GUILDERLAND — Many residents on Brandle Road have questions and concerns about Altamont’s plans to pump water for village residents and for a proposed senior-housing complex.

As they shared these issues with the town’s zoning board last week, some said, since the village has done exploratory drilling, they’ve had problems with dirty water.

The zoning board then hired a town-designated engineer to study the effects that new village wells, on Brandle Road, have on the quality and quantity of neighbors’ wells.

What complicates matters is that the village is part of a lawsuit triangle over the issue. The zoning board can’t approve anything until these issues are settled, Chairman Bryan Clenahan said.

Lawsuit triangle

Michael and Nancy Trumpler own land on rural Brandle Road outside the village where Altamont drilled and found water. The Trumplers signed a contract last year agreeing to sell about five acres, with the wells, to the village.

A few months later, the Guilderland Town Board re-zoned land on Brandle Road, just outside the village, for Jeff Thomas to build a senior housing complex; the village promised Thomas water then, even though it had a moratorium on granting water outside village limits.

(Thomas will present his plans for the senior-housing complex to the Guilderland Zoning Board on Aug. 3.)

The Trumplers were upset because earlier they had to scale back plans for a place for Nancy Trumpler’s elderly mother to live because of town zoning. They also said they had been told that their well would be used only for water in the village.

In March, the Trumplers filed papers in Albany County Supreme Court to have a judge decide whether the village’s contract for the five-acre site is legal and binding; they sought no money from the village.

The village responded by filing counterclaims, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, against the Trumplers.
In June, Thomas sued the Trumplers for $17 million, over what he called the "tortuous interference" with his plans to build a senior-housing project. His lawyer claimed the suit was not over money; Thomas just wanted the Trumplers to drop their suit.
Appearance confusion
The village is asking the zoning board for a special-use permit "to develop a municipal groundwater source with two submersible well pumps, a 12-foot by 18-foot well house building, and a 750-foot access road from Brandle Road."

The village obtained conceptual approval from the town’s planning board in June, but it still needs final approval. At last Wednesday’s meeting, zoning board members seems confused that the village was before them, prior to getting planning board approval.

Richard Straut, of Barton & Loguidice, the engineering firm representing the village, told the zoning board that the town planner sent him there.
"We can’t give approval with outstanding conditions," said zoning board Chairman Bryan Clenahan, citing the lawsuit as one of those conditions.
"We’re driving different horses at the same time," village attorney E. Guy Roemer told the zoning board. "I’m handling the lawsuit...but we can proceed."
"It makes more sense to get the special-use permit first before the expense of getting a detailed report to go before the planning board," Straut said.
"I’ve never had a situation where we did this first," Clenahan said.
"Somebody has to be first," said Straut. "I guess we’ll have to decide."
"I don’t see how the planning board’s not first," said Clenahan.

Zoning board attorney Janet Thayer then read part of the law that says the planning board decision must be first.

The village will not go back before the zoning board now until it gets final planning approval.

Still, the zoning board designated an engineer to create a hydrology report, exploring the effects of the quality and quantity of nearby wells. It also heard public comments.

Public concerns

Rex Simpson, who owns property adjacent to the Trumplers on Brandle Road, said he’s had problems with his well. Since the village has done exploratory drilling on the Trumpler property, Simpson has had dirty water for four months, he said.

At the end of May, Michael Trumpler told The Enterprise that, for several weeks, the water that has come out of his taps has been brown and undrinkable. The village had drilled a well for the Trumplers as part of the agreement.

Altamont’s mayor, James Gaughan, said then that the village was looking into the Trumplers’ problem. Straut told The Enterprise then that the problems with the Trumplers’ water are in no way related to the nearby village wells and do not indicate that the future village water supply could become polluted.
"The village wells are drilled to a much different standard than residential wells," Straut said in May.
"We’re all very concerned about the value of water on our properties," Ted Danz, who lives behind the Trumplers on Gardner Road, told the zoning board last Wednesday. "A lot of people don’t know about this pumping station."

Since the town only notifies residents so many feet from a property of a zoning application, and Brandle Road is rural with houses spread far apart, not many people know of the village’s plans, Danz said.
"I’m not against the [senior] home, or the water, I just want to make sure my rights aren’t violated," Danz said.
Later, Straut said, "Having a safe, reliable drinking water supply is important to the quality of the community. We don’t take well contamination lightly."
Simpson also asked about noise from the village’s well pump. If the village pumps water to Camp Wildwood, he said, "I can’t imagine pumping that volume will be very quiet."

Gary Milford, of Camp Wildwood, later said that the summer camp for disabled children trucks in 4,000 gallons of water every two to three days. It is located on Leesome Lane, just outside the village limits, on the southwest side.

The camp supports the special-use permit, Milford said, because it will allow the camp to get village water. The camp will pay to pump the water and the pump will be on Leesome Lane, on the camp’s property, he said. (The mother of a child who attended Camp Wildwood has written a letter to the Enterprise editor this week about the water crisis.)

Simpson also raised concerns about added traffic from Thomas’s senior-housing complex.

Elizabeth Mack, of Brandle Road, which is on the southeast side of the village, said she’s upset that water lines will be laid across her property.
"I have to give easement rights for 30 acres," she said. "That’s wrong. If the village wants water, send it down Brandle Road...Now I have to pay for a lawyer to make sure the easement is done properly."
"This project is not tied to the development of the senior center or Camp Wildwood," said Straut. "It’s because of the need of the village today to serve people in and around the village."
He continued, "The water will not go into the senior center unless the village has resolved this issue....With respect to the easements, we’re not here to talk about that tonight. We have no intent to disrupt anybody’s property. The final alignment is not determined."

Simpson came back to the podium. He questioned the adequacy of the well testing.
"I’m not paying hundreds of dollars a year to pay for filters that I didn’t have to have before," he said.
Christine Capuano, who is married to Nancy Trumpler’s brother, said, "The village has not talked to any well owners about a possible plan if a well is affected."

Capuano, who, with her husband, bought land from the Trumplers, questioned the village’s promising water to the senior-housing complex earlier this year. She wrote a letter to the Enterprise editor this week expressing the same concerns.