Village Clerk Jim Palmer "Hopefully" Continuing Toxic Piping

BRONXVILLE, NY — Acting on a rumor originating in the Bronxville School Class of 2021, I found James M. Palmer, Village Administrator, at his desk in Village Hall on Friday afternoon, Sept 21. The time was nearing 2pm.

Jim couldn't meet with me in his office, but luckily we were able to walk together along Pondfield to Jim's intended appointment — a "completely private" conversation, "about Village business," at the end of that odd alleyway between Studio One and the liquor store.

We will find out what's up at Mystery Place, one ludicrous FOIL form at a time. Meanwhile, I asked Jim the same question I always ask Jim: "Where has cured-in-place piping (CIPP) been installed to date in Bronxville Village, and will it happen again?

"Hopefully, they will continue to install cured-in-place piping here in the Village," was Jim's reply to the second part of my question, although — again — he wouldn't say where. Nor would he commit to sending out one of his helpful emails, advising subscribers of road work and the like. So why not CIPP work?

The first part of my question is possibly Bronxville's biggest secret, at present: Since November 2017, I have been asking Administrator Palmer and Mayor Mary Marvin for a simple map of where and when this highly toxic method of lining old pipes with a melted plastic resin took place in our mile-square community. It is adjacent to — or even under — whose homes and businesses? Why is Village Hall refusing to state these simple facts?

We know that CIPP is "under the [Bronxville] School" — because Jim Palmer said it was, at the Village of Bronxville Board of Trustees' (Vobbots') 20 November 2017 meeting. I also shot lots of video of CIPP (re)installation, by Green Mountain Pipeline Services, outside the School on Halloween Night 2017. If you were walking along Pondfield that evening — and plenty of trick-or-treaters were — you will remember the noxious chemical odors and horrific noise at the corner of Meadow and Pondfield.

Hopefully, to employ Mr Palmer's adverb, you got away from it as quickly as possible. Because Purdue University, with support from the National Science Foundation, says that CIPP contaminates the air and the water. The younger you are — e.g., in utero — the worse it is for your body if you absorb this stuff.

When I asked Jim Palmer last December if he would expose his own young kids to CIPP, as Bronxville's kids were exposed on Halloween Night (and when else?) Jim replied: "I am familiar with the process." When pressed by me, "speaking father-to-father," to "answer the question straight" — Jim repeated this response.

However he regards, or not, his obligations to our kids (29.5% of the population), Bronxville Village Administrator James M. Palmer (resident of Mount Kisco, NY and Wilmington, VT) is also ultimately responsible for the well-being of the "spaghetti-like" (his words) infrastructure of wires and pipes buried beneath our streets and sidewalks. Jim insists that CIPP is Bronxville's only option, our only means of keeping the Village's superabundant ground water out of VOB waste water as it all makes its way to Long Island Sound.

It is true that CIPP is being used by some 50% of municipalities across America. Which means that some 50% of municipalities are figuring out a way to not use it. If half of all communities are digging up ancient pipes and replacing them with new pipes, the old-fashioned-proven way, why can't Bronxville do the same?

Especially now that we know what we know about cured-in-place piping: It's bad for young bodies. It has sickened children elsewhere sufficient to gain media attention.

Mary Marvin has never denied CIPP's toxicity. More important: Her Honor acknowledges the Board's discussions of CIPP toxicity as an aspect of the Vobbots' decision to go with CIPP over the the tried-and-true.

Jim and Mary cannot produce a single not-opaque document from those Spring 2017 conversations because these went deliberately unrecorded, in executive session. Deputy Mayor Robert Underhill was also present, along with Village Trustee Randolph Mayer. Former trustees Anne Poorman and Guy Longobardo also voted for CIPP. Their replacements on the Board — Bill Barton and Mark Wood — are defending CIPP as if they would vote for it themselves, given the opportunity. (Trustee Wood has a child currently enrolled at the Bronxville School.)

Longtime Village Attorney James P. Staudt was, of course, also present. (Mr Staudt, who writes all our laws as a contract employee and Larchmont resident, is the final decider of what information — owned by Village taxpayers — we may see. Why? His firm's invoices of Bronxville Village, for example. Mr Staudt insists that they are private to the Board and Mr Palmer's staff and to no one else: A Bronxville-Eastchester Patch story for another day.)

Cured-in-place piping is definitely cheaper than tried-and-true piping, initially, but what are its costs over the long haul? Is CIPP truly "in the best interests of the Village" — as Mayor Marvin insists?

Because Jim Palmer said a curious thing to me as we walked together along Pondfield on Friday: "We're looking into the non-styrene option." [Please see note* below on styrene.]

"So you are acknowledging, Jim, that the previous CIPP installations were in fact toxic?"

"We're looking into the non-styrene option."

"What about the non-toxic option? Since styrene isn't the only poisonous component of CIPP?"

No reply from Mr Palmer.

"May I remind you, sir, that I have a kid living in this town? And another one who wants to move back here and raise a family?"

We had arrived at our Village Administrator's top secret (but Village business) meeting at Mystery Place.

We will keep asking! About all of the above. You can, too, and be the first to break the story here at Bronxville-Eastchester Patch. Citizen journalism! The Fourth Estate. By these means, we may accurately describe This United States.

EMAIL US!

Mr James M. "Jim" Palmer is: jpalmer at vobny dot com

Mayor Mary Marvin is: mayor at vobny dot com

Brer Abbott, Patch Mayor is: thebronxville at protonmail dot com

And please continue reading Bronxville-Eastchester Patch (CIPP is also in Tuckahoe) as we try to figure out why local governments are ignoring warnings that New York State and the Environmental Protection Agency itself are beginning to take seriously — because they are consulting with none other than Purdue University, according to Andrew J. Whelton, PhD, who heads the Purdue study. (Image credit: Brer Abbott's rendering of "James M. Palmer, Village of Bronxville, Official Photo.")

*From a Purdue University CIPP FAQ: Why do you keep telling us not to focus only on styrene? "A variety of chemicals have been and can be released from CIPP installation sites. Some of these 'other' chemicals have exceeded aquatic toxicity thresholds. These 'other' chemicals include carcinogens, endocrine disrupting compounds, hazardous air pollutants, and those with little toxicity data. Trimethylbenzenes, acetone, phthalates, and other compounds that can be toxic to fish have commonly been associated with CIPP water contamination. Several chemicals that have state water quality standards have been associated with CIPP installations."