Discussion of Baltimore Lutheran school request for exemption
- Joseph Lacetera
Given my previous experiences with school programs, I attended the August 24th meeting with an open mind. However, both the expert witness testimony and the some of the parents testimony made me skeptical of their conclusions.
They have not fully considered the impact the school would have on the local community
The applicant's expert witness testimony did not address traffic safety on Whitaker Mill Road
The applicant's expert witness testimony included incorrect statements about the impact of irrigation on the water table
The applicant did not address problems with the water quality at the Millstad site
These concerns lead to the following issues which I will address in turn
Impact on the rural nature of the Whitaker Mill Road community and its environment
Impact of teenage drivers on safety on Whitaker Mill Road
Efficacy of a roundabout a the Millstad entrance
Impact of the school water usage on the water table
Impact of the school septic systems on the water table
Inappropriateness of Millstad location for a school of this type
The Baltimore Lutheran School's location is much like that of all other schools of this type in Harford County
The following pictures show that:
Cromwell Bridge Road is a main artery that carries traffic off I-695 past its intersection with Cowpens Avenue
Cowpens Avenue itself is considerably larger than Whitaker Mill Road and not at all like Whitaker Mill Road in character
The Baltimore Lutheran school site is safely accessible from a main road
The Millstad property is accessible only through much smaller roads leading to Whitaker Mill Road which is of itself a questionable road for access to a school by student drivers
The Baltimore Lutheran School is an example of what we do not want in a rural Harford County environment
The border is unkempt and stares directly in the face of some otherwise very nice home sites
There are no evergreens along the front of the parking lots to soften the view
The area in front of the school is not kept up
The areas in front of the playing fields are not maintained
We feel that a Harford Lutheran School at the Millstad site will detract from the property values in our community
The Rural Beauty of the Whitaker Mill Road Area Community
The Whitaker Mill area is special in that it is a rural enclave representative of what Harford County used to be.
It starts at the one-lane bridge over Winters Run and passes through a series of historic sites:
The historic Mill
The Magness farms and other farms with livestock
The Country Life horse farm
There are also several other relatively large properties that are part of the rural nature of the community
We do not consider it progress to destroy the character of this oasis in the midst of over-development,
We do wish to preserve this rural enclave from the Unwanted Development and Intrusion that a large school on the Millstad property would bring.
Much of the community also provides nature conservancy.
Our property, and the contiguous properties south of it down to Winters Run (Abremski, Clarke, … Historic Mill) is an example of this.
Our 4and1/2 acre property starts at the small bridge over the High Branch stream
with a 560 foot front going south along Whitaker Mill Road, and on the southern end goes another 500 feet west into the Millwood development
The stream goes through the middle of the property, and a good deal of the land is brambles and wetland
The other properties are similar
As such
They provide a much needed habitat for birds and small animals, a filter for our water, and a source of clean air
My wife and I consider our little valley our contribution to conservancy and this is what we bought into when we bought the property 31 years ago
However, the continual, and relentless over-development in Harford County is ruining communities like this, and damaging the local drainage systems and the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Discussion of Traffic Issues involved with location of the HLS at Millstad
is addressed on another page.
Discussion of Impact on the Water Table
The applicant witness testimony that all of the irrigation water goes back into the system is incorrect
Irrigation is done when the conditions demand it.
Under the typical dry and hot conditions when irrigation is done, a significant portion of the water will evaporate into the atmosphere
and some of it is potential run off. According to a
Clemson University report, "Evaporative losses can be quite severe. A typical sprinkler system operated at noon on a hot [day] can lose 30 percent or more of the water to evaporation [and] runoff occurs when water is applied more quickly than the soil can absorb it.”
and from a
University of Georgia report, "Typical application efficiencies for sprinkler irrigation equipment vary from 75 percent to 90 percent." Clearly, the heavy losses will occur on those days when irrigation is needed.
These water losses and those from the other school uses will have an impact the local wells.
Most of the water is pumped from the greatest depth that the well can reach
and
that which is returned to the ground is carried off in the highest level aquifer to another location, not necessarily to the aquifers supplying the deeper wells in the immediate vicinity.
Next,
There is a disparity between actual well histories and reported and recorded histories that belies the fragility of the local water supply.
The applicant's well digger witness testimony implied that there were no well failures in the Millstad area
My own well provides a counter-example
that shows how fragile our water supply really is
It is a 400 foot well, and twice it has run temporarily dry.
One of these cases involved a hole in a garden hose, leaking at a relatively low flow rate that doesn’t come close to the volume of water that will be used by the school in normal use. Now, since this was not reported, Harford County has no record of this. This is a case in point, in that there is a disparity between actual well histories and reported and recorded histories.
There have been well replacements in the Millwood development
and
Some Terry Way/Woodridge area homes tied in to city water when their wells failed, but this isn't shown on the map
and I understand that
The developer of the Woodridge development waited until he could put homes on city water lines coming off Route 1. This is another case in point in that there is a disparity between actual well histories and the limited knowledge of a single well digger.
In summary, there are well founded concerns regarding the impact of the school on water table levels and water quality in the community.
Clearly, the water supply is not inexhaustible
Our water supply is fragile and
There are serious questions of whether the water table will be able to supply sufficient water if it undergoes the additional stress that will come with the potential consumption of over 5000 gallons per day by the school.
Discussion of septic systems and water quality at the Millstad site
I will now present information obtained from the Millstad file at the Harford County Health Department (HCHD), Bureau of the Environment.
In a nutshell, even with the limited number of users of the facilities, the property has a long record of violations of state and county laws involving failed septic systems and poor results in bacteriological tests of drinking water
There is a history of persistent problems with bacteriological water quality at the site.
Bacteriological Drinking Water Report Data for various spigots in the Harford Gymnastics facility at Millstad
(Including laboratory reports for the period May 15th through May 22nd 1998 showing bad results due to high coliform concentrations)
Lab Report # Dates of Tests Results Reason
Lab # 22367 '98 May 15 - May 18 Bad results High coliform concentrations
Lab # 22865 '98 May 20 - May 22 Bad results High coliform concentrations
Lab # 22866 '98 May 20 - May 22 Bad results High coliform concentrations
Lab # 22867 '98 May 20 - May 22 Bad results High coliform concentrations
Lab # 22868 '98 May 20 - May 22 Bad results High coliform concentrations
At this point, the HCHD recommended the application of chlorination procedures, but it is not clear when this was done, as there was another bad result, before they finally eliminated the coliforms.
Lab # 24848 '98 Jun 11 - Jul 12 poor results High coliform concentrations
Lab # 26702 '98 Jun 29 - Jul 1 Good results coliform 0/ml
There were also earlier bad results in '94 and '95
So there is a history of persistent problems with bacteriological water quality at the site, and it is important to note here, that it is well known by the technical community that chlorination treatments are stop-gaps that provide only temporary relief from persistent bacteriological contamination and that under these conditions continuous treatment would be required.
Clearly, the well water and septic systems at Millstad have had serious problems, and the school's representatives are either ignorant of this or willing to ignore the problem.
Summary
I believe that my discussion of traffic safety issues associated with teenagers driving on Whitaker Mill Road, shows that the Millstad property is a fundamentally inappropriate location for a school of the type in question.
We also feel that the applicant has shown an insensitivity to the concerns of the residents, demonstrated even in some of the parent testimony. The inappropriateness of the Millstad site for the school goes far beyond traffic safety and impact on the water table, but impacts the very fabric of the rural nature of the Whitaker Mill Road area community.
The idea that
Someone had moved here in 2004 with the supposition that the school was a fait accompli
made me feel as though we were being invaded.
We built our home on Whitaker Mill Road in 1974, so we have lived here thirty times longer than that family, and we don’t think that we have the right to make major changes to this historic rural community.
But even if you take all of the parent testimony as well meaning, it is completely irrelevant to the appropriateness of the location.
Their interest is in a suitable education for their children, which is clearly independent of the physical location of the school
- and we find it hard to understand how these people who have no real ties to this community would insist on this disruptive and destructive act of forcing the school on a community that does not want its presence.
This kind of careless development must stop.
The school should find an appropriate site near a large, safe, feeder road with public water and sewage facilities in place suitable for a population of 300-plus students, teachers and administrators
The county should not ignore the master plan for this exception.