Health, Safety & the Environment

According to journalist Larry Seltzer, there are new “social networking” sites that are harvesting our children’s personal identifying information (“PII”) and using that information for suspect commercial purposes.  One such company, called Tagged, which Seltzer describes in his article as a MySpace wannabee, blatantly exploits teenagers.  The article should be required reading for those of us concerned about the inappropriate use of personal information transmitted over the Internet on this type of site.  During registration, users of Tagged are required to provide information concerning their demographics and consumer behavior, such as eye color, style, personality type, favorite color, sport, food, activity or TV show, post-graduation plans or graduation year.  Eye color? It is all extremely creepy, particularly as Tagged’s contractual Terms of Service make clear that Tagged ”…..may share the e-mail address and/or other personally identifiable information of any registered user with third parties for marketing purposes……and with parties to target advertising”. Worse, these third-parties can insert tracking devices into your PC, referred to as pixel tags, to gather additional information and sell the information they collect.  All of the social networking sites have intrusive and privacy invasive aspects.  Some are just a whole lot worse than the others.  Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to come-ons from these sites particularly when an invitation to participate appears to come from a trusted friend.  This is not generally the case!

Thanks to a broad grassroots coalition, Connecticut’s legislature passed the “Complete  Streets” bill this week, which will hopefully make it easier and safer for people to get around by foot and by bike.  CTLCV offered thanks in a blog posting yesterday to everyone who was involved in bringing about this legislation.  The bill’s advocates included the Commission on Children, the Central Connecticut Bicycle Association, and the Tri State Transportation Campaign.  Representative Tom Kehoe (Glastonbury), the main backer of the bill, and Senator Don DeFronzo (New Britain) and Representative Tony Guerrera (Rocky Hill), co-chairs of the Transportation Committee, who supported it, should get recognition as well.  The important message here is that we all can make a difference in Connecticut by becoming involving on issues that are important to us.

Higher prices at the pump should not be our only motivation to make our streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.  Part of what we love about living in  Connecticut, particularly when the weather improves and the days become longer,  is being able to bicycle around the community to do errands and visit friends.  Unfortunately, more can be done to make cycling and walking safer.  Keeping our roads  safe and accessible to cyclists and pedestrians should be an important consideration in project planning and development.  A small step in the right direction is “Complete Streets” Bill, SB 735, which is pending before the Connecticut legislature.  Our legislators need to get behind the “share the road” concept to encourage cycling and walking, not only because it is energy efficient activity, but because being able to bicycle and walk  improves our quality of life.  Each year, billions of dollars are invested across the United States in infrastructure and transportation projects.  Transportation For America recognizes that how this money is spent today will affect our quality of life for generations to come.  Our representatives in Hartford should recognize that Connecticut’s future depends upon thoughtful long-range planning.  The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters (“CTLCV”)  is partnering with Transportation For America to educate Connecticut about  smart transportation options that make Connecticut greener, cleaner and healthier.  We all need to let our representatives know that we care about this issue.

The Stamford Advocate reported recently that area residents are concerned about the potential toxicity of compost obtained from the Scofieldtown recycling center in North Stamford.  On-line gardening resources in lower Fairfield County have long touted the recycling center as a terrific source of unlimited free compost. The compost has been used in vegetable gardens throughout the area. According to the Advocate, the City shut down Scofieldtown Park, which is adjacent to the compost site, after tests reveals PCBs and other contaminants in the soil.  City officials gave assurances with a “very high level of confidence” that the composting material contained no contamination, but without offering comfort that there “are no contaminants of any kind”.  Muncipalities have a bad track record in the United States when it comes to re-using former landfill property.  Facilities including public schools, public parks and low-income housing developments have experienced potential health and safety issues because they were built, often without the knowledge of town residents, on old waste dumps.  This is not to suggest that  Scofieldtown compost is not as pure as mother’s milk.  However, until tests are performed across the entire compost area, no one will know for sure whether the area has been adversely impacted by the contaminants identified in the neighboring parcel..

Greenwich Times reported on 5/23/09 that parents of students at Western Middle School in Greenwich become enraged when school officials recommended cancelling the eighth grade field trip to Washington D.C., a traditional rite of passage at Greenwich middle schools.  School officials were acting on the recommendation of local and state health officials, and an independent health expert, who expressed concern about the spread of swine flu virus on the trip after a sixth grade student was diagnosed with the illness.  The view expressed by  some parents was that if their kids were going to be around other children anyway, better to exposed to flu gaping at our nation’s historic monuments. One mom said, “If you keep school open, you have kids [who may have been infected] sharing the same cafeteria, the same music room, the same gymnasium, so they’re much more likely to get sick. They’d be better off getting them out to Washington, D.C.”  What can these parents be thinking?   The Greenwich teachers who accompany the children to Washington,  D.C. should not be forced into the position of medical caretakers in the event that children were to become ill on the trip.  Having one, let alone several, children suffering from flu in a D.C. hotel (where the kids on these trips are bunked several to a room dorm style) places teachers in the  untenable position of dealing with a contingency for which they were not trained and  should not be required to suffer through.  If a child becomes sick at school, he or she can be taken care of at home.  If a child develops flu in D.C., the options are very different.  In this morning’s Time, a parent was justifiably upset at the loss of the several hundred dollars he had laid out for his child’s trip.  However regrettable this financial loss, the Town has acted responsibly and correctly.  Forget the legal liability issue.  It’s about personal responsibility!  As members of the Greenwich community, we all have an obligation to think about how our actions potentially affect others and to act accordingly.  Earlier in the week,  school officials  were informed too late that a student tested positive for an unknown strain of flu (which turned out to be swine flu) had been permitted by his parents to join classmates on a sixth-grade field trip.  Unfortunately, neither the child’s physician nor parents informed the school that the boy was ill.   I am sure that the sixth grader in question pleaded with his parents to be permitted to attend the field trip (or maybe the field trip took place on the au pair’s day off), but in these situations personal responsibility demands that we all think about how our actions can influence others.  The child should have stayed home from school and the school should have been alerted.  Greenwich is a wonderful community. It would be an even more wonderful community if we all supported our school officials when they have to make their most painful  decisions on health and safety issues and if we, as parents, recognized that we have duties and obligations as citizens that we can’t ignore….ever!

For mass transit to work along the U.S. 95 corridor between Greenwich and New Haven, it must be quick, reliable and reasonable in cost.  Commuters who presently drive to work are not going to lured from the expressway if there isn’t plentiful covered parking at the trains stations (for inclement weather) where they park and reliable bus service on the other end to convey them to their office buildings.  I agree with Lile Gibbons, Greenwich’s state representative, when she offers her support for installing EZPass tolls along Connecticut’s highways.  But I part company with Ms. Gibbons when she urges that toll monies collected be deposited into the state transportation fund to improve our highways.  Well-maintained highways are certainly necessary to the public welfare and Connecticut’s highways could use the money.  But imagine what it will be like 10 years from now sitting in traffic on U.S. 95 if there is no improvement in mass transit!  No matter how much toll money is collected, U.S. 95 will remain a nighmare until drivers find another means of getting to work.  Toll monies should be placed in a fund dedicated to improving mass transit and getting us off U.S. 95.  If the State is going to tax drivers  for using the highways, it might as well put the money to judicious use.  It will take enormous political will and leadership from Hartford to commit to improving mass transit, but as conditions increasingly worsen on the roads, what alternative do we have?

In January, the Greenwich Planning & Zoning Commission (“P&Z”) denied a proposal by Aquarion Water Co. of Connecticut (“Aquarion”) to expand the size of an existing, but aging, water tank and construct a chemical storage facility at its Putnam Water and Filter Plant on DeKraft Road in mid-country Greenwich.  Aquarion is appealing the P&Z’s decision to the Department of Public Utility Control (“DPUC”), which regulates rates and services of Connecticut utilities.  According to Aquarion, the ancient 1920′s era plant and clearwell holding tank are far below industry standards and cannot adequately serve the 52,000 people the utility services in Greenwich and Westchester.  Aquarion’s Press Release indicates that the proposed work will cost some $25,000,000.  For their part, area homeowners believe the proposed facility is too large for the existing site on Butternut Hollow Road and that their homes are not adequately shielded from the proposed expansion.  Based upon the facts reported in this morning’s Greenwich Time, it is fairly clear that Aquarion has a legitimate need to upgrade its operation to better service the community.  However, there is a perception, accurate or not, that Aquarion has not been responsive to the homeowners’ concerns on the plant issue.  Our experience in these types of disputes is that effective corporate communication and outreach can go a long way to resolving homeowner disputes.  First Selectman Peter Tesei has asked DPUC to deny Aquarion’s appeal of P&Z’s ruling.  Tesei was troubled that there had never been effective dialogue between Aquarion and its neighbors.  Did Aquarion “reach out” to the Town, an important stakeholder,  before Tesei came out on the side of the residents?  George Logan, Aquarion’s embattled Director of Capital and Planning, apparently did meet with the Town and neighbors before the P&Z plans were filed and, according to Logan, Aquarion’s proposed plan was modified as a result of that meeting.  However, if this plant expansion is as important as Aquarion claims it to be, the Company should be doing a better job of listening and communicating.  At the very least, establishing a better record of communication with residents would be helpful from an Aquarion public relations standpoint. Arguments in the case begin Thursday at DPUC’s offices in New Britain, far from Butternut Hollow Road.  It is unfortunate for both Greenwich homeowners and Aquarion that the resolution of the problem has been taken out of their hands and given over to the lawyers upstate.  An opportunity for effective dialogue with homeowners in Greenwich has apparently been lost, at least for the present.  Disputes over the siting of facilities or the expansion of existing facilities can often be effectively addressed through dialogue.  We all have an interest in receiving plentiful and affordable water in our community.  Let’s work harder to resolve these issues through face-to-face negotiaton.