Letter to the Community...

Dear Editor,

Clean water underpins every aspect of our existence, yet we often take it for granted.

Watching the nightly news makes it abundantly clear what happens when a community like ours, which is entirely dependent on groundwater, begins to see that resource degraded. Water-shed areas are easily threatened by any number of factors including pollution and large-scale development.

As a Medfield resident who has dedicated my professional life in the environmental sciences and studying healthy building environments, I understand how important it is to take a broader look at the protection of open space, protection of clean water, and its continued availability for generations.

There is a looming grade school project with a proposed new structure and parking lots to be built on open space behind Wheelock School on Elm Street. While I certainly support the need for a new school, I am concerned, and don’t support this location for a number of reasons, especially because this site is in a sensitive Aquifer Protection Zone and a Well Protection District given the location of two important town wells.

By its very nature, new “ground up” construction is destructive, using resources for building materials, and significant degradation and changes to land area. One must ask, what justifies building an enormous structure in a location that will reduce more than 10 acres of
contiguous open space, partially disrupt sports fields and place a sensitive and already stressed watershed and town wells in harm’s way with impervious parking lot and roof stormwater runoff, while further increasing emissions from building operations and the doubling of idling
cars, plus school buses.

In 1969 when the current Wheelock School and new wells were opened, town residents went to great lengths and overwhelmingly voted to acquire conservation land as part of a “program of land acquisition on both sides of Mine Brook in order to protect our well-field watershed from
the threat of sources of pollution.” Twenty-five years later, the town further voted to purchase 21.5 acres off High Street “deemed critical protection of the Town’s water supply that was threatened by encroaching development.”

Today, the Neponset River Watershed Association is reporting conditions in Mine Brook that are at critical stress levels, and our own Water Quality Report states that a “high” susceptibility to contamination ranking has been assigned to the Medfield Water System, we must remain vigilant.
Replacing pristine green space near town wells with a massive structure and impervious parking lots does not improve the area, they degrade it while placing increased pressure on the sensitive watershed. Stormwater mitigation measures in such a sensitive area, offer some protection but
would need to be highly sophisticated and advanced, which means significantly higher cost to build and maintain year over year.

I believe that the great education children receive in Medfield is important, bringing vibrancy to the town and families who care about our town. Building a new school is also important but protecting our water supply now and the future takes precedent. A thoughtful master planned
design, renovation and construction at the current Dale Street School site will provide numerous benefits to students and educational and environmental benefits for future generations.

Jeffrey Hyman
1 Metacomet Street
Medfield, MA