Our lives have been turned upside down ever since.

The road took almost half our land and dissected a federal wetland and a stream that ran through our property. The state Department of Transportation, Lancaster Construction (who built the road) and the town of Whitestown allowed more than 200,000 cubic yards of spoil dirt and shale from the road project in New Hartford to be put uphill, feet from our property line, literally creating a 25-foot shelf.

There are wetlands and two streams that run through both pieces of properties which this dirt has impacted. The stream that runs on the westerly portion is fed under the road through an undersized pipe which the water now is backing up onto our land, causing l00 year-old black oaks to fall over.

This soil has never been stabilized and continues to feed into the streams, wetlands and across portions of our fields. It’s not just soil, but a gray thick muck. We have had flash floods wash out our driveway and lawns. We have had to leave parts of our fields empty because of the water and mud. Our horses have stopped drinking the water from our livestock well. This has been going on for more than three years, and this is before they allow any development.

Not one of our elected officials has ever been here to see the problems.

Now the town of Whitestown has approved the initial site plan for a gas station/convenience store. This will sit uphill from our farm and also will sit next to a stream and wetlands, a spawning ground for brook trout. You would think that before anything was approved that the town would make sure that these problems were solved. We have shown them pictures and videos about what this dirt has done and is continuing to do. We showed them aquifer maps that showed that the water on both pieces of properties is barely 3 to 6 feet under the ground.

The U.S. Geological Survey maps of the aquifer suggest when planning development that stockpiling salt and underground fuel tanks are not a good fit for this area.

The chairman of the planning board suggests that we had our input and they did everything they could to accommodate us. Not true. If they had, this project would not have even gotten off the ground with the mess it is in. The head of Lancaster Development is the same person who not only built the road, put more soil on this property than should have been, but is also the same person who wants to build this gas station.

As our former supervisor said, “We have to protect the developer’s rights.” Well, what happened to our rights? Somewhere along the way, they forgot we are citizens in this town and we are to be protected.

What happens when we get runoff from the gas station? Too bad for us, we go out of business. But the developer gets rich.