Average rain, not monsoon, caused flooding into preserve

I am writing regarding the July 30 Sentinel article, "Silt from development runs into nature preserve." As the article recounted, construction silt from the Fenix Woodland Estates surged into the Stevens Preserve in Edison, literally choking the wetlands and suffocating the vegetation and wildlife in one of Edison's last undeveloped areas.

The same thing happened earlier this year, and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued a Notice of Violation against Fenix. Yet Fenix owner Patrick O'Neill's response to this travesty is to blame it on the rain, what he creatively termed a "once-in-a-lifetime" event.

"If you get a hurricane and get 20 inches of rain, the whole basin floods and people who never experienced flooding problems before get into these sort of once-in-a-lifetime events," he told the Sentinel.

The problem is, we only got a little over 2 inches of rain, and according to the article it was over three days! Hardly a oncein a-lifetime event. The flooding from his property is turning the public Stevens Preserve into a barren lava-like desert, and it will happen again if it isn't fixed.

Patrick O'Neill clearly takes the residents of Edison for fools. In Mr. O'Neill's version of reality, a monsoon put our town under water in an event that we'll be telling our grandkids about decades from now. I suppose for a greedy developer such as O'Neill, facts are as much a nuisance as healthy wetlands and forests.

The reality, however, is far simpler: Patrick O'Neill and Fenix owe the residents of Edison an apology for once again attempting to kill one of the town's few protected nature areas. Perhaps he can actually try to clean up his mess this time, instead of cutting all corners to jam-pack as many multimillion dollar homes as possible onto his property.

Instead, O'Neill's Woodland Estates will probably make him millions off the destruction of the very woodlands he uses in the name. I suppose a natural area belonging to all New Jerseyans doesn't stand a chance if it helps someone like him save a few bucks with faulty storm-water control.

Robert Spiegel Executive Director

Edison Wetlands