Although the waterways feeding Four Corners Pond are no longer oozing a dark reddish something or other — and dead fish — concerns about contamination to the system of streams, brooks and ponds that make up the Wee Wah water basin still abound.
There’s controversy over what caused the initial fish die-off. Now comes Mulch Pile The Movie, a DIY horror movie trailer. Tuxedo resident Ed Gedvila and his friend, John Moon, from Tuxedo Park, recently hiked down from Tuxedo Lake through the streams and marshes that comprise Warwick Brook, following a trail of foam while taking pictures. The foam trail ended at the 
Perfect Cut mulch pile off Long Meadow Road.
Gedvila then took the footage home to share with his 12 year-old twins. “That weekend, my son, daughter and I decided that we could best tell people about the looming crisis by making a video,” he said. Gedvila’s son Maxwell suggested that they try to show people what cars driving along Long Meadow past the mulch site might not normally see.
Gedvila said his daughter Madeline wanted to make the mulch pile appear to be a creature that must be stopped. She also added Gedvila’s favorite part of the trailer. “Madeline suggested we use the MockingJays from the Hunger Games to sing their song,” he said.
MockingJays are symbols of rebellion and hope in the popular teen dystopian Hunger Games trilogy. The hybrid birds mimic sounds and learn songs that inspire them, passing news and hope onto others. The final line of the Mulch Movie trailer has a MockingJay voiceover that whistles a community warning — “Coming To A Lake Near You.”
“We tried to show as much of the growth and spread of the contamination as we could, while showing that there is still ‘hope for the future,'” Gedvila said.
Many area residents might agree with the Gedvilas, also fingering the massive mulch pile on Town of Tuxedo land in Sterling Forest as the source of wetland contamination. To date, the official Department of Environmental Conservation word, as reported by Time-Herald Record writer John Sullivan, comes from DEC spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach, who said that “water quality experts who visited the Tuxedo pond on March 13 determined the cause of the die-off to be a depletion of oxygen in the water. The department is looking into the mulch pile as a potential catalyst for the problem but has yet to make a determination.”
Geoff Welch, chair of the Ramapo River Committee, believes the mulch site should have its permit revoked and be closed and remediated. Welch said he participated in a site inspection Thursday, March 29.
“We found seeps coming out of the pile into the wetland,” he said. “They were coming through the bottom of a stone retaining wall. It shows a chronic condition. State enforcement could be much tougher. In our opinion there are ongoing violations,” said Welch, adding that the air quality around the site is also a source of concern.
The Village of Tuxedo Park had a scheduled meeting with the Orange County and NYS Health Departments on Tuesday, April 3rd.
Tuxedo Park reported that a request by Watershed Assessment Associates prompted the village to collect water samples of Warwick Brook, Patterson Brook, and an area just above Four Corner’s Pond on Sunday, March 25th. The test results are expected back April 9th. Additionally, the village conducted its own testing of Tuxedo Lake and Wee Wah Lake during the first week of April.
DEC test results of the Tuxedo mulch pile and adjacent wetland are expected by Thursday, April 12th. All test results will be made public, at which time Tuxedo Park plans to hold a public meeting.
Photo Source: Stills from Mulch Pile The Movie.
More At SloatsburgVillage
Round Up of Recent Tuxedo Fish Kill Dispute — John and Mary Yrizzary, members of the Sterling Forest Partnership traced a strange dark ooze, flowing through the swamplands and other waterways that feed Four Corners Pond.
Tuxedo Park Mayor Thomas Wilson Talks — This past January Village of Tuxedo Park Mayor Thomas Wilson officially announced his candidacy for Congress in the 19th district of New York, taking on Nan Hayworth.
