Commission. ”Everything that could go wrong went wrong, and they didn’t seem to care.”

    “In several communities, Toll Brothers has ignored or paid little attention to the environment and local environmental regulations in its rush to build new homes and maximize profits, according to local officials and court documents. In a lawsuit filed by Schuylkill Township, Pa., the town said Toll flouted environmental rules ”all for the purpose of enhancing their profits.”

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