CT DEP to Deny Permission to Build Yale Farm Golf Club in Canaan and Norfolk
By David Parker
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8/15/2005
NORFOLK - The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has tentatively denied the controversial Yale Farm Golf Club applications for a private, high-end 18-hole golf course in Norfolk and Canaan.
The DEP said it will announce another public hearing on the application and its tentative denial. The developers, Yale Farm Golf Club LP of New York City, will also have a 30 day period in which to file comments and responses.
Yale Farm Developers sought state permission to withdraw a maximum of 289,440 gallons of groundwater per day from bedrock wells for the course's irrigation and to discharge water into Hollow Brook.
Construction and operation of the course on 780 acres would also affect Ginger Brook and Mead Pond, according to the DEP.
Opponents of the project, including many adjoining landowners in both towns, have battled the Yale Farm group vigorously before local land use commissions, the Army Corps of Engineers and the DEP, citing among other things, potential for environmental damage.
The DEP, in its notice issued Monday, cited several concerns.
Hollow Brook and Ginger Creek, the agency noted, are designated Class A waters, providing water quality suitable for fish and other aquatic life and wildlife as well as other purposes, including drinking water. Hollow Brook, the DEP said, supports a native brook trout population.
Yale Farm, the DEP said, "has provided data showing loss of streamflow and Hollow Brook and Ginger Creek but has not quantified, characterized and evaluated the full extent of such impacts."
Finally, according to the DEP, the applicant's data "is not persuasive in determining that the project is consistent with Connecticut's Water Quality Standards or the statutory and regulatory criteria required" by state policy.
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