Letters

It is a little more than eight months since the board of the Sag Harbor Union Free School District first proposed acquiring 4.1 acres of undeveloped woodland on Marsden Street.

One of the reasons the issue has become so divisive is inconsistent messaging from the School Board, leaving many residents confused and concerned. Those concerns are magnified by the fact the village has little authority over the School Board’s development plans, and the board’s environmental review only considered the impact of the land acquisition; it did not consider the impact of potential development.

The Southampton Town Council concluded that a broader environmental review including the impact of proposed development was needed and legally required before the town could release any funds from the Community Preservation Fund to support the purchase. The taxpayers need the same information before authorizing the purchase.

There are two primary environmental concerns that should be addressed before spending $9.425 million to purchase the lots.

First, the environmental site assessments “focused solely on soil sampling … to determine if impacts were present from the importation of soils from an unknown source(s).” But long-term residents recall the site being used for dumping construction debris for many years before the unofficial landfill that started in the mid-1970s.

The Phase I assessment “did not include inspections for asbestos-containing material, lead-based paint or PCB-containing material,” but recommended investigation before disturbing material that could be contaminated. The problem with material containing asbestos fibers is that, if disturbed and exposed, they can escape into the atmosphere, threatening neighbors, including students and staff at Pierson.

The second environmental concern is stormwater management. The site is a depression, and water flows into it. Installing any significant impermeable surfaces will increase flooding. The School Board’s consultants told Southampton Town that their preliminary estimate of the cost of on-site stormwater management for an athletic field was $2 million to $3 million. That is not construction of the field or the proposed parking lot, just a preliminary estimate of underground water storage and irrigation systems — exactly the sort of development that would risk exposing buried waste.

The time to decide whether the purchase is a good idea is when the site has been fully evaluated, the proposed use is clearly understood, and the costs to implement the plan have been fully assessed.

Without that information, the voters cannot make an informed decision.

Douglas Newby

Sag Harbor