The July 18 decision by the majority of the Plumstead Township Board of Supervisors to approve a pro-sprawl, anti-environment settlement agreement with the Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority will come to represent a sad turning point for Plumstead.

The township in recent years had earned a reputation for successfully fighting the mass-scale, suburban overdevelopment favored by Bucks County's political and business powers-that-be. Again and again, Plumstead voters elected supervisors who--whether running as Republicans or Democrats--professed that they were independent and that they would work to protect the environment.

What happened? Last fall, three of my fellow supervisors--Board Chairman Frank Froio, Stacey Mulholland and Vince Formica--signed on with Bucks County's ruling political machine, thereby giving up their independence and, I believe, breaking the bond they made with the voters who put them in office.

The end result is a settlement agreement with the machine-dominated BucksCounty Water & Sewer Authority (BCWSA), an entity whose ever-extending water and sewer infrastructure drives the intense, community-changing kinds of commercial and residential development that has forever ruined parts of lower and central Bucks.

My fellow supervisor Betsy Helsel and I, who both were elected with broad bipartisan support and are not allied with any political machine, fought for months to convince our fellow board members to change course, to fight BCWSA's lawsuit against the township, and--if we did decide to enter into a settlement agreement--to be sure that the settlement was in the best long-term interest of all of the residents of Plumstead, and not just a few.

Among other things, Supervisor Helsel and I urged our fellow board members to follow the unanimous advice of the township's award-winning Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) to undertake and complete a study to assess the impact of the proposed settlement on the township's fragile groundwater supply.

The EAC's concern is not frivolous. A recent study conducted by an independent consultant for a New Jersey township with an underlying geology very similar to Plumstead's found that 16 of 17 proposed sewer-line extensions there would result in groundwater-recharge reductions serious enough to cause long-term water-supply problems.

But Supervisors Froio, Mulholland and Formica forged ahead blindly through the fog, headlights off. They dismissed the value of the study and, under pressure to approve the settlement, came to Tuesday night's meeting intent on doing so, even though the settlement is full of legal loopholes that BCWSA will be happy to exploit in the future.

Fortunately, Supervisor Helsel and I very early Wednesday morning were able to persuade Chairman Froio to agree to several changes to the settlement, including provisions to require BCWSA to pay the legal and engineering costs associated with implementing a strong township ordinance on stormwater infiltration/recharge; to require BCWSA to unequivocally oppose further expansion of the new Plumstead sewer district; and to require that the developers of new houses in the sewer district fully explore the potential for onsite sewage treatment such as sand mounds that would help to recharge the aquifer.

Township resident Kim Troup also pushed successfully for a settlement provision that will provide at least some protection for homeowners whose wells run dry as a result of expanding the sewer system. But even that idea was watered down; affected residents will need to live within the sewer district or very close to it to qualify, and will need to prove that BCWSA caused their wells to fail--a tough and costly task, given the murky science of hydrogeology.

Amazingly, all of the proposed improvements to the settlement were opposed or questioned by supervisors Mulholland and Formica, who seemed at times to be acting more as representatives of BCWSA than the voters who put them in office. It was a sad sight.

As I told The Intelligencer's reporter, Riley Yates, the last-minute improvements to the settlement only managed to change the settlement's "grade" from an "F" to a "D," and Supervisor Helsel and I voted against it.

Other proposed improvements were rejected by the board majority, including one that the final settlement be delayed until the water study is completed so we know what impact it would have on our groundwater supply, and another that Plumstead be given a seat on the BCWSA board.

Plumstead's residents should be very concerned about this settlement, and should become more involved--if only to protect their own quality of life, wells and property values. The settlement opens to door to dense suburban development in the township, and sends a clear signal to the pro-sprawl powers-that-be that Plumstead's board majority has shifted to their side, and will no longer stand in their way.