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We've been seriously considering a move to CT: North Stamford, Weston, Westport were options considered. However, in our search, I discovered that some pretty serious and significant water contamination (both well and ground water) issues have come to light in the last few years in these areas:
I know a family that lives in Stamford and she said that while she's concerned, their feeling was that it could hardly be contained to the Stamford area. Seems logical, but doesn't really change the fact that if you're bathing in highly contaminated water, it's a serious health concern.
We're now thinking that Westport might be safer but as my friend said, how could all of this contamination be contained to Stamford alone?
Has anyone here considered this while homebuying? I did a search on the issue here, not finding much.
If we do buy in Westport, can someone tell me where I can info on where the water in that area comes from?
If you buy in Westport, your water will come from one of three places. Those are 1 ) private wells 2)
Aquarion Water Co. or 3) to much less extent- First District Water Co.
Both get their water from numerous local reservoirs
If you buy a house with a private well, have an extensive test done on the well when you buy. Depending on the results walk away if it's really bad or use filters if needed to keep the water safe. Test the water every two- three years.
This is no different than any part of the country. Water all across the country and world has arsenic in it. I didn't read the whole article (just the first two pages), but why don't these families take a look at what they're eating? Arsenic is in a LOT of our everyday foods contain elevated levels of arsenic. Fish, chicken, some veggies, beer, wine, rice. It's also been known to be in organic baby foods.
They had tests done and it was determined that their poisoning was coming from water. And not just one family, quite a few with similar problems. It appears to be coming from wells and leftover toxic waste from former farms and factories. While you could find other contaminated areas of country this does seem to be specific to CT and much worse than Westchester Cty. We will most likely limit our search to WC.
North Stamford has a more significant issue relative to the other towns. The pesticide contamination stems from industrial waste buried at what is now the middle school and bartlett arboretum. Most of the other affluent communities did not have factories so industrial contamination is due minimus. The arsenic and uranium that may be found in ct and Westchester in high concentrations is naturally occurring and not at a level you really need to be concerned about. Unless you have already eliminated all rice, apples, and poultry from your diet. Otherwise you will consume much higher levels from these items as opposed to "CT well water. Just as an FYI, too much water,food, or even pure oxygen will kill you. Our well water is just fine.
Proof about what? Google is pretty solid as to the genesis of north Stamford's contamination. Arsenic and uranium being widespread in the water table nationall as well. Westchester also seeing similar levels of arsenic for the trifecta.
We're in our second house in fairfield county (north of where you're looking) and both times we had water tests done before we bought. We also test every couple of years (our town offers an annual water testing day -- it's not expensive at all, and while we don't take advantage every year, we do try to every 2 or 3) and we've never had a problem. I do know our water, untreated, is hard, but that's about it. We installed a softening system system after we bought the house and that seems to have taken care of the hardness issue. Also, we did need to shock our well when we bought our current house, because it sat empty on the market for a little over a year. But that was only once, and that's about it -- no real or dangerous issues to report. I've also never heard of serious issues from any of our friends who are scattered throughout the neighboring towns either.
Last edited by Lalalally; 08-24-2014 at 05:39 PM..
Wilton2ParkAve, do you have links to your facts? I've googled all the search terms for Westchester Cty water contamination I can think of and nothing comes up. Quite a bit comes up for CT, however. If you have facts, I'd love to see them. Thank you.
I should add that we receive a yearly water quality report from our town and I've yet to see arsenic listed under the contaminants found. Some uranium was found, but cause was determined to be erosion of natural deposits.
Last edited by jojoboulette; 08-24-2014 at 05:29 PM..
Contamination in one subdivision in the small town of Weston, and some cases of contamination in a few other very small towns, does not constitute a statewide problem. The articles are just an attempt to scare the readers.
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