Support for Article 1

Article 1 is supported by FreetownWater; Citizens for Health, Safety, Ecology; Toxics Action Center and the Water Systems Council.  It is not just a small group of residents.  It's about a natural resource people can live without - drinkable water. I's about saving that resource for all of us.

What Prompted Article 1?

Over the years, in Freetown there have been instances of contaminated well water or of wells going dry because of interference other than natural causes.  Most frequently, the cause of wells going dry, other than naturally, is because commercial excavation closes the fissure  - the crack in the rock that allows water to flow through- that supplies water to the private wells or commercial excavation significantly lowers the water table, causing wells to go dry.

FreetownWater wants to protect the ground water that supplies our private wells.  Most residents in Assonet and Freetown depend on well water for their drinking water.  Very few residents have town water.  Some residents use both town water and well water.  FreetownWater thought since most people in town rely on well water for drinking, cooking, showering, bathing, watering lawns, flushing toilets, etc., that it would make sense to protect our main supply of water. Article 1 protects ground water everywhere in Freetwon and Assonet - not just in one location.

This is not about any one company. This is about 5 families loosing their water in East Freetown and their neighbors 3 streets away don't care because it doesn't affect them.  7 wells in Assonet go dry and families in East Freetown don't care because their water is fine.  FreetownWater began to wonder, what would happen if we DID start to care about each other?  What would happen if a neighbor in Assonet could empathize with a neighbor in East Freetown?  What if people began acting like we were all 1 town instead of 2 villages, each unconcerned with what did not directly affect them?

Instead of leaving 3 families in East Freetown on their own to fight to protect their wells, and 7 families in Assonet on their own to re-drill their wells at their own expense and 6 more families in town on their own over an issue involving their wells - what if instead we just universally protected the groundwater in all of East Freetown and all of Assonet?  What if everyone's well and everyone's water supply was protected and no family anywhere in town had to wage the war on their own, at their own expense, with no support after something bad happened.  What if we all together decided to protect each other from having something bad happen in the first place?

This is what prompted Article 1.

Tell your neighbor that you are capable of caring. Please vote YES to protect your water, your neighbor's water, everyone's water because it's everyone's town.

Water Law written by Environmental Engineer

Mark Spear, Environmental Engineer

Mark Spear was an Environmental Engineer who worked on the clean up of various sites to ensure the health and safety of future generations. He was keenly aware of the preciousness of our ecology and natural resources and saw first hand, many times, the kinds of contamination and environmental damage that could be done and its affects on surrounding populations. In his leisure time, Mark enjoyed snowborading, golfing, biking and being with family and friends. Mark wrote this bylaw to protect the water supply of his town.  Citizens of Freetown are trying to adopt Mark's Law at the Freetown Special Meeting on Monday, June 16th at 7:00 pm at the Freetown Elementary School in order to protect the water in Freetown/Assonet.
Mark died of brain cancer on October 5th, 2013.  Please don't let his work, his efforts to preserve our most precious natural resource, and his dedication to our health and the health of our environment die with him.  Please continue the good Mark started.  Please vote YES for Mark's Law, Article 1, at the Freetown Special Meeting on Monday.

Rebuttal to Mailing

Did you receive a postcard in the mail from CCA?    

Here is what they don't want you to know.  

Their mailing claims that CCA is a "responsible business."  Since CCA began blasting, abutters have suffered serious property damages.  Does that sound like a responsible business?

CCA claims that Article 1 would "prohibit commercial excavation."  This is not true.  It would not PROHIBIT it.  Article 1 would simple LIMIT commercial excavation to above the average annual mean water line.  Gravel pits and quarry's would be able to mine as long as they do not go below the average mean water line.  

CCA says they are fully permitted.  Did they tell you that for the first 4 years of their operation they were violating 9 conditions of their permit? Did they tell you that citizens had to hire a lawyer to get the Soil Board to hold a Public Hearing on the permit renewal for CCA?  Did they tell you that large groups of neighbors showed up at the public hearing to complain about their homes shaking, the loud noise, the constant could of dust, sedimentation in their water after blasts?  Did they tell you that the Selectmen passed a new law that allows them to renew the permit without any more public hearings?  CCA had a SERIOUS FLYROCK incident after their permit was renewed.  

CCA says the blasts last about half a second. A fatal car crash can be caused in half a second.  A deadly fire can start in half a second. It is not the length of the blast, but the damage it causes to property and people's lives.

 If CCA "commissioned an “independent” sound study i.e. - they selected who would conduct the study and paid them for doing it- is it really "independent?"

CCA sites a DEP study to say they are not affecting wells.  The DEP only tested for pro-chloride contamination in wells. The DEP did not test for sedimentation. The DEP did not test for water quantity.   The DEP could NOT DEFINITIVELY say that the quarry did not or could not affect water quantity.  

CCA is one company and their mailing is intended to protect the interest of their one company. Not one owner of CCA lives in Freetown.   FreetownWater wants to protect everyone who depends on wells for drinking water.  FreetownWater wants to protect reresidents in Freetown from serious nuisance that interferes with a homeowner's right to enjoy or even be safe on their own property.  Do you personally pay rent or a mortgage?  Do you personally want to enjoy your home and yard?  Do you personally depend on well water?   Why would you vote for CCA's interests above your own?

Vote for YOU.  Vote YES for Articles 1 and 2. 

Article 1 as it appears on Warrant

End of Article 1, Beginning of Article 2

End of Article 2 as it appears on Warrant

Have a well? Protect your family's drinking water.

Would you want to drink that glass of water if it looked dirty and gritty, with visible dark sediment it it? Would you want to bath or shower in water that left black sediment in your tub?  That's what some people in Freetown are currently living with.  It won't cost you anything to help them- just a little human compassion for your fellow residents and a YES vote on article 1.  You don't care because your water is fine and it's not happening to you?  YET.  If it can happen to your fellow residents, then it can happen to you too someday.  Unless you protect yourself now.

Vote YES on Article 1.

In the Dark About Wells?

In Freetown, 7 wells in one neighborhood went dry very suddenly, all at the same time after activity at a deep commercial excavation site nearby.  Neighbors were left with no water for their homes.  No drinking water, no water for cooking, no water for laundry, no water for flushing toilets, no water for showers or baths, no water for lawns or gardens.  Homeowners had to pay upwards of $10,000 out of their own pockets to have new wells drilled.  These new wells had to go down several hundred feet deeper to find water again.  If the water table had lowered naturally, due to weather conditions or other such factors, the wells would have been likely to go dry gradually, slowly running out of water, sputtering dry rather then going very suddenly dry all at once. These wells went dry in a manner that would suggest that the fissures in the bedrock that had fed the wells had suddenly collapsed, cutting off the wells' water supply. These people literally had plenty of water one day and no water the next day. Would you want this to happen to you, or your friends and family? Right now there is nothing to say that it can't.  What's more, it could happen over and over again to the same homeowners, as long as excavation continues below the water table.  Would you want to have to pay over and over again to constantly keep drilling deeper and deeper wells?  This article would not prevent commercial excavation. It would limit how deep commercial excavation can go in relation to the water table.  It would simply protect the groundwater that feeds private wells.

Vote YES on Article 1.

Ever think about the water your kids drink?

Ensure a plentiful and pure water source for your family.  Protect the quantity and quality of the water from your well.  Vote to protect your children and your neighbor's children.  Why would any voter allow the possibility of water sedimentation, broken well pumps, or residential wells suddenly going dry? The UN considers access to clean drinking water to be a basic human right - for everyone- everywhere.

Vote yes for clean drinking water.  Vote yes for Article 1!  

Where does your water come from?

For most of the residents of Freetown, water comes from ground wells. Those wells are fed by an aquifer through fissures in the bedrock.  Commercial excavation and blasting below the average mean water table level can close off the fissures that feed residential wells, causing wells to go suddenly dry. It can also cause heavy sedimentation that can damage well pumps.

Protect your well water.  Vote YES on Article 1 on June 16th.

Vote Yes on Article 1

Freetown Residents, protect your drinking water.  Vote yes on Article 1 at the Freetown Special Town Meeting on Monday, June 16 at 7pm at the Freetown Elementary School Auditorium, 43 Bullock Road.