To the editor: At the January 10 Highlands Council hearing many West Milford residents protested the designation of 10 West Milford lake communities with purple blotches on the Regional Master Plan map, to become high-density “Planned Communities” with infrastructure upgrades (e.g., sewer hookups, estimated to cost $25,000 per homeowner). After four of us testified against the purple blotches, the meeting chair responded: “Those areas were requested by the township.” As the Highlands Act’s goal is water-quality protection, and as high-density development yields impervious surface with polluted storm-water runoff, and as West Milford is 100 percent in the Act’s “Preservation Area,” something smelled fishy, and not the kind living in the lakes. At that evening’s council meeting, I reported on the hearing, and asked: “Is the supposedly pro-environment political majority on Council double-talking the residents, or is planning director Bill Drew doing his own thing?” In their lengthy response, all councilmen said they knew nothing about the West Milford request, and that they would investigate. That night I reviewed a March 31, 2006 letter from my files, written by Diane Paretti, West Milford MUA Executive Director, which appeared to shed light on the purple blotches. The letter begins with Ms. Paretti’s request for an update of West Milford’s Waste-water Management Plan on behalf of “the township.” Did the West Milford Council ask her to do that, or approve her letter before she sent it to the NJ DEP and the Highlands Council? The letter indicates that her request is for forming the “township’s” 20-year growth plan. Is Bill Drew, the Township’s Planning Director, working with her on that 20 year plan? The letter specifies that Paretti’s plan update request was based on a meeting with “The Township’s director of Planning [and] Sanitarian of the Department of Health to discuss future West Milford planning, as it relates to redevelopment opportunities as well as those areas within the township which utilize septic systems that are failing and may be causing a negative impact to our water resources.” The letter further states that the so-called failing septics are at the same ten lakes that the Highlands Map colors purple. A coincidence? I asked Ken Hawkswell, head of the Health Dept. about Paretti’s letter. Although he had provided statistics for Paretti on areas that had the most septic upgrades and replacements, he never saw the letter. He indicated to me that the more septic upgrades and replacements, the less pollution there would be. As lake-community houses sell about every 4-7 years, and as new owners (and their mortgagers) want good septics, Hawkswell said that the high improvement rates at lakes means less septic pollution. He said that many additional upgrades were for long-term residents. To facilitate future development and re-development, and despite Hawkswell’s data, Paretti’s letter repeatedly discusses re-establishing sewer service areas that the Highlands Act eliminated, those at lakes supposedly “in need of sewers.” Further, Paretti discusses research costs of $100,000 - $300,000 needed to justify her expansion request for more sewer service areas, and indicates that they would be paid by township taxpayers. Past costs for such research were paid by site-specific developers who brought proposals to Bill Drew’s Planning Office. Why was Paretti providing information from Drew’s office to the Highlands Council information on tax items unapproved by West Milford’s Council? It’s interesting that Paretti thinks the West Milford Council would agree for township tax money to support her sewer expansion to lake communities that waged past demonstrations against sewers. It is interesting that Paretti puts forth so much planning information, which is the function of Drew’s office. Does Paretti’s letter to the DEP and the Highlands Council implicate a joint effort by herself and West Milford’s Planning Director? If so, both of them appear to be acting in opposition to statements by all councilmen and to the residents’ views that they don’t want more high-density “planned communities,” the zoning category for Eagle Ridge and Valley Ridge. Can the West Milford Council stop such actions? Yes, they can. Regardless of how the purple blotches were determined, the West Milford Council must demand that the Highlands Council retract the purple designation of West Milford lake communities. And, they must do that before the March 2, 2007 deadline for public input on the Highlands Regional Master Plan. I urge other taxpayers to insist that the West Milford Council get those purple blotches removed, by speaking at West Milford Council meetings and writing letters to local papers. Comments can also be sent to the Highlands Council at www.highlands.state.nj.us/njhighlands or by writing to NJ Highlands Council, 100 North Rd., Chester, NJ 07930. Doris Aaronson West Milford