09/16/1993 BOARD OF HEALTH Minutes

Home Browse Search

R 1 MINUTES September 16, 1993 6 BOARD OF HEALTH is definitely a risk and known to be a long term health haz- ard and that is why we are moving to that stage at this time. Mr. Doherty stated, "If your house is on fire you don't stay inside of it. " "The town did take action and has been in close negotiations with both the State, Military and Water District in terms of getting that public water system in place. " "It's there, it should be used. " A Briarwood resident expressed his concern with the pos- sible fallout from planes flying over his house. Mr. Doherty relayed, "We are here to talk about the wa- ter. " "If that is a legitimate problem this Board will be happy to address it at a later date. " "This Board does not have any complaints on file. " "If you have guests over for the weekend and there is a problem with the water and they drink the water, did they decide to live with it?" "There is a potential for exposure to not only yourselves but your children and house-guests. " Mr. Greelish stated, "There seems to be a fair amount of confusion over the facts and that there are apparently people making a decision based upon misinformation and not the facts. " "This Board's job is public health and environmental protection. " "We have a clear defined health risk and unless we can come up with a good reason not to enforce the regula- tions we have no alternatives. " "Part of what this process is going to allow us to do is to see if there are some ex- tenuating circumstances. " "To see if there are some situa- tions that can possibly justify continued usage. " "We would like to come up with some viable economic solutions for those homeowners who cannot come up with the money right now. " A Briarwood resident questioned the amount of time it would take for the contamination to affect their health. Mr. Begley commented, "The additional risk of cancer would be approximately 1 in 1000 and 1 in a 100,000. " "The risk factor is based on an exposure of seventy years. " "That does not mean that the risk of getting the cancer gets greater later on. " "The risk is there throughout your life- time. " Mr. Doherty commented, "The risk for adults as opposed to infants is significantly different. " "We are just now fo- cusing on what age group. " Mr. Orlando stated, "The Water District would like all homeowner's to tie into public water. " "Most of the work in- volved in hooking up amounts to working on their own prop- erty. " "We as a group cannot work on their own property. " J