To the editor: A letter published in local papers from past Republican Councilman Paul Bailey calls me a liar, indicates that I don’t have environmental science credentials, and that I skewed and fabricated data on West Milford’s environment. Below, I respond to those false claims. What environmental science background does Bailey have to evaluate my research? First, Bailey doesn’t know that when I went to school, decades ago, no university had doctorates in Environmental Science. But I took courses, did research, and had professional employment in relevant environmental areas. My background has enabled me to teach university courses in animal learning, motivation, behavior and physiology, and to serve on doctoral thesis committees in those areas. Because of that background, NJDEP has accepted my many reports on threatened and endangered species in West Milford, including them in New Jersey’s Natural Heritage Data Base. Because of my background in biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics, I was employed to work on water-related research at the US Naval Research Lab and a private consulting firm. Also, I have served on graduate thesis committees on fresh water ecology, on the Passaic County Water Quality Advisory Board, and chaired the West Milford well-study committee. I wrote the West Milford council’s evaluation of Mobil’s gasoline clean-up plan, thus getting NJDEP to modify it to benefit West Milford residents. I wrote the first West Milford grant to control pollution in Belcher’s Creek, which DEP funded for $90,000. I have gotten five distinguished awards for my environmental contributions in NJ. My statistical analysis of DEP well permits for Eagle Ridge neighbors was used as part of the planning board consultant’s report. Numerous residents neighboring Eagle Ridge can verify that my statistics weren’t skewed or fabricated, when they describe their own well-water outages during the recent drought. I suspect that no past or present Republican councilmen have gotten water information directly from those residents. MUA’s Olde Milford sewerage effluent samples (47,000 ppm bacteria), taken by Democratic Councilman James Warden and me, have become part of SkylandCLEAN’s court briefs, which support the planning board’s denial of the Valley Ridge project. While Bailey calls those data false, not knowing how they were obtained, Republican environmentalist James O’Bryant cited our data in his planning board denial reasons. He kindly referred to me as “Dr. Water.” My Democratic colleagues, Bob Nolan and Terry Duffy, joined me and others in Trenton to ask DEP Commissioner Campbell to deny Eagle Ridge’s well permit. Campbell found my data credible and used them as part of his rational to deny it. But Bailey wrote: “Numbers from the good doctor’ were so imaginative that DEP virtually ignored them,” although Bailey had never seen the numbers or talked to Campbell about them. Invitations to that DEP meeting were given to Republican Mayor DiDonato (by me), and to Assemblymen DeCroce and Pennacchio (by NJ Senator Martin), but all three refused to attend. A Republican council, including Bailey, vetoed residents’ requests to hire a licensed water expert to represent West Milford at DEP’s hearing on that permit. Although Passaic County Democratic Freeholders unanimously approved a resolution that I wrote for them asking Campbell to deny Eagle Ridge’s well permit, the West Milford Republican councilmen unanimously vetoed it. When Democratic Councilmen Warden and Nolan asked the council not to approve Eagle Ridge’s Developer’s Agreement’ Republicans Bailey and Elcavage objected, requesting to make the development age-restricted (55+), as they were focused only on school taxes, when wells were running dry in that neighborhood. Pro-environment Councilmen Warden and Nolan initiated a campaign to get a water-user surcharge tax to bring money to the Highlands preservation areas, when West Milford Republican leaders said that would fail. They were bashing and continue to bash the Highlands Act. Apparently those Republicans have not read M-Square’s water study for West Milford, showing that we only have enough for 8,000 wells. But, the West Milford Health Dept. has on file far more than 10,000 wells. Yet the Republican officials have been asking for more West Milford development, and thus more depletion of our water supply. What good is “economic development” if there isn’t enough water to support it? Republicans say that a sales tax decrease to 3.5 percent would attract folks to drive up from Wayne. If they bought $100 of taxable items in our “mom and pop” shops, they would save $3.50, but it would cost them over $4 in environmentally-polluting gasoline, plus driving time. Also, if such a bill were approved, the governor would likely deny West Milford the larger water-user funding that he is now considering. Doris Aaronson West Milford