Independent Study Backs Land Trust in Medlyn Farm Dispute

The Branford Land Trust (BLT) today set the record straight when it comes to salt water flooding at the historic Medlyn Farm in Stony Creek.

Pete Raymond, president of the BLT, says it is time for members and friends of the Branford Land Trust to understand that the land trust’s removal of a cracked earthen berm near Jarvis Creek in 2012, did not prompt salt water flooding at the Medlyn farm. The land trust removed the berm after the state’s environmental agency and the federal Army Corps of Engineers approved the action.

“While much has been reported on this issue, the BLT wants the facts to be known. Flooding in this area pre-dated the removal of the breached berm, and an independent scientific study has confirmed that the removal of the berm had little effect on upstream flooding,” Raymond wrote in a statement the land trust posted on its site today.

“Mr. Medlyn’s unsubstantiated claims are damaging to the Branford Land Trust and greater community as they are neither based on the facts nor reflective of the dynamic coastal ecosystem that Mr. Medlyn abuts,” Raymond wrote, seeming to put Medlyn on notice as to the facts and offering the public a detailed explanation based on the recent study. Medlyn sued the land trust in October, 2015 in Superior Court, about three years after the berm was removed. 

Raymond, a professor of Ecosystem Ecology at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, wrote, ​“The recent rising sea level, a period of high coastal storm frequency (including Hurricane Sandy) and extended periods of drought have exacerbated the problem of coastal flooding. These factors, and not the removal of a berm, have and continue to be the main forces impacting salt water on the Medlyn site.” 

Enter, Tide Gate 

The divisive dispute became openly public last month when Medlyn deployed friends to deposit scores of ​“Save Medlyn Farm” signs on properties throughout the area, including Branford, Guilford, Madison, and North Branford, towns that are included in State Sen. Ted Kennedy, Jr.’s 12th Senate District. 

Medlyn continues to blame the land trust for removing the berm, built in 1931 in conjunction with an older tidal gate that no longer functions. The tidal gate has not been operational for decades so it no longer provides protection. However, a new tide gate may figure in a state plan seeking ways to curb the flooding not only of the farm, but of other homes located on or near the road as as well. They sit on or near the road, which happens to be Route 146, which is also known as Leetes Island Road, a designated State Scenic Road. 

State Rep. Sean Scanlon, who represents the Stony Creek area where Medlyn lives, brought officials from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Department of Agriculture to visit the Medlyn Farm last month. He said he wanted to find out what ​“the state may be able to do to help Jay and those who live along and use Route 146. Jay and his farm mean a lot to our community and I will be working with him and these state officials to follow up on our initial conversation in the coming weeks.”

Scanlon told the Eagle he did not want to discuss specifics, such as the tide gate. He said he and Medlyn had agreed to let the state officials who inspected the area do some research before publicly commenting on the details.

If conversations did occur about the tide gate they would have been the first set of discussions to take place since the independent scientific study was published last fall. Medlyn has focused almost entirely on the berm, not the tide gate, but the independent study concludes the water flow is ​“controlled by the tide gate. If the tide gate were substantially modified then the importance of the berm should be reassessed.” Having a tide gate, however, might not prevent flooding should a major hurricane develop, at high tide, for example. 

Berm Cracked in 1990’s

Contrary to Medlyn’s assertions that removal of the berm created salt-water flooding, the independent study says cracks began developing in the eroded berm in the late 1990s. By 2005 ​“the berm was breached in multiple places,” becoming a hazard for hikers who used a trail crossing the berm and connecting Stony Creek to the woods north of Rt. 146,” Raymond said.

A portion of the Medlyn Farm field often becomes a pool of salt water following a hurricane or strong coastal storm, creating lost crops for Medlyn. For neighbors living near Jarvis Creek flooding brings contamination that ruins wells and furnaces and septic systems. Road flooding is common. 

Medlyn continues to maintain that the removal of the berm created the flooding, but he now agrees that a huge tidal surge from Superstorm Sandy in 2012 added to the problem. Superstorm Sandy was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season in 2012. It hit New England on October 29, 2012.

Independent Scientific Study

Town and State lawmakers contacted DEEP after Medlyn complained about saltwater infiltration following Superstorm Sandy. At that point DEEP requested an independent study by scientists affiliated with the Connecticut Institute for Resilience & Coastal Adaption (CIRCA). At the request of the scientists, the BLT assisted in gathering some of the data in the early stages of the inquiry. Medlyn cooperated as well.

The independent study investigated the impact of the breached berm, the removal of the berm and the potential re-installation of a berm and tidal gate. It turns out the berm was built more than 85 years ago, prior to 1931, in conjunction with the older tidal gate. The tidal gate has not been operational for decades so it no longer provides protection.

The CIRCA study concluded ​“that the presence (or absence) of the berm had little effect on the water levels or the occurrence of flooding at RT. 146. The flow is controlled by the tide gate. If the tide gate were substantially modified then the importance of the berm should be reassessed.”

The History

The Medlyn family has farmed the 30-acre land at 710 Leetes Island Road for nearly 140 years. Medlyn, a fifth generation farmer, says he is deeply concerned about his farm’s future.

When the BLT removed the berm about six weeks before Hurricane Sandy hit Branford in 2012, it did so with approval from DEEP and the Army Corp of Engineers. But Medlyn did not sue either agency, even though each gave final approval for the BLT project to create a boardwalk for hikers along the footprint of the then-endangered berm.

Medlyn did, however, sue the BLT in 2015 in New Haven Superior Court. That lawsuit, brought by the Milford law firm of Jacobi, Case & Speranzini, P.C. has yet to be resolved. The independent study that essentially exonerates the land trust is presumably an important piece of evidence in resolving the Medlyn lawsuit. The case is pending in the land use court in Hartford. There has been no public action on the court docket for the last ten months.

Explaining the chronology, Raymond wrote that a condition of state approval for the boardwalk project required the removal of the remains of the breached berm. In 2012, a contractor working for the BLT removed the old berm remnants and built the boardwalk, which was part of the site preparation that DEEP required as part of the project. The project was completed in mid-September, about six weeks before Hurricane Sandy.

Following Hurricane Sandy, Medlyn went public with his belief that the loss of the berm caused serious damage to various parts of his property.” It was at that point that DEEP requested the independent study which became public last fall. 

Medlyn maintains that the removal of the berm has caused salt water to enter his groundwater-fed irrigation pond, causing horrific damage to what had been a pristine fresh-water pond. Raymond says, not so. ​“Unfortunately, this pond was suffering from salt water intrusion before the removal of the berm” in 2012.

Raymond wrote that the pond is located at the lowest point of the Medlyn property and its surface is about 12 to 18 inches above the surface of the adjacent tidal wetland. ​“Due to its low elevation and proximity to the coast, the bottom of the pond periodically connects with a salty groundwater transition zone that is a common feature along the coast in this area,” he wrote. ​“The location of the transition zone depends on the balance between the pressures of salt water (higher sea level and storms move salt water to the pond) and fresh water (higher rainfall pushes salt water away from the pond.) Recent droughts and repeated strong coastal storms may have exacerbated the problem,” Raymond wrote. 

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