THE GREEN SHEET

Vol. 8 - No. 7
July 2003

Lead Story: The Senate in September
On the Alert
For Your Information
Activists' Corner
The Month Ahead
Contact Information

The Senate in September

There is still one more step to go to complete the more than seven-year process of crafting a comprehensive contaminated site cleanup program for New York. That will be achieved when the state Senate returns this fall and votes for legislation that has already passed the Assembly and won the endorsement of Gov. George Pataki. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno has said his house will approve the bill when it returns, which is expected as soon as mid-September. When this happens and the bill is signed by Pataki, New York’s environmental community will celebrate a remarkable and historic victory.

The 107-page bill – S.5702 sponsored by Sen. Carl Marcellino and A.9120 sponsored by Assemblymember Thomas DiNapoli – creates a comprehensive brownfields cleanup program that should become a national model, refinances the state Superfund, incorporates and preserves New York’s oil spill program and launches a new plan to clean up groundwater contamination. After many attempts and conflicting approaches, Pataki, Bruno and Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver green-lighted the negotiations with a few weeks left in the session. Staffers and lawmakers worked for days, culminating in marathon negotiations that ended around 3:00AM on Friday, June 20, the last day of the regular session. Determined to leave Albany as planned, the Senate adjourned about two hours later, before the final bill was printed. But the Assembly returned later that day and, with a message of necessity from the Governor indicating his support, passed the bill just minutes before adjourning Friday evening.

Highlights of the legislation include the long-sought refinancing of the state Superfund, the program that cleans up New York’s most toxic sites. The plan calls for spending $120 million annually until all the listed sites are remediated. It creates a four tier approach to cleaning brownfields which recognizes that not all contaminated properties must support residential standards, but nevertheless sets the highest feasible cleanup levels ever mandated in a state-level program. And, in a major victory for the environmental justice movement, it funds a new empowerment program for urban communities to determine what happens to rehabilitated inner-city properties. The next step in this long journey is clear: Senate passage of S.5702 in September.

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On the Alert

♦Too Hot to Handle: The White House is trying to prevent the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from discussing global warming in its Report on the Environment. The draft report leaves out a chapter that describes the impact of global warming on our environment. In June, the National Wildlife Federation obtained an internal EPA memorandum showing that the White House’s insistence on alterations to the report’s global warming section prompted the agency to delete the section. Tell the EPA that no picture of environmental quality is complete without an assessment of the impact of global warming. To read the report and submit comments, visit: www.epa.gov/indicators.

♦Who Do You Trust: The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is changing its policy so that major polluters would be allowed to monitor themselves. Stop Polluting Orleans County and Citizens’ Environmental Coalition (CEC) support having DEC employees continue to oversee hazardous facilities. The groups filed a lawsuit in June against DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty, challenging her decision last February to rescind permit conditions that required Waste Management of New York to pay for two DEC expert monitors at a proposed landfill in Albion. Call or write Governor Pataki, DEC Commissioner Crotty (518-402-8540), and your state legislators and urge them to keep the DEC on-site monitor program. For more information, contact Mike Schade, CEC, at 716-885-6848 or cecmike@choiceonemail.com, or visit: www.cectoxic.org.

♦Blast Off: In 2001, activists successfully prevented an expansion of Exit 114 off Route 17 along the Shawangunk Ridge in the Town of Mamakating. Now, a developer hoping to build a resort in this ecologically sensitive area wants the exit enlarged. Expanding the exit would require blasting the ridge and would threaten ongoing work to create a protected corridor running the length of the Shawangunks. Urge Congressman Maurice Hinchey to help save this treasured area. Write the Congressman at City Hall 3rd Floor, 16 James St., Middletown, NY 10940. Urge him to oppose the expansion of Exit 114. For more information, call the Shawangunk Ridge Coalition at 845-255-3786 or visit www.shawangunkridge.org.

♦Particulates Matter: DEC has developed a guidance document concerning soot pollution – also known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5 – and is accepting public comments until July 14. The draft policy will guide DEC staff in how to include PM2.5 in reviews under the State Environmental Quality Review Act for proposed new sources of air pollution. Copies of the policy are available at: www.dec.state.ny.us/website/dar/pm25.html. Send comments to Steven E. Flint, NYSDEC, Division of Air Resources, 625 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Albany, NY 12233-3255, via email: seflint@gw.dec.state.ny.us or call 518-402-8292. For more information about soot pollution, contact Anne Reynolds at 518-462-5526 ext. 238 or visit www.eany.org and click on Clean Air and Energy.

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For Your Information

♦Sun Run: New York’s first Race to Stop Global Warming has been moved to Wednesday, October 15. The 8k run and 5k fitness walk will take place in Manhattan’s Central Park. Supported by companies actively developing environmentally sensitive practices, the race brings together the fitness, business and environmental communities in a new event raising both awareness and money to support education and action that addresses global warming. Registration is $20; 18 and under, $12. Environmental Advocates is forming a team to run/walk representing the Cap Carbon Campaign. To join, call 518-462-5526 or visit www.capcarbonnow.com. For more information or to register, visit: www.racetostopglobalwarming.org or call 866-STOP-CO2.

♦Back to the Beach: It’s time to start thinking about organizing area cleanups for the annual NYS Beach Cleanup. The event, scheduled for September 20, is coordinated by the American Littoral Society as part of the Annual International Coastal Cleanup organized by The Ocean Conservancy. Last year more than 10,000 New Yorkers documented and removed over 268,623 pounds of debris from 292 sites along 377 miles of New York State shoreline. To form a beach cleanup team in your town, contact Barbara Cohen at 718-471-2166 or alsbeach@aol.com, or visit: www.alsnys.org.

♦Life's Work: The Omega Institute and Resurgence magazine are presenting a 3-day event focused on finding hopeful and creative solutions to the world’s freshwater crisis. The Water of Life: Peril & Promise in the 21st Century is the 3rd Annual Century of the Environment Conference. Political and social activists, teachers, business people, health-care professionals, scientists, religious leaders and others concerned with environmental issues are invited to attend. The conference will be held September 4-7 at Omega’s Rhinebeck campus and costs $375. Speakers include Robert Kennedy, Jr., Ralph Nader and Vandana Shiva. Call 800-944-1001 or visit: www.eomega.org.

♦Swim Free or Sink: The Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program is coordinating its Lead Sinker Exchange Project at 60 stores and boat launches throughout the Adirondack Park. Loons and other waterbirds often succumb to lead poisoning after ingesting lead sinkers. For more information on non-toxic alternatives, call 518-891-8836.

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Activists' Corner

Never Mined: Residents of the Village of Feura Bush, in Albany County, recently learned that a small construction company in the community applied to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for a mining permit in April 2002. The company plans on digging limestone and processing it on a ridge. The mining site is 950 feet from two residences, with many other homes close by. The site is also near the City of Albany’s Feura Bush water system filtration plant.

Residents, who did not learn about the proposal until reading it in the paper six days before the DEC public comment period ended, were able to obtain an extension. Concerned residents then formed Feura-Bethlehem Heights Alliance (FBHA) and began contacting lawmakers and area activists. Absent strong intervention, however, it appears that the applicant will obtain a permit.

For more information on FBHA, contact Susan Morrison at susan@sgmalbany.com.

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The Month Ahead

July

1-31: Book Recycling Drop Off for Onondaga County. Books can be delivered Monday through Friday from 7:30AM-2:30PM, and on Saturdays from 8:00AM-12:00PM. Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency’s Rock Cut Road Transfer Station in Jamesville. Keep hard cover and soft cover books separated and do not place books in curbside blue bins. Visit: www.ocrra.org, or call 315-453-2870.

3-12: The Great Hudson River Paddle from Albany to NYC, sponsored by Hudson River Watertrails Association and the Hudson River Valley Greenway. Go along for all 10 days or just for a day paddle. Festivals at each stop-over location. Visit: www.hrwa.org/ghrp/index.html.

10-26: Designing the High Line, culmination of an open, international ideas competition seeking visionary design proposals for the NYC High Line’s reuse as a 1.5-mile-long elevated public promenade. Visit the exhibit at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall. On the web at: www.thehighline.org.

10: West Nile Virus and Chronic Wasting Disease, talk by Ward Stone, Pathologist, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Part of the Huntington Lecture Series sponsored by the Adirondack Ecological Center, SUNY-ESF. Adirondack Park Agency Visitor Interpretive Center, 5922 State Route 28N, Newcomb. 7:00PM-8:00PM. Call Charlotte Demers 518-582-4551. Also 7/17.

12: Future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Ride, sponsored by Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Taskforce, Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition, and Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. Bike the route of a future car-free connection along the Brooklyn waterfront with stops for briefings about the Greenway. 10:00AM-2:00PM. Call Milton Puryear or Alan Mukamal at 718-852-1420.

17: Radioactive Waste at West Valley: What Should Be Done With It?, a public meeting sponsored by The Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Wastes. Concord Town Hall, Franklin Street, Springville. 7:00PM. Call 716-941-3168 or email: mongerson107@earthlink.net.

19: 2003 Loon Census, organized by the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program. Help count the loon population in the Adirondack Park. Call 518-891-8836.

20: A Day On The Farm, two farm tours sponsored by The Regional Farm & Food Project. The tours will showcase sustainable farming at the Full Belly Farm and Red Barn Farm in the Albany area. Tours will be held on both farms at 1:00PM and again at 2:30PM. Free and open to the public. Please no dogs. Contact the Regional Farm & Food Project at 518-271-0744 or farmfood@capital.net.

21-24: EarthLinks: Designing Creative Solutions That Heal Our Earth, workshop sponsored by Buffalo State College’s International Center for Studies in Creativity. Buffalo State College, Buffalo. 8:00AM-1:00PM. Contact Susan Keller-Mathers at 716-878-6224 or kellersm@buffalostate.edu.

24: Book Release Party. Celebrate the publication of Critical Mass: Bicycling’s Defiant Celebration with a party and readings by Chris Carlsson and local contributors. Organized by AK Press. Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street, Manhattan. 7:00PM. Call 212-777-6028.

29: Achieving Consensus for Regional Transportation Investments, Auto-Free New York meeting. 104 Washington Street, just north of Rector St. 6:00PM. Call 212-475-3394.

August

15-18: Hazon’s 3rd annual New York Jewish Environmental Bike Ride. Raise environmental awareness and ride a beautiful 115-mile route from East Hampton to Manhattan. Open to riders of any religious background who are interested in supporting faith-based efforts to foster environmental awareness and protection. Visit: www.hazon.org to register.

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THE GREEN SHEET
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Environmental Advocates of New York.
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Managing Editor • Jeff Jones
Editor • Laura DiBetta

To Contact Elected Officials:

Governor George E. Pataki
Executive Chamber
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224
518.474.8390
www.state.ny.us/governor

New York State Senate
Albany, NY 12247
518.455.2800
www.senate.state.ny.us

New York State Assembly
Albany, NY 12248
518.455.4100
www.assembly.state.ny.us

US Capitol Switchboard
202.224.3121