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Opinion: Wind farm will further ruin water in town, says Hopkinton resident

Posted 3/16/18

To the Editor: Our water is already polluted in Hopkinton...most have no idea because they do not have the money to test it and find out. We have many contaminants from having dug wells, this is …

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Opinion: Wind farm will further ruin water in town, says Hopkinton resident

Posted

To the Editor:

Our water is already polluted in Hopkinton...most have no idea because they do not have the money to test it and find out.

We have many contaminants from having dug wells, this is certain. What is even more disturbing is the blatant disregard of the disastrous combination of herbicides, pesticides, & fertilizers applied to fields all around residents homes in Hopkinton (the combination of these chemicals has never been tested).

Chances are you have a well that has been contaminated if your property is neighboring a field here. The DEC will not stop it, the department of agriculture will not regulate it, there is no one treating it with the respect this issue deserves. In the end we, the residents, will all pay.

It may be in the form of chronic health issues, cancer, birth defects, or other genetic issues, but the price is paid. Farmers are literally ruining the earth on which we all depend. The soil is being stripped of nutrients and then polluted with a toxic cocktail that in not safe and yet these practices are subsidized with our tax dollars. Organic is expensive, in part due to the lax regulations of toxic farming. The irony is too much really.

And now these same farmers, due to either ignorance or pure apathy are receiving money to install environmentally devastating giant industrial wind turbines. These industrial wind turbines are subsidized with our tax dollars (no matter the origin of the turbine company or components of the machine). These turbines, again ironically, also ruin waterways and private wells.

When pile-driving takes place it affects things that cannot be fixed, like aquifers. So yet again the farmer will be adding more pollutants to our wells. And guess what - there is no one regulating this. It is paid for by us through subsidization, then we pay for it with our health because, let's face it, most of us cannot afford the testing and type of filtration it will require to fix this issue. But let me guess...this is NIMBYism again.

The residents of Hopkinton should just shut up and take it like we have for our whole lives.

Joseph Pease

Hopkinton