Concerns about groundwater levels were raised as representatives of the Cragsmoor Association addressed the Wawarsing town board and protested the proposed Mahamudra Buddhist Hermitage project set for 91 acres in the hamlet's southern end. The local resident's group also has taken issue with the Wawarsing Planning Board's incomplete review of the Cragsmoor Association's hydrology report from September of this year.

The Cragsmoor Association believes that the mountaintop hamlet cannot handle the water demand that will be created when the estimated two to three hundred people arrive on various holidays, for possibly months at a time, after the hermitage is completed.

The report, prepared by geologist Katherine J. Beinkafner, states that the aquifer would soon be depleted given projected use rates of such a large development. Furthermore, the report argues that homes in higher elevations would be in even greater danger of water loss as their water supply depends solely on rainfall. The report urges that additional testing be done on the 'drawdown effect' on the hamlet's northern wells before the project begins.

Two other hydrology reports were referenced at Thursday's meeting, but the association feels that, among other discrepancies, the numbers of at least one of those reports regarding usage was based on a single occupancy dwelling, rather than double occupancy, making the projections misleading. Currently, some twelve houses are already low on water, with a few having run out even with wells as deep as 430 feet.

Beinkafner informed Sam's Point representative Heidi Wagner that this project, located on the site of the old Cragsmoor Inn, could drain all the wells in Cragsmoor over a period of time.

One audience member and fifty year resident of the hamlet showed the board recent pictures of the recession of Lake Maratanza, located atop the Shawangunk Ridge, from which Cragsmoor and Ellenville residents draw water. She then showed pictures of a nearby settlement known as the Geronimo Community in Walker Valley where some 700 people occupied a number of tents on various days from as far away as Canada. Some residents feel the same could happen in their community of roughly 500 residents.

Cragsmoor resident Debra Dryer says that this is a multimillion-dollar project and that the Dharmakaya Buddhist Organization, who has already purchased the property, can afford to build new wells if one dries out, while residents can't. She feels that more buildings will be built, in addition to the planned ones, and more property will be bought, leading to as many as 500 new permanent residents, and as many as a thousand people coming on holidays.

That kind of population increase, Dryer says, changes the water, the traffic, the air, and that it could happen in months, instead of decades. "You people [the town board] are the only ones that could stop it," says Dryer.

That may not be true.

Wawarsing's Town Attorney, William Collier, informed Dryer that the town board has no control over the project's application as it currently sits before the municipality's planning board.

"We can't overrule their decision," said Supervisor James Dolaway. "The Planning Board is there is to administer the laws of New York State, and the Town of Wawarsing."

Dolaway went on to say, "We set the law. We don't overrule their decision." Dolaway also said that the town could hold public hearings, and change the town laws, but it won't affect the hermitage's application.

Councilman Tom Geelan made a motion to have Wagner write a letter about the water concerns, and e-mail it to Dolaway where the board could look it over and then send it on to the Planning Board. The motion was passed.

The community group also feels the water shortage, in the long term, could affect the town as a whole if nothing is done about it, and that a water resource study should be done, and be included in Wawarsing's comprehensive plan.

County Legislator Joe Stoeckeler, Jr., also a Cragsmoor resident, stopped by to let the Board know that the County Health Department is aware of the situation, along with the Health Legislative Committee of which he and Legislator Mary Sheeley, who too was in attendance, are members, and would appreciate any future information regarding this project.

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