By Marianne Sullivan, Source Senior Staff
Writer:
The town administration and the Board of Selectmen are rolling out plans to
inform town residents about their well water, uranium testing, “safe” uranium
levels in water, and the health questions that surround these issues.
First Selectman Al
Goldberg said Monday morning the town will organize a community information
session to be held Monday, Dec. 1 at Memorial
Town Hall.
“The intention is to
provide a variety of resource people to talk individually with residents. We
envision something like an information ‘fair’ with resource people located as
information tables around the room,” he said.
Participants and
details were still being finalized early this week.
“We anticipate
having experts there who can answer specific health questions. We also will
have well experts there, and I hope a variety of other resources,” Goldberg
explained. “The goal is to answer residents’ questions.”
Two weeks ago, in an
e-mail message to parents at the Ryerson Elementary School and Brown Middle
School, Superintendent of Schools David Klein said tests at the schools’ wells
showed uranium levels in the drinking water that far exceeded that federal
Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines for safety. Both schools have now
been supplied with bottled water for drinking and food preparation.
Goldberg, Klein and
other town officials have been meeting regularly with staff from the state
Department of Public Health and others to discuss further future actions.
Ryerson and Brown are the only two public schools affected by uranium in their
water because they are the only two served by wells, however, an estimated
two-thirds of residential property owners in Madison have private wells.
For further
information, residents may visit the town’s website www.madisonct.org and the
state website www.ct.gov/dph.