To the editor: The Municipal Utility Authority (MUA) wants the West Milford mayor and council to support their violation of Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regulations to update their sewer plan every six years, when their last update was 20 years ago. The mayor and council should not agree for the following reasons. First, the MUA says that they shouldn’t do the required update, including environmental impact information, until the Highlands Council and town’s planning board have completed their master plans for future development. However, the DEP has already stated in writing that the MUA’s policy puts the “cart before the horse.” You cannot plan for new sewered mega-home communities until you know if the environment can handle the sewage. Will the ground be able to absorb the sewage effluent? How much sewage effluent can go into the ground without polluting area well water? Further, Larry Baier is one of the DEP people who sent this sewer mandate to the MUA, and who the MUA wants the mayor and council to write. Larry Baier makes Highlands-Act development decisions, and has input on Eagle Ridge and Valley Ridge sewer and water decisions within the DEP. After a recent meeting, some of us talked to Mr. Baier about the MUA. He said the MUA will be forced to update their sewer plan. That will likely mean high monetary fines. Do the mayor and council want to infuriate a DEP official who is involved in Eagle Ridge and Valley Ridge decisions? Second, the MUA does not want to meet the mandated environmental research standards, but instead to meet old criteria from decades ago. As the environment has changed over the decades, and engineering technology and standards for sewer plants have improved, for the council to support this position is ridiculous. If the councilmen would not want to go back to an outhouse rather than an inside toilet, then they should not support the MUA’s goals for outdated standards. Third, the MUA claims that they don’t have the money to do the DEP’s mandated research. But, in the past the DEP has had both grants and loans for this purpose, which the MUA didn’t use. Also, DEP officials to whom I spoke last week, expect such funds to be available in the future. Research done by the Highlands Council and the West Milford Planning Board can be used by the MUA to save money. Suppose the research cost about $200,000 as the MUA claims. Prorated over the 20 years since the MUA’s wastewater plan has not been updated, that comes to $5 per customer. The mayor and council should not support the MUA’s mismanagement of money and their claims of poverty. Fourth, the MUA may not want to update their sewer plan because they want a mega-sewer-service area expansion, which the Highlands Act prohibits. On March 31, 2006 the MUA wrote the DEP that they should sewer West Milford’s 10 major lake communities because they are badly polluted with failing septic systems. But the MUA provided no proof of that. Two types of evidence show that the MUA’s claims are false. The West Milford Health Department’s data show that the lake communities have a far greater septic upgrade and replacement rate than the rest of West Milford. These lakes have bathing beaches which must comply with the state’s mandate for low bacteria rates. For example, Pinecliff Lake’s beach water bacteria level was “non-detect” for all tests this year. The mayor and council should not support the MUA’s sewer expansion goals. Fifth, for the mayor and council to back up the MUA’s request for support would be political suicide. West Milford voters do not want more MUA sewer plants, or the high-density planned communities that sewer infrastructure permits. A prior mayor pushed to have what residents called “The Big Kahuna” sewer treatment plant for almost three square miles of the “town center,” area. That mayor lost his bid for re-election by a landslide. If the Republican mayor, and council majority, want to support this MUA request, they are giving voters a Republican goal for more high-density town houses like Eagle Ridge and Valley Ridge. The two Democratic councilmen have already spoken against supporting this MUA update-denial several times. In sum, there are at least five reasons why the mayor and council should not back up the MUA’s request for support. Just say no to the MUA’s show. Doris Aaronson West Milford