The Town Board will petition state representatives to require hydraulic drilling for natural gas, the process commonly known as “hydrofracking” or “fracking,” be subject to local laws.At a meeting Tuesday, the board adopted a resolution saying that even transportation of extracted material through municipalities poses a risk.“I don’t want to see trucks, vehicles, whatever transporting this material from Saugerties to Phoenicia,” Councilman Jay Wenk said.Wenk would have liked the resolution to contain stronger language citing problems in areas where hydraulic drilling is allowed.“The extraction of natural gas and oil does have significant impacts on communities,” he said. “We know that now. It’s not a question."

By Mid-Hudson News Network

Ulster County legislators have voted unanimously to prohibit the leasing of any county-owned land for natural gas extraction.The action came during the Legislature’s meeting on Tuesday, and some lawmakers asked why the prohibition is being limited to county-owned property.Legislator Susan Zimet, who introduced the resolution, said it’s better to do this one step at a time.“I felt that by doing it on the county property that we, as county legislators, could stand up, say that we’ll deal with our own home property now and not go to the private property people; that this would be just the first step,” said Zimet, D-New Paltz. “It would be easier to do a first step, and we can build and build and build.”

The Intelligencer

Sometimes the West Virginia Legislature is just plain puzzling. Take the matter of regulations for oil and gas drilling: After two months of debate, lawmakers failed to approve a package of new mandates.Blame disagreements over strict rules favored by some environmentalists clashing with well-founded concern about regulations that could hamper the fast-growing gas industry in our state.But the Legislature also failed to provide more money for the Department of Environmental Protection to enforce regulations. The DEP has only about 17 inspectors to handle thousands of oil and gas wells. It can't even ensure compliance with existing rules.

Mid-Hudson News

The only question raised among Ulster County legislators before voting, unanimously, to prohibit the leasing of any county-owned lands for natural gas extraction was ‘why limit it to county lands’?Democrat Susan Zimet, who introduced the resolution that drew solid bipartisan support and praise from Republicans and Democrats, said it is better to do this a step at a time. “I felt that by doing it on the county property that we as county legislators could stand up, say that we’ll deal with our own home property now and not go to the private property people; that this would be just the first step,” she said. “It would be easier to do a first step and we can build and build and build.”Several people spoke during public comment prior to the agenda items, all raising essentially the same points that have been raised many times before, in opposition to hydrofracking, and in favor of the resolution.

HINCHEY, SCHUMER INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO PROTECT DRINKING WATER FROM HYDROFRACKING

Mid-Hudson News

Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-New York) and Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) are among the cosponsors of legislation aimed at protecting drinking water from hydrofracking to mine natural gas.Hinchey was supported in the House proposal by Members Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Jared Polis (D-CO). Schumer was joined in the Senate by Senator Bob Casey (D-PA).New York lawmakers are concerned about drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation by pumping, under high pressure, chemicals to fracture the shale and release the natural gas.They are concerned about the hydrofracking in the New York City Watershed in the Catskills and the Upper Delaware River Watershed.

FRACKING FIGHT COULD BE HEADED TO COURT

The Daily Star

The intersection of state environmental and local zoning laws may soon be more clearly defined as the fight over drilling and fracking goes to court.Fearing environmental and economic damage, the towns that ring Otsego Lake, Cooperstown's reservoir, are moving to ban natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing. And lease holders in Middlefield are planning to sue. Last week, as Middlefield moved to tighten its zoning law, attorney Scott Kurkowski warned officials: "You do not have the authority to do this." Kurkowski, attorney for the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York State, said the state sets the rules governing gas drilling, and state regulations supersede local zoning and planning laws.At the meeting, he said he represents 14 leaseholders in Middlefield who plan to sue to have a drilling ban overturned.Outside the meeting, Kurkowski said he believes he is on solid legal ground."There are certain things we do that are in the public interest and mig ht not be in each individual's interest," he said.

POLLUTION FIGURES CAN BE MISLEADING

Times Herald Record

At any other time, a story revising the amount of wastewater recycled from drilling operations would be just another correction. When it involves the water used in hydraulic fracturing, the technique used to extract natural gas from deep below the surface, and when the revision makes the difference between good and terrible, then it's time to pay attention. Pollution is a major issue for people who worry about the effects of hydrofracking. Recent articles in The New York Times document how politics and science have collided to raise questions about just how much we know about the short- and long-term effects of the drilling and how much more we should know before going ahead on the large scale proposed by drillers, landowners and others who stand to make a lot of money.

STRICTLY BUSINESS: ANATOMY OF A FRACKING WELL BLOWOUT

Star Gazette

It's been about seven weeks since what's officially described as a "well control incident" took place at Talisman's Pad No. 8 gas well in Tioga County's Ward Township.In the time that's passed, Talisman has responded to Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection request for an extensive detailing of the "whys and wherefores" surrounding the incident.DEP is still determining what penalty, if any, Talisman will face for violating the state's Clean Streams Law, Oil and Gas Act and the Solid Waste Management Act.

LOCAL TOWN LOOKS TO DECIDE GAS DRILLING FATE

Daily Star

Can a town in New York state ban gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing within its borders?Middlefield, one of three towns in Otsego County that ring Otsego Lake, is set to try. The other two, Springfield and Otsego, are not far behind. The Middlefield Town Board held a public hearing Tuesday night on changes to its master plan and zoning ordinance to expressly ban drilling and fracking -- the shattering of shale underground with pressurized water, sand and chemicals. Neal Newman, acting co-chairman of Middlefield's planning board, said town officials believe their zoning law prohibits heavy industry, banning drilling and fracking. But the tightened-up regulation, slated to be adopted as a local law at the town board's April 12 meeting, is meant to leave no loopholes.After Tuesday's packed public hearings at the Middlefield town offices, it seems there is little doubt that most town residents support a ban.

PA.'S ATTEMPTS TO TRACK GAS DRILLING WASTE FLAWED

Wall Street Journal

The natural gas industry's claim that it is making great strides in reducing how much polluted wastewater it discharges to Pennsylvania rivers is proving difficult to assess because of inconsistent reporting by energy companies — and at least one big data entry error in the state's system for tracking the contaminated fluids.Last month, Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection released data that appeared to show that drillers had found a way to recycle nearly 6.9 million barrels of the toxic brine produced by natural gas wells — fluid that in past years would have been sent to wastewater plants for partial treatment, and then discharged into rivers that also serve as drinking water supplies. But those figures were revealed Thursday to have been wildly inflated, due to a mistake by Seneca Resources Corp., a subsidiary of Houston-based National Fuel Gas Co. The company said a worker gave some data to the state in the wrong unit of measure, meaning th at about 125,000 barrels of recycled wastewater was misreported as more than 5.2 million barrels.

Yorktown to raze historic farmhouse

YORKTOWN — For 199 years, a farmhouse of one of the town's oldest families has overlooked Crompond Road.

Cuomo Picks Open Space Advocate For DEC Chief

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will nominate Joe Martens to become the new head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The agency has been hit hard by layoffs and the last commissioner, Pete Grannis, was fired after a memo critical of layoffs was leaked to the press.

Perhaps the most significant selection of Martens is his stance on hydraulic fracturing, a controversial drilling process that involves blasting a cocktail of water and chemicals into rock in order to extract natural gas. Drilling companies want the potentially lucrative rights to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of the state, but environmentalists are opposed.

Martens supports waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a report on the process, also known as hydrofracking.

In a speech in Schenectady last year, Martens said the department should take it slow.

“The EPA has initiated a $1.9 million, two-year study of the impact of hydrofracking on health and the environment,” Martens said. “What’s the downside of waiting for the results?”

'Fracking' plans will need further review

Attention shifts Monday to another "ground zero," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's public hearings in Binghamton on the controversial natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, which has touched off an energy-seeking "gold rush" of sorts in the Marcellus Shale region of the northeastern United States.

The New York City-based Natural Resources Defense Council expects more than 8,000 people to attend the hearings Monday and Wednesday, part of what the environmental group calls the first "credible, comprehensive examination" by the EPA of the controversial extraction process, which is already in use elsewhere in the U.S. Public interest is high (1) because of the potential for a money-making bonanza in the energy-rich Marcellus Shale formation, and (2) because of the public's justified environmental concerns.

"Fracking," as the process is commonly known, entails injecting vast amounts of water, sand and chemicals underground to force open channels in sand and rock, so the oil and natural gas — and money — will flow. Environmentalists fear the chemicals will taint water supplies. Drilling proponents contend the practice is safe; it occurs many thousands of feet underground, far from drinking water sources.

What's in it?

No water supply so far has been tainted by fracking, proponents contend. Remarkably, however, basic information about the chemicals used in fracking is sorely lacking. Only now is the EPA studying the potential human health and water-quality issues implicated by the process. Just last week, the EPA asked nine natural gas companies and fracturing service providers, including Halliburton and Key Energy Services, to disclose the chemical components they use. To date, that information has been kept secret, treated as a business secret. There can be no comprehensive review without such disclosure.

"By sharing information about the chemicals and methods they are using, these companies will help us make a thorough and efficient review of hydraulic fracturing and determine the best path forward," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in an Associated Press article. "Natural gas is an important part of our nation's energy future, and it's critical that the extraction of this valuable natural resource does not come at the expense of safe water and healthy communities."

Rare agreement

Mindful of the dearth of study, the state Senate earlier this summer put its usual bickering aside to back a ban on new drilling permits until next year, to give state officials extra time to consider the environmental impacts of fracking. The Assembly has yet to act on the measure. Given what we know — of what we don't know about fracking — the Assembly should follow the Senate's lead. Both New York and the EPA need to look hard before wading any farther into these murky waters.

JUST A WEEK after an independent report revealed that the federal government underplayed how much crude was spewing into the Gulf of Mexico during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Obama administration announced that it is lifting its moratorium on deep-water drilling in the gulf. Ironic timing aside, one can sense the whiff of politics in the administration's decision as the midterm elections near. Still, President Obama is justified in allowing offshore drilling to proceed.

For months, gulf-state politicians have agitated for lifting the moratorium, arguing that drilling is critical to their economies and that any real recovery -- either economic or environmental -- would be exceptionally difficult without the revenue that offshore exploration provides. Though some environmental groups portray the rigs and production platforms in the gulf as bombs waiting to go off, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has reasons to insist that the Outer Continental Shelf is entering "a new day" in oil and gas production. One reason is BP's vast improvement of deep-water containment technology; another is the thorough safety review that drilling companies and the government conducted since the spill.

Mr. Salazar's reasons, won't hold, however, unless the federal government improves its offshore drilling regulations. The Interior Department recently announced tougher rules; Mr. Salazar says that no new deep-water drilling will begin unless operators can prove they can contain a worst-case scenario accident. But just as important is professional application of the rules, which the government failed to provide before the Deepwater Horizon blowout. Among other things, more consistent oversight probably requires more and, critically, much better-trained inspectors.

Congress has much to do beyond funding those inspectors. This includes granting the national oil spill commission subpoena power, since the commission has limited time to investigate. Lawmakers can also lift the limit on liability for damage caused by oil spills that offshore drillers now enjoy. That's just for starters; more reform should come after the oil spill commission and other inquiries release their findings.

rovided by the Cortland County Planning Department
For a full-size PDF of the gas lease map, click on the image above.

By CATHERINE WILDE
Staff Reporter
cwilde@cortlandstandard.net

CORTLAND — Nearly half of the land in Cortland County is leased by natural gas companies, which are lining up to drill in the region after state rules for a controversial drilling method know as “hydrofracking” are enacted, according to a map drafted by the county Planning Department.The map not only accounts for properties but includes roads and state land. If those were excluded, the total percentage of leased property would be much higher, said Planning Department Director Dan Dineen.

Dineen found the results staggering.

“It is quite surprising the amount of land that is leased,” Dineen said.
The map, which was completed last week, does not specify which companies are the predominant lease-holders in the county.

Dineen said the department has been working on the map for the past six months but outdated tax map numbers made the task difficult. The department compiled the information from gas leases filed with the County Clerk’s Office.

County geographical information system specialist Eric Lopez has been mapping the lands and said 48 percent of total property area in the county is leased.

The map highlights all the leased lands in orange, showing state land in green with intermittent white areas where no land is leased. It was not known by press time what portion of the state land is leased for gas drilling.

The city of Cortland shows no leased lands while a few properties in the villages of Marathon and McGraw are leased.

The vast majority of Scott, and large portions of Homer and Virgil are also leased.
Countywide, 18 percent of property parcels are leased. This is because of the numerous unleased parcels in cities and villages.

“There are so many more parcels in the city of Cortland and the villages and none have gas leases ... and that brings down the percentage of number of parcels that have leases,” explained Dineen.
“While larger parcels outside the cities and towns have leases and that brings the percentage of land that is leased higher,” Dineen said.

The map does not distinguish between active and nonactive drilling sites.
Dineen said there are some active vertical drilling operations in the county.
There is a de-facto moratorium on horizontal drilling, however, while the state Department of Environmental Conservation reviews the technology used in these operations. Commonly known as hydrofracking, hydraulic fracturing involves injecting large quantities of chemically treated water into the underlying shale to free trapped gas.

The local group Gas Drilling Awareness of Cortland County has been active in informing the public about the potential environmental risks of hydrofracking and also informing property owners about their rights when it comes to signing lease agreements.

Jim Weiss, a concerned Marathon resident, said the map will give landowners who do not have gas leases an accurate picture of what is going on around them.
Weiss said although almost half of the county is leased, that does not represent the percentage of the population in favor of drilling.
“It is important to realize that most of these leases were negotiated by landmen who never said a word about hydrofracking, deceiving landowners who expected traditional, less invasive gas drilling,” Weiss said in an e-mail Wednesday.

Lopez said since tax map numbers were recently changed, finding the actual property boundaries was a time-consuming task and delayed his progress.Lopez said the map will be kept updated and as he finds new data, he will refine the map.The map does not categorize the leases based on expiration dates. It is unclear whether any soon-to-expire leases will be renewed

Dineen said the map will be provided to interested citizens and municipalities.
The map are available for viewing at the Planning Department at 37 Church Street.
“They will give municipalities an idea of the extent of gas leases in the county so when they work on their local regulations, whether they be road preservation laws or whatever, it gives municipalities a sense of the amount of land that is leased,” Dineen said.

“Today, the New York State Department of Environmental Conversation (DEC) announced a separate environmental review process that will effectively prevent high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the New York City and Skaneateles Lake watersheds.

While ostensibly this is a step in the right direction to protect the drinking water of many New Yorkers from this risky gas drilling technology, I fear it is a cynical move that will pit New Yorkers against each other. We must not let DEC punt on prohibiting such drilling for natural gas in and around water supplies throughout the entire state.

Residents in Manhattan and Syracuse, for example, will benefit from this decision while those living in Ithaca and Jamestown will not. This is unacceptable.

It is a testament to the hard work of environmental and community advocates that we were able to reach this point, but we cannot allow this announcement to lull us into complacency.

New York City activists must maintain their vigilant support for statewide protections and I call upon the New York City Department of Environmental Protection to continue to fight alongside us.

Let us not doubt for a second that if DEC permits hydraulic fracturing in and around the rest of New York’s water supplies then the New York City and Skaneateles Lake watersheds will once again be at risk. Once the large and well-financed energy companies get a foothold in New York State, it is only a matter of time before they convince DEC that drilling in the unfiltered water supplies is safe as well.”

Environmental group wants drilling postponed

New York should not issue new rules to allow gas drilling until a new federal study — which will take at least two years — determines whether that drilling is safe. So says a leading environmental group, Catskill Mountainkeeper, based in the western Sullivan County hamlet of Youngsville; the hamlet, like the rest of Sullivan and parts of Ulster, sits on the gas-rich Marcellus shale.

"Why wouldn't (the Department of Environmental Conservation) wait? It's only common sense," says Ramsay Adams, executive director of Mountainkeeper, which like other local and national environmental groups — and New York City — says the horizontal drilling method of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," pollutes drinking water.

The Environmental Protection Agency study, which began in Washington, D.C., Wednesday with a session to set up its parameters, will focus on everything from the impact of fracking on the nation's water supplies to the transportation of the chemically treated fluids taken from the ground during the process.

The DEC will not comment "at this time" on waiting for the EPA, said a spokeswoman for the agency, which is still reviewing more than 10,000 comments submitted on its proposed regulations.

But the number of those comments — and the often heated public hearings on the issue — are an indication of how much is at stake. The Marcellus shale not only sits below one of the country's most environmentally sensitive and populated areas, the New York City watershed, but also contains one of the most lucrative gas deposits on earth.

While opponents cite polluting accidents in Pennsylvania and western states, the executive director of the state's industry trade group points to its "proven track record in New York" — and previous federal studies, which critics say are industry-biased and outdated. Plus, the DEC's proposed regulations will be "more stringent" than current rules, which are already the toughest in the country, says Brad Gill of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York.

Waiting much longer to drill will cost the state millions, since companies are already shifting their sights to Pennsylvania.

Shuttering historic sites cuts us off from history

Several New York state parks and historic sites in our region face closures or scaled back operations because of steep funding cuts in the governor's proposed 2010-2011 state budget. Though the Assembly and Senate have pushed to restore $11 million in state aid to keep 55 parks and historic sites open, their future remains up in the air.

It is appalling that there is even a question of closing Rockland County's most historic sites. These sites have become more popular and brought in more revenue as vacation prices have risen and people stay closer to home. Revolutionary War battle sites such as the Stony Point Battlefield are not just mere tokens of history. They are also the final resting place of those unknown soldiers who sacrificed their lives and fortunes to make this a free country. Scores of historians, guides, re-enactors, craftspeople, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts volunteer to teach American history and keep the properties historically correct. Fort Montgomery was just restored a few years ago (sacrificing the popular TeePee Restaurant for the land) and the Stony Point Battlefield just recently added its final section. These two forts and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point are the most visited historic sites in the area.

We are given the reason for closing as financial and yet a March 14 front-page article, "Senate increases staff, pay since coup," shows us that the New York state Senate has added 161 new staff positions, given employee raises and boosted payroll that will add up to about $7.4 million in new spending this year. Shame on our senators for taking away the historic education of our children and the right and privilege of all people to honor their country and stand where heroes stood in order to increase government control and pad their pockets.

Everything is about money. Government officials will tell you that closing historic sites and parks will save money. If you think it's a cost savings to close historic sites with valuable artifacts, get real! Museum items cannot remain in closed-up buildings unattended. Won't they have to be moved and stored in atmospheric-controlled storehouses for preservation? Staffs of people would need to be hired and trained to package the artifacts. Boxes, crates and containers of special sizes would have to be purchased from packaging companies. Then comes the real money from your tax pocket: we, the taxpayers, would be paying for the removal of artifacts and anything of historic value and paying for their storage until some undetermined time in the future. While this storage is taking place, Mother Nature will move in and the battlefields will return to their original state — woodlands.

For the hundreds of people who attend the annual patriotic Flag Retirement Ceremony at the Stony Point Battlefield every year, there will be no ceremony at Stony Point this year. No plans could be put into place at the battlefield after April 1, as the budget remained up in the air. Flag Retirement for Flag Day is June 12.

The writer, a Monsey resident, is a regent of the Shatemuc Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

EPA to announce initiation of hydraulic fracturing study. Tomorrow, EPA will announce that it will conduct a comprehensive research study to investigate the potential adverse impact that hydraulic fracturing may have on water quality and public health. Natural gas plays a key role in our nation’s clean energy future and the
process known as hydraulic fracturing is one way of accessing that vital resource. There are concerns that hydraulic fracturing may impact ground water and surface water quality in ways that threaten human health and the environment. To address these concerns and strengthen our clean energy future and in response to language inserted into the Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations Act, EPA is re-allocating $1.9 million for this comprehensive, peer reviewed study for FY10 and requesting funding for FY11 in the President’s budget proposal. The announcement tomorrow will
be on how to design this study

Changes needed in tree-cutting policies

It is time for the the state and Consolidated Edison to take a second look at the effect recent policies have had on the landscape, natural habitat and neighbors along hundreds of miles of high-voltage transmission lines that criss-cross the Lower Hudson Valley.

Since the fall, residents in communities from Yonkers to Yorktown have been up in arms over Consolidated Edison's aggressive clear-cutting of vegetation from the pathways beneath the transmission lines. In Greenburgh, residents who once had a woodland buffer between their homes and a busy roadway have lost their visual screen and their natural noise barrier. In Pleasantville, the utility cut down century-old trees near a park.

Similar complaints have come from residents in Rockland County, where contractors for Orange & Rockland Utilities, a Con Ed subsidiary, have been clearing the utility's rights of way from Ramapo to Orangetown, even taking down trees that were recently planted to provide buffer between homes and a rail-trail in Tappan.

The utilities say they are just following new, stricter guidelines regarding transmission lines adopted by the state's Public Service Commission in 2005, after felled trees in Ohio touched off the East Coast blackout of 2003. (There are different guidelines for the lower-voltage wires, known as distribution lines, that run along streets and provide service to homes.)

"We understand that people don't like to lose trees, but people don't like to lose power either, and there's a real safety issue when people lose power," Allan Drury, a spokesman for Consolidated Edison, told the Editorial Board. "The cutting is required by state and federal regulators and there is a reliability issue."

Remember 2006

Anyone who remembers the summer of 2006, when a streak of wild weather left thousands of residents without power for far too long, should understand the importance of keeping trees away from power lines. Back then, residents and politicians complained about Con Ed's slow response times and ill-preparedness. Con Ed took the necessary steps to address both of those complaints and one of those steps is more aggressive tree-trimming.

Still, there ought to be a way to strike a balance that protects the transmission lines, which are strung along on towers 100 feet or taller in rights of way, but doesn't leave residents looking out on backyards of "scorched-earth," as some residents have dubbed the clear-cutting technique.

"Beyond the aesthetic issue, of once having woods but now having nothing but stumps, there are issues of habitat destruction, stormwater impacts, creating corridors for invasive (plant species)," Mark Gilliland, an opponent of the cutting, told the Editorial Board. Gilliland is chair of the Greenburgh Environmental Forum's Lorax working group — Lorax being a Dr. Seuss character who advocated for trees. It is trying to persuade the Public Service Commission to issue a moratorium on clear-cutting and to reconsider its regulations.

Reasonable accommodations

The group is hoping to persuade the Westchester County Board of Legislators and as many municipalities as possible to join their call for a moratorium and to ask Con Ed for changes that don't require Public Service Commission approval, such as giving residents three weeks' notice of planned work, mitigating damages to the landscape and replanting shorter trees where necessary. (When asked about the residents' requests, Con Ed spokesman Drury told the Editorial Board that the company has no problem with the three weeks' notification and will work with specific customers to replant trees on the customers' property, though not on its right of way.)

State, county and municipal officials have attended meetings in recent months to voice outrage about the clear-cutting. It's time for them to begin a dialogue with the Public Service Commission on how to change the regulations so that they protect the vital electric grid, while also preserving the landscape around it.

Feds: Mangone tried to get witnesses to lie in Yonkers probe

WHITE PLAINS — The lawyer charged in the Yonkers public corruption scandal tried to derail the federal investigation into a bribery scheme involving him, a Democratic Yonkers city councilwoman and the head of the Yonkers Republican Party, federal prosecutors said.

Anthony Mangone met with two unnamed witnesses prior to their testifying before a federal grand jury and suggested they lie about an alleged $10,000 bribe Mangone passed on to Yonkers GOP Chairman Zehy Jereis to give to Councilwoman Sandy Annabi, federal prosecutors said.

The claim came in a filing that asks a judge to restrict defense lawyers' use of evidence turned over to the defendants as they prepare for trial.

The bribe, federal prosecutors said, was to get Annabi to change her vote on a redevelopment plan that would have benefitted Mangone's client, a Yonkers developer.

"Mangone took affirmative steps to obstruct the grand jury's investigation of this matter," Assistant U.S. attorneys Jason P.W. Halperin and Perry Carbone said in court papers. "He sought to ensure that the White Plains grand jury investigating the matter would never learn about the extortion scheme."

Mangone, who has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the alleged bribe, was not charged with obstruction of justice in the indictment returned last month that named him, Annabi and Jereis as defendants.

The indictment also charged Jereis and Annabi with conspiring to sell her vote on the controversial $600 million Ridge Hill development project that passed the City Council after Annabi unexpectedly changed her vote and supported the project.

Mangone's lawyer, James R. DeVita declined to comment on the accusations in the latest federal filing.

The developer that Mangone represented in the Longfellow School redevelopment project, Franco Milio and Milio Management, is not named in the indictment or the latest filing.

Federal prosecutors charge that Mangone told the developer not to tell his new lawyer about paying the alleged bribe. That conversation came after another lawyer, identified as Mangone's law partner and named "John Doe No. 1," told Mangone that the partner could not represent Milio in the federal criminal probe because the developer told him about the bribe, according to court papers.

The law partner and another business associate of Mangone's had separate meetings with him in which Mangone said he intended to tell federal agents that the $10,000 payment was Jereis' fee to lobby the Yonkers City Council on the Longfellow project, federal prosecutors said in the filing.

It was at those meetings that Mangone suggested they alter their stories to mesh with his when they testified, federal prosecutors said.

"Mangone had previously told them both separately and together that he had taken the cash from Developer No. 1 and given it to Jereis to give to Annabi in exchange for her support for the Longfellow project," Halperin and Carbone said.

Journal News Westchester Saturday Headline: State dumps 93 companies from Empire Zone program by Cara Matthews. Pay particular attention Councilman Ravallo, Camarda cheerleader and member of the Putnam County Empire Zone Commission

It begins - "The state's beleaguered Empire Zone program continues to purge businesses that receive tax breaks without creating jobs, announcing this week that 93 companies are being removed ......the 93 businesses annual tax credits totaled $13.9 million.

And goes on. "The Board is still reviewing the cases of 295 businesses, most of which are accused of being shirtchangers (companies reincorporate to continue getting tax breaks.

Pay attention: the next to last paragraph - Many of the businesses that are losing their tax credits are realty groups or property holding companies.

So while the IDA, the county legislature and the town board are fast tracking the financially anemic Camarda/Jaral Properties and Union Place, the State is dumping these companies. (coincidentally, these properties appear on the tax map as Carmel Empire Zone designees.

Time we did the same thing. Dump Camarda.

To gain further insight, he is now consulting with In-Site Engineering, (Camarda's Engineering Firm in Residence), the firm responsible for over $2.1 million in site work on the park. Wait there is more, $21,000+ was allocated for further improvements - benches, etc. So how much is the remediation work going to cost the Town?

If the folks up above on Willow Ridge are not careful, they'll have a front row living seat right on the playground and ballfields

ALBANY —It was the environment versus the economy in Albany on Monday as hundreds of people for and against drilling in the Marcellus Shale in the Southern Tier, Catskills and central New York brought their messages to the Capitol.

Robert Moore of Port Crane, Broome County, said New York is "running people out of the state" because of high taxes. Natural-gas exploration using horizontal wells and a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is safe, and the benefits to the economy would be great, he said.

Joyce Lovelace of Ithaca, who spoke after a rally organized by environmental groups, said she doesn't think the jobs that the drilling would bring to the area would be long term or would be filled by local people.

"I don't think that this is worth any amount of money because once our groundwater is polluted, we can't unpollute it," she said.

Lovelace, a former farm owner in Cayuga County, said she signed a lease for gas rights and later learned that well drilling would be much more concentrated than she was originally told. If catchment basins leaked, fluids moving through the shale would destroy its integrity and endanger health and safety, she said.

The Marcellus Shale is a black shale formation that travels deep underground from Ohio and West Virginia northeast into Pennsylvania and southern New York, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The agency is evaluating public comments on its draft study on the potential negative environmental impacts of horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing to develop the shale. More than 13,500 comments were filed with the DEC before the comment period ended Dec. 31, said Morgan Hook, a spokesman for Gov. David Paterson.

The governor's budget proposal calls for a 3 percent tax on natural-gas producers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations that use horizontal wells.

A number of signs held by demonstrators at both rallies Monday used the word "fracking," such as "No Frackin' Way" and "Lethal Infraction" for the anti-drillers and "Stop the Frackin' Lies" from the pro-drillers.

During the hydraulic fracturing process, fluids are injected into deep shale gas formations under high pressure, forcing natural gas to the surface.

Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton, said there will not be another economic-development opportunity like this one for generations.

"We have before us an opportunity, and we can't blow this opportunity," he said.

Meanwhile, environmental and conservation groups said the proposed drilling may be the most pressing threat to the state's environment.

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, spoke against what she called a "frighteningly destructive process for extracting more fossil fuels from our ground."

"This is the state we live in. This is the state we love and whose water resources are .... one of the most important resources we have that we intend to preserve," she said.

Of the 84,000 chemicals in commercial use in the United States -- from flame retardants in furniture to household cleaners -- nearly 20 percent are secret, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, their names and physical properties guarded from consumers and virtually all public officials under a little-known federal provision.

The policy was designed 33 years ago to protect trade secrets in a highly competitive industry. But critics -- including the Obama administration -- say the secrecy has grown out of control, making it impossible for regulators to control potential dangers or for consumers to know which toxic substances they might be exposed to.

At a time of increasing public demand for more information about chemical exposure, pressure is building on lawmakers to make it more difficult for manufacturers to cloak their products in secrecy. Congress is set to rewrite chemical regulations this year for the first time in a generation.

Under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, manufacturers must report to the federal government new chemicals they intend to market. But the law exempts from public disclosure any information that could harm their bottom line.

Government officials, scientists and environmental groups say that manufacturers have exploited weaknesses in the law to claim secrecy for an ever-increasing number of chemicals. In the past several years, 95 percent of the notices for new chemicals sent to the government requested some secrecy, according to the Government Accountability Office. About 700 chemicals are introduced annually.

Some companies have successfully argued that the federal government should not only keep the names of their chemicals secret but also hide from public view the identities and addresses of the manufacturers.

"Even acknowledging what chemical is used or what is made at what facility could convey important information to competitors, and they can start to put the pieces together," said Mike Walls, vice president of the American Chemistry Council.

Although a number of the roughly 17,000 secret chemicals may be harmless, manufacturers have reported in mandatory notices to the government that many pose a "substantial risk" to public health or the environment. In March, for example, more than half of the 65 "substantial risk" reports filed with the Environmental Protection Agency involved secret chemicals.

"You have thousands of chemicals that potentially present risks to health and the environment," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization that documented the extent of the secret chemicals through public-records requests from the EPA. "It's impossible to run an effective regulatory program when so many of these chemicals are secret."

Of the secret chemicals, 151 are made in quantities of more than 1 million tons a year and 10 are used specifically in children's products, according to the EPA.

The identities of the chemicals are known to a handful of EPA employees who are legally barred from sharing that information with other federal officials, state health and environmental regulators, foreign governments, emergency responders and the public.

Last year, a Colorado nurse fell seriously ill after treating a worker involved at a chemical spill at a gas-drilling site. The man, who later recovered, appeared at a Durango hospital complaining of dizziness and nausea. His work boots were damp; he reeked of chemicals, the nurse said.

Two days later, the nurse, Cathy Behr, was fighting for her life. Her liver was failing and her lungs were filling with fluid. Behr said her doctors diagnosed chemical poisoning and called the manufacturer, Weatherford International, to find out what she might have been exposed to.

Weatherford provided safety information, including hazards, for the chemical, known as ZetaFlow. But because ZetaFlow has confidential status, the information did not include all of its ingredients.

Mark Stanley, group vice president for Weatherford's pumping and chemical services, said in a statement that the company made public all the information legally required.

"It is always in our company's best interest to provide information to the best of our ability," he said.

Behr said the full ingredient list should be released. "I'd really like to know what went wrong," said Behr, 57, who recovered but said she still has respiratory problems. "As citizens in a democracy, we ought to know what's happening around us."

The White House and environmental groups want Congress to force manufacturers to prove that a substance should be kept confidential. They also want federal officials to be able to share confidential information with state regulators and health officials, who carry out much of the EPA's work across the country.

Walls, of the American Chemistry Council, says manufacturers agree that federal officials should be able to share information with state regulators. Industry is also willing to discuss shifting the burden of proof for secrecy claims to the chemical makers, he said. The EPA must allow a claim unless it can prove within 90 days that disclosure would not harm business.

A week after he arrived at the agency in July, Steve Owens, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, ended confidentiality protection for 530 chemicals. In those cases, manufacturers had claimed secrecy for chemicals they had promoted by name on their Web sites or detailed in trade journals.

"People who were submitting information to the EPA saw that you can claim that virtually anything is confidential and get away with it," Owens said.

The handful of EPA officials privy to the identity of the chemicals do not have other information that could help them assess the risk, said Lynn Goldman, a former EPA official and a pediatrician and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

"Maybe they don't know there's been a water quality problem in New Jersey where the plant is located, or that the workers in the plant have had health problems," she said. "It just makes sense that the more people who are looking at it, they're better able to put one and one together and recognize problems."

Independent researchers, who often provide data to policymakers and regulators, also have been unable to study the secret chemicals.

Duke University chemist Heather Stapleton, who researches flame retardants, tried for months to identify a substance she had found in dust samples taken from homes in Boston.

Then, while attending a scientific conference, she happened to see the structure of a chemical she recognized as her mystery compound.

The substance is a chemical in "Firemaster 550," a product made by Chemtura Corp. for use in furniture and other products as a substitute for a flame retardant the company had quit making in 2004 because of health concerns.

Stapleton found that Firemaster 550 contains an ingredient similar in structure to a chemical -- Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, or DEHP -- that Congress banned last year from children's products because it has been linked to reproductive problems and other health effects.

Chemtura, which claimed confidentiality for Firemaster 550, supplied the EPA with standard toxicity studies. The EPA has asked for additional data, which it is studying.

"My concern is we're using chemicals and we have no idea what the long-term effects might be or whether or not they're harmful," said Susan Klosterhaus, an environmental scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute who has published a journal article on the substance with Stapleton.

Chemtura officials said in a written statement that even though Firemaster 550 contains an ingredient structurally similar to DEHP does not mean it poses similar health risks.

They said the company strongly supports keeping sensitive business information out of public view. "This is essential for ensuring the long-term competitiveness of U.S. industry," the officials said in the statement.

We at Riverkeeper are grateful for your unwavering support this year. Working with concerned citizens to preserve the integrity of the Hudson River and its watershed is essential to our success. This powerful partnership has proven time and again how working together, we have the ability to reclaim our waterways and communities and improve the quality of life for this and future generations.

Here are some highlights on what we've been working on in 2009 -- all issues that will continue to build momentum in the year to come:

•   Industrial Gas Drilling - Riverkeeper is leading the campaign to stop industrial gas drilling from being allowed in the NYC Watershed, which provides clean unfiltered drinking water to 9 million New Yorkers -- half the state's population. Riverkeeper is also a leader in a coalition effort to make sure that NY State issues strict controls to mitigate environmental damage wherever gas drilling is allowed.

•   PCB Dredging in the Hudson - Thanks to a battle Riverkeeper launched over 30 years ago, General Electric at long last began dredging the Hudson between Fort Edward and the federal dam at Troy in order to remove a 40-mile stretch of severely contaminated riverbed. While this first phase of the cleanup was a success, Riverkeeper will closely monitor the process to make sure GE finishes the job. We also will continue to participate in a lawsuit to defend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's legal authority to order polluters like General Electric to remediate Superfund sites like the Hudson.

•   Indian Point Campaign – In 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to allow a record number of "contentions" to be heard at a formal relicensing hearing on Indian Point next summer. Together with our partners in the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation and the NY Attorney General's Office, Riverkeeper is putting up a formidable challenge to Indian Point's quest to operate this dangerous plant for another 20 years. In 2010 we will continue our work to pursue every legal and political means available to retire Indian Point and eliminate the risk it poses to the health and safety of the region's residents.

•   Gowanus Canal - This past September, we launched an aggressive enforcement campaign targeting environmental law breakers on the highly polluted Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. We will continue our own enforcement efforts while backing the US EPA's proposed listing of the Gowanus as a federal Superfund site -- which we believe is essential to securing a comprehensive cleanup for this long blighted waterway.

•   Water Quality Testing Program – This fall, we completed our third season (April to December) of testing for nine water quality indicators, including fecal contamination, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll and pH from New York Harbor, 150 miles north to Troy and Waterford. Working with our partners at Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and Queens College of New York, Riverkeeper has compiled and posted on our website a water quality database which has never before existed for the Hudson -- all towards our ultimate goal of compelling the ten counties in the Hudson Valley as well as New York City to modernize their water quality monitoring and reporting programs. We will continue to build this database until we get action from state and county health officials who are responsible for providing this information to the public. After all, you and your family have a right to know and affect the quality of the water in your river.

We are proud of all that we've been able to accomplish together in 2009. Despite the economic challenges, we were able to maintain our capacity to combat threats to your right to a clean Hudson and to safe, high quality, affordable drinking water. But our work is far from done. Please join our Movement today and help us to sustain our momentum through 2010 and beyond.

Thank you for being a committed partner in our work. We look forward to an exciting year ahead.

Sincerely,

Alex Matthiessen
Hudson Riverkeeper

Visit Riverkeeper.org

Puglisi cites smart growth as Cortlandt replaces leaders on land-use boards

CORTLANDT — The leaders of the town's planning and zoning boards have been ousted by the Town Board, as part of an effort by Supervisor Linda Puglisi to emphasize "smart growth" and take a stricter approach to development in the town.

Puglisi said she wanted new leadership on the land-use boards, more attuned to the curtailment of suburban sprawl.

Loretta Taylor was named the new chairwoman of the Planning Board, replacing Steven Kessler. John Mattis was removed from the chairman's spot on the Zoning Board of Appeals, to be replaced by David Douglas. The new appointments take place Friday.

Puglisi said the time she spent with voters during the recent election made it clear that controls on taxes and development were community priorities.

"A big issue I heard everywhere was to control overdevelopment — not rampant development, especially near residential neighborhoods," she said. "I wanted to tighten up some of the policies of the boards and continue on the path of smart growth."

Douglas also is heading Cortlandt's open-space committee, "and that sends a message about where we want to go," Puglisi said.

Puglisi said Taylor was more in line with what the town looked to accomplish. Puglisi said there were "several cases" in recent years where she disapproved of planning and zoning board decisions, but didn't get into specifics. There is "nothing personal" about the leadership changes, she said.

"I felt I did a good job, and it was a little surprising and disappointing," he said.

Mattis, a financial planner who had served as chairman for more than a decade, said that he was unaware of any friction with the Town Board and that the zoning board operated by the book: "We deal on the facts." He said he would continue serving as a regular member of the board.

Kessler, a marketing executive, said: "It came as a bit of a surprise. I don't think anybody could criticize the Planning Board about following smart-growth guidelines. We've been prudent, and very fair over the years."

The leadership moves caused a split vote on the Town Board. Ann Lindau abstained on the Planning Board change, as did John Sloan, who has served on that board. Richard Becker, Frank Farrell and Puglisi approved the change.

Lindau and Becker voted against the zoning board change, with Farrell, Sloan and Puglisi voting in favor.

"I didn't like the way it was done," Lindau said. "They were in office a long time, and it was unprecedented. I didn't think it was fair to them."

Puglisi said the appointments were discussed at work sessions, and new appointments were always made in December.

Members of the land-use advisory boards are paid about $3,000 a year, and the chairman is paid $4,000.

Puglisi said land-use policy changes also were in store, aside from the shift in board personnel.

Norwood School started buying wind power. Potomac School converted its big yellow school buses to run on biodiesel. Sidwell Friends School kicked it up a notch with a green middle-school building that brought conversations about sewage treatment to the lips of D.C. high society. The solar panels that Bullis School bolted onto its roof this month were the latest volley in a green arms race that the area's private schools have waged for the past few years.

Although many public schools have gotten in the game, too, private schools have deeper pockets and more flexibility to pursue projects to woo families and be environmentally friendly. Some of the competition is tacit. But in the spring, 12 private schools from the Washington and Baltimore areas went head-to-head over reducing garbage and electricity use and increasing recycling.

Educators say gentle competition is a good way to teach students about energy use. (The many sport-utility vehicles that lumber up their driveways to drop off students, they say, is further incentive to bolster environmental education.) And investing in green buildings makes economic sense for schools in ways it doesn't for businesses, they say.

"A number of the things that we do in our market economy have the effect of shielding or clouding the whole concept of energy costs," said Tom Farquhar, head of Bullis School, which buys wind power exclusively, and, once the switch is flipped next month, will also draw electricity from 540 new solar panels atop its arts building. Most buildings aren't constructed by the people who will occupy them. Schools will reap benefits for decades to come, making projects more economically viable, Farquhar said.

The winner in the spring Day School Green Challenge was the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore. In second place was the Woods Academy, a 300-student independent Catholic school in Bethesda. It cut its energy use by almost a fifth and increased its recycling compliance almost by half, although its trash production went up.

Farquhar said that at Bullis, which placed sixth, teachers had talked about energy consumption in class and the whole campus labored to make small changes such as keeping lights off, habits that have stuck with him. (Past interviews with him have been conducted in dimmed offices.) The school also tries to serve locally produced food in its cafeteria; Farquhar said he sometimes makes trips to orchards in the fall for crates of apples.

And at Green Acres School, which teaches 300 students in Rockville, a team of teachers, students and parents has been working to find ways to make the school greener, from increasing recycling to adding classes about the environment and thinking about geothermal energy, said school head Neal Brown. Like Bullis, Green Acres purchases electricity from wind sources. The school plans to join the green contest this spring.

At Sidwell Friends, the middle-school building that opened in 2007 draws architects and environmental enthusiasts from across the country, and the school highlights its locally sourced lunches.

11/30/09

We received an email over the Thanksgiving weekend from Ned Sullivan at Scenic Hudson, describing the dire situation in Albany regarding funding for land acquisition. It was clear and concise enough that we thought we'd simply cut-and-paste it, and send it along to our supporters (hope you don't mind, Ned). The entirety of the letter follows in italics. Take the action that Ned suggests:

We need your help. The word from Albany is that Gov. Paterson and NY State lawmakers are proposing placing a moratorium on all state funding for land protection and acquisition. The portion of the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) dedicated to direct land protection already is less than 1/1,000th of the overall state budget -- and now they're proposing bringing it all the way down to ZERO.

We understand that NY is facing a budget crisis, but eliminating all state land preservation would be a dreadful mistake. Here are three reasons why:

1. Developers are gearing up for a post-recession wave of building
Builders are using their current downtime to plan and seek approvals for the next wave of residential construction. The latest estimates suggest that 100,000 new housing units have already been proposed for the Hudson Valley, many of which will eliminate farmland and mar the iconic views that have made the valley a world-famous attraction.

2. Depressed real estate prices are creating great conservation opportunities
Given a choice, many property owners would prefer to see their land conserved than sell it to a developer-especially in this economy, when buyers of any kind are scarce. By placing a moratorium on land purchases now, New York is turning away from some unprecedented land protection bargains.

3. State land protection programs are a proven winner
Unlike many aspects of state government, the program that makes EPF funds available for land protection projects is highly efficient. This small part of the state budget brings big benefits to New Yorkers with very little waste. Let's not mess it up!

As most of you know, the governor and lawmakers have already robbed the EPF of half a billion dollars -- this year's EPF has been reduced by nearly 25 percent from funding levels passed into law in 2007. Don't let our lawmakers cut it further by enacting this wrong-headed moratorium. Please visit this page to send them a letter today.
Sincerely,

Ned Sullivan
President
P.S. I know this is a busy time of year, but sending this letter is really important. Thanks for all that you do.

NYC Council calls for ban on drilling in watersheds

NEW YORK, Nov 16 (Reuters) - The New York City Council called for a ban on gas drilling in its watersheds on Monday, saying accidental leaks could contaminate one of the world's largest unfiltered drinking water systems.

New York State has proposed new environmental rules that would allow drilling for natural gas in the multi-state Marcellus Shale formation, which is likely the nation's largest shale reservoir.

Geologists say it could satisfy U.S. natural gas demand for a decade or more and local business groups say it would provide much-needed revenue to the cash-strapped state.

But city officials said drilling should be off limits in watersheds that serve almost 10 million people in and around New York City, about half of the state population.

The council passed a non-binding resolution urging New York Governor David Paterson to declare the watersheds off limits to energy companies seeking to extract natural gas from the massive shale gas formation through a process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The watersheds account for about eight percent of New York's share of the Marcellus Shale.

"The (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation), at Gov. Paterson's direction, has put us on the hydro-frack fast-track," said the resolution's sponsor, Councilman James Gennaro. "We can't sell off our water supplies for some short-term financial gain."

A spokesman for the governor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The largest shareholder in the Marcellus Shale, Chesapeake Energy (CHK.N), said it would not seek to drill in the watersheds, following pressure from environmentalists.

"All of the discussion about the New York City watershed and the acreage there had become just a needless distraction, had taken away from the focus on where it should be," Matt Sheppard, senior director of corporate development at Chesapeake, told Reuters at a public hearing on the issue.

"They didn't just wake up one morning and pull out. They were forced out," said Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "And we want to make sure we send a clear message: lest anyone think they can come back around again, we ain't interested."

In hydraulic fracturing, a mixture of water, chemicals and other materials such as sand are pumped into the shale formation to split the rock and free the trapped gas.

Critics say this could result in contaminated ground water, but the industry maintains that strict safeguards prevent any danger to water supplies.

If drilling were permitted, some argue New York City would need a $10 billion water filtration system that would cost an additional $100 million a year to maintain and translate into a 30 percent hike in residential water and sewer costs.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office has said he would oppose any development that would compromise the safety of the city drinking water. (Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Todd Eastham)

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Natural gas quest: State files show 270 drilling accidents in past 30 years

By Tom Wilber •twilber@gannett.com • November 8, 2009, 7:15 pm

The state's depiction of a clean, tightly regulated natural gas industry just got a shot of muck in the eye.

As the debate over the merits of Marcellus Shale development reaches a crescendo, an Ithaca researcher has culled a list of 270 files documenting wastewater spills, well contamination, explosions, methane migration and ecological damage related to gas production in the state since 1979.

Walter Hang, president of Toxic Targeting, compiled the files using the Department of Environmental Conservation's own hazard substances spills database.

Hang runs an environmental research firm that sells data to interested parties, including engineers, consultants and municipalities. He also has a background as an environmental advocate, and he relishes the role as a public watchdog.

"We're students of how you clean this crap up," he said. "That's what we really care about."

DEC officials responded that the proportion of files relating to the oil and gas industry is small -- less than 0.1 percent -- of the total number of spills recorded on the database.

Hang said his company publicly released the list Monday to show regulation of the state's gas industry is "fundamentally inadequate."

"All we wanted to do is test the fundamental assessment the DEC often makes: Existing regulations are just fine," he said.

Fracking regulations

By Hang's assessment, they are a long way from fine. Only 60 of the 270 cases were actually caught by DEC regulators. Many were called in by residents, public safety officials, affected parties or "people who just stumbled over them," he said.

The complaints are related to traditional wells drilled through the decades, most of them in the Southern Tier and western New York.

They come to light as the state creates regulations for a new type of horizontal drilling that would be used to develop the Marcellus, the largest natural gas reserve in the country, running under the Southern Tier and throughout the Appalachian Basin. In addition to drilling horizontally through bedrock, Marcellus production requires a process called hydraulic fracturing -- pumping millions of gallons of water and chemical additives into wells under high pressure to fracture the bedrock and release gas.

The process would produce volumes of waste hundreds or thousands of times greater than what has been produced from traditional wells.

"I don't have anything against drilling, but we have enough pollution around here already, and this is going to be drilling on an unprecedented level," Hang said.

Debate over the merits and drawbacks of drilling has been fierce for the last 18 months, prompting DEC officials to suspend Marcellus permitting until it develops regulations for it. A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at Chenango Valley High School in the Town of Fenton.

One of the most commonly documented problems is methane migration, which means natural gas flows from production formations and goes places where it shouldn't, such as water wells, basements or barns.

In Dimock, Pa., state regulators have ordered Cabot Oil & Gas to replace 13 water supplies ruined by methane migration near drilling operations into the Marcellus. One well exploded.

DEC spills data show the problem has a history in New York, even without the Marcellus.

In Freedom, for example, 12 families were evacuated in 1999 after gas moved through a fault and surfaced in a neighborhood 1 1/2 miles away, bubbling up in ponds, ditches, barns, basements and yards. The disaster was caused by equipment failure on a drill rig, although no fines or penalties were recommended, according to the file from the DEC's spills database.

In 2003, about 100,000 gallons of brine spilled, contaminating Shanada Creek in Independence after a valve broke, according to the record.

In May of this year, a 300-gallon diesel fuel spilled after an explosion and fire at a Nornew rig in Lebanon.

Accidents 'rare'

The DEC has determined regulations being crafted for horizontal drilling and fracking used in Marcellus production would not apply to traditional wells. Hang, holding the list of problems as Exhibit A, argues the entire regulatory process needs to be rebuilt from scratch.

"They say their existing regulations are completely adequate, and their own data clearly shows this isn't true," he said.

In public meetings about drilling on state land in the summer of 2005, DEC regulators presented slide shows emphasizing how effectively drill pads and pipelines are reclaimed as lush wildflower-filled fields and meadows after drilling, characterized as a short-term disturbance.

During public meetings crowded with residents concerned about the effects of Marcellus Shale production last year, representatives from the state's Division of Mineral Resources pointed to the industry's successful history in New York as evidence it was prepared for Marcellus development

Asked how local emergency responders could prepare for a spill, fire or explosion without knowing what chemicals are used in the hydraulic fracturing process, Linda Collart, regional supervisor with the DEC's Division of Mineral Resources, responded: "We don't anticipate any significant emergencies. ... These things are rare."

Asked whether the state was ready for an influx of new drilling activity beyond all historical comparisons, Collart responded: "We have been doing fine so far. ... No problems."

DEC officials, confronted with Hang's list late last week, stood by that assessment.

Dennis Farrar, chief of DEC's Emergency Response Spills Unit, said less than 300 instances out of more than 300,000 shows oil and gas issues are disproportionately small.

The agency also tracks problems through its Oil and Gas Division, said Jack Dahl, director for the Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation. Late last week, he could not provide the number of complaints that division has responded to or the outcome.

More than three-quarters of oil and gas problems on the spills database were caught by somebody other than a DEC staff member, according to Hang's assessment. That's further evidence the Division of Mineral Resources -- with about 17 inspectors -- lacks the manpower to oversee traditional well development, let alone the Marcellus, he said.

As many as 2,000 to 4,000 Marcellus wells could be developed in Broome County in coming years, according to an economic development report commissioned by the county.

"The question is, how often do they actively look for problems?" said Phil Sears of AKRF, a multidisciplinary environmental consulting firm based in New York City. "Not a whole lot."

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation today announced it has extended the public comment period on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) governing potential natural gas drilling activities in the Marcellus Shale formation from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31.

The SGEIS addresses the range of potential impacts of shale gas development using horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing and outlines safety measures, protection standards and mitigation strategies that operators would have to follow to obtain permits. The full draft SGEIS (www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html) is available on DEC's web site, along with highlights of the document (www.dec.ny.gov/press/58472.html). Printed copies are available for review at DEC regional offices and most sub-offices and libraries that traditionally have served as repositories. A list of repositories (www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58672.html) can be found on DEC's web site.

DEC is offering four ways in which to submit comments. Comments may be provided at one of the scheduled public hearings (www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58705.html). There is an online submission system (www.dec.ny.gov/cfmx/extapps/SGEISComments/) which will allow interested parties to write comments and tag them to specific areas of concern. Attachments can also be included. E-mail comments may be submitted to dmnsgeis@gw.dec.state.ny.us; please include your name, e-mail or return mail address to ensure notice of the Final SGEIS when it is available. Finally, written comments should be sent to: Attn: dSGEIS Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500.

The City of New Rochelle should oppose the proposed "streamlining" of the Environmental Quality Review Act. In her Oct. 11 Community View, Marion Rose, president emeritus of the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, gave reasons why the process should not reduce the time needed to evaluate proposed developments.

Suggestions for improving the SEQRA process should be well received in New Rochelle, which places a priority on sustainability and conservation. Bringing neighborhoods into the process from the beginning would be advantageous. At present the developers answer citizens' concerns in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. To quote Ms. Rose, the "answers can be completely besides the point, but the ordinary citizen has no further opportunity to reply unless the lead agency happens to decide otherwise."

As a resident who has attended many environmental hearings I can attest that I have never been given an opportunity to "rebut the applicant's comments that are manifestly erroneous." Some examples that still need rebuttals are the overloaded sewage plant, overcrowded schools, traffic jams, tax abatements granted by the IDA "after the environmental hearings," the need for more police, fire and sanitation workers, and the general preservation of the suburban character of New Rochelle.

All residents interested in protecting the environmental review process should protest to state officials on the weakening of this environmental review process. Future generations will inevitably live with the consequences of decisions made today. Protect New Rochelle as Queen City of the Sound.

Deep Concern Over Gas Drilling in New York Counties

Aerial photographs of land surrounding the millennium pipeline north of Sullivan County, NY show sweeping tracts of largely unspoiled forest. They are ecologically important for several species including neo-tropical migrant birds that travel from South America to breeding habitats in the northern latitudes, bald eagles, and the endangered timber rattlesnake. Some of the best soils in the state are also nearby and dairy farms have dotted the landscape since the mid 1800s, perhaps even longer. To the north and east of Sullivan County, the Catskill Park, established in the late 19th century, contains large parcels of undisturbed forest. “It is an incredibly pristine landscape,” Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper [1] told me recently.

But that landscape is about to change, its future in the hands of oil and gas companies that have leased thousands of acres of land to drill in the Marcellus Shale. They will soon own the mineral rights beneath the farmland and forests and drilling will probably begin before next summer. In the town of Hancock [2], NY, which is strategically located on the Delaware River and near the millennium pipeline, close to 25,000 acres of land have been leased. One well, and there will likely be hundreds drilled in Hancock, requires between 1,500,000 to 9,000,000 gallons of water. Heavy truck traffic, noise, air and light pollution will become part of everyday life.

As one observer recently noted, drilling in the Marcellus Shale is “perhaps the largest rural land issue that we’ve ever been faced with in upstate New York.” And much of the concern centers on the question of water; where it will come from, how it will be stored and treated, and what will happen if spills or accidents contaminate the ground water or nearby rivers and streams. The Delaware River provides water to many upstate towns in the Catskills as well as the metropolitan areas of Philadelphia and Trenton. Roughly 16 million people depend on the river basin—its streams, rivers, reservoirs, and aquifers—for their drinking water.

I visited Gillingham last Wednesday before the first public hearing on the DEC’s 809 page environmental review [3] that sets out regulatory guidelines for drilling in New York State. That same morning Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the largest leaseholder in the Marcellus Shale, announced [4] that it would forgo drilling within New York City’s watershed. The company’s chief executive said in a press release that the issue had become a “needless distraction” and that since Chesapeake is the only leaseholder in the watershed area they are “uniquely positioned to take this issue off the table.”

And of course it is in their interest to take the issue off the table. Unlike rural areas throughout the country that have already been deeply impacted by natural gas drilling, from Wyoming to Pennsylvania, the possibility that New York City’s unfiltered water might be at risk hasn’t been good for the industry’s image. “Why go through the brain damage” of drilling in the watershed, Chesapeake’s CEO told the New York Times.

But residents of Sullivan County, who turned out in large numbers for the only public hearing in the critical Delaware River Watershed weren’t exactly charmed by the company’s move and are afraid that brain damage, in the form of toxic chemicals used to fracture the shale might await them. When Scott Rotruck, the Vice President for Corporate Development at Chesapeake made his five minute presentation and emphatically declared that the company won’t be drilling in the NYC watershed residents cried, “what about us.”

“I wish I was in the New York City watershed,” Cindy Gieger, a candidate for Town Council in Callicoon told me. “At least they have some kind of protection. We don’t have any.”

For residents upstate there are questions about how the state will deal with accidents or spills, whether flood prone areas will be exempt from drilling, if roads and bridges are up to the task of accommodating heavy truck traffic, and whether local economies will really benefit. “The issue is bigger than the NYC watershed. It’s as big as the Marcellus Shale fairway,” Deputy Director of Delaware Riverkeeper [5] Tracy Carluccio said before the hearing. There are a couple of ways to read the Chesapeake decision: as a PR move announced on the day of the first public hearing or as an admission that the drilling process is far too risky to tamper with the politically sensitive New York City watershed. Imagine having to provide the city’s 9 million residents with bottled water if something went wrong. Though the company’s decision has been praised by most environmental organizations, Gillingham says it doesn’t really change the overall picture and that Chesapeake is “acting like it’s trading the watershed to trash the Catskills.” Rotruck of course sees it differently. Before the hearing got underway he told me it was purely a business decision and that drilling in the watershed was “immaterial.”

Upstate communities are hardly greeting the prospect of gas drilling with open arms. Gieger, in her bid for Town Council, has visited hundreds of local residents most of whom are opposed to drilling. And it makes sense. Very few people in the rural townships own large tracts of land and hundreds of acres are required for exploratory drilling. So they’ll reap all of the negative side effects—truck traffic, air, light and noise pollution and possible groundwater contamination—with few if any benefits.

The idea that farmers will be saved and dying towns revived is often viewed as nothing more than salesmanship. Farmers who lease their land are more likely to retire (most are in their late fifties already) than continue to work 14-hour days in a depressed market. That may be their wish and they will do with their land as they please, but it is folly to imagine that gas drilling will somehow save small farmers. Farms, already in decline, will disappear. In fifteen years, when the gas has been sucked out of the ground (it is a non-renewable resource) there may be few farms left and who knows what the land will look like. Some of the best soils are found in Beechwoods. A farmer there recently leased 2,500 acres to pay off his mortgage. According to an acquaintance he had a few bucks left over.

Last year was one of the worst in recent memory for dairy farmers. The price of milk was close to what it was in the 1970s and yet the cost of fuel and feed continues to rise. If farmers could make a living on their land maybe they’d hold onto it. But for now it’s the money that talks and land that was being leased for $25 an acre in some parts of the state and in Pennsylvania four years ago is now fetching more than $6,000. “The money’s the one that talks,” a longtime dairy farmer told me. “That’s what worries me.

Adam Federman [6], Contributing Writer, Earth Island Journal
Adam Federman is a writer in New York and a regular contributor to Earth Island Journal.

11/2/09

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY CORPORATION ANNOUNCES ITS INTENTION NOT TO DRILL IN THE NEW YORK CITY WATERSHED

On Wednesday October 28th, the morning before the first gas drilling hearing in Loch Sheldrake (see below), Chesapeake Energy strategically announced that they intend to not drill in the New York City Watershed. While this is good news and no doubt was influenced by pressure from community groups including Catskill Mountainkeeper, there appears to be considerably more to Chesapeake's strategy than being "good guys".

First, it appears as if the announcement was timed right before the high profile DEC hearing to minimize the public outcry against gas drilling and influence the tone of the public comments. Second, it looks like this announcement was made to try to neutralize 8,000,000 New Yorkers plus NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Third, it appears that Chesapeake is shrewdly attempting to set up an exchange of the New York City Watershed for the rest of New York State.

The bottom line is that Chesapeake's announcement is not legally binding and does not guarantee that Chesapeake or any other gas company will not drill in the New York City Watershed. The only way to assure that there will be no drilling in the New York City Watershed is for the DEC to ban any gas drilling there.

Chesapeake Spokesman Scott Rotruck testifying at the Loch Sheldrake meeting on Wednesday night said that while the company made this move for "business reasons", the company is against a ban on drilling in the watershed. That clearly means they are leaving open the possibility of drilling there in the future.

Catskill Mountainkeeper wants to make sure that no one who cares about this issue becomes any less concerned or motivated based on this statement. While we respect Chesapeake's public relations acumen, the announcement has "no teeth" and the New York City Watershed is still vulnerable.

This story was first reported in the New York Times on Wednesday October 28, 2009. For full text of the article, click here and a follow up story in the Times on October 30, 2009 click here.

AUDUDON GROUP OPPOSES HYDROFRACTURING

CALLS PROCESS AN UNACCEPTABLE DANGER

The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society has announced its opposition to hydrofracturing gas exploration and production in our region. In a recent statement released by the group, DOAS also calls on NY State to permanently ban the practice.

Dangers to humans, wildlife, and water resources were cited as primary reasons the group finds hydrofracking unacceptable. The statement details multiple areas of concern created by injecting
hundreds of millions of gallons of water treated with toxic chemicals under ground at extremely high pressures.

"After a careful review, our board of directors found it unacceptable to expose present and future generations to the contamination produced by this drilling technique," said DOAS president Tom Salo. The group's statement calls hydrofracking " . . an assault on the very resources that sustain life," and says, this damage will remain for millennia, and will threaten unseen future generations, as well as present-day humans and wildlife."

Other reasons cited for the group's opposition include wildlife and \social impacts from noise and air pollution, large water \withdrawals, and damage to habitats and roads from pipelines and wells.

The DOAS statement reads "Hundreds of wells are anticipated for our area, and this may change the region to a permanent industrial landscape. Potential contamination and depletion of water, and pollution of air, soil, and of farm and forest ecosystems could destroy the many resources available today. Water withdrawal and contamination are of special concern. The fragmentation and loss of habitats, and the disturbances of noise and traffic will have an adverse affect on birds and other wildlife, some already in precipitous decline."A recently released impact statement from the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation is insufficient to overcome the fundamental threats from hydrofracking, according to DOAS Director Jean T. Miller. "How can we engineer away permanent physical changes and poisoning of the earth?" she said. "We are trading a few more years of fossil fuels for tens of thousands of years of damaged and tainted ground below us."

Regarding the DEC proposal, DOAS' statement reads, "Even with the most stringent controls and oversight, this activity is an unacceptable danger to our planet, with no environmental benefits."

The Audubon group is calling upon the state of New York to permanently ban hydrofracking. "In our view, there is no way this can be done without serious and long-term negative impacts," said Salo. DOAS is urging the public and their members to contact DEC on the Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement before November 30. Comments should be sent to dSGEIS Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500, or submitted on-line at DEC's website.

Washington, DC -- The U.S. House of Representatives today approved a provision authored by Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) that formally urges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to conduct a new study on the risks that hydraulic fracturing poses to drinking water supplies. The Senate is due to pass the identical bill in the coming days and President Obama is expected to sign the measure into law soon after that. Earlier this week, members of the Interior Appropriations Conference Committee, including Hinchey, signed off on the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill and report for fiscal year 2010, which contains the study provision.

"While natural gas certainly has an important role in our national energy policy, it's imperative that we take every step possible to ensure that our drinking water supplies are not contaminated or adversely impacted in any way," Hinchey said. "This legislation puts Congress on record in support of a new, comprehensive study that will examine the impact that hydraulic fracking really has on our water supplies. The study results will put us in a position to take any further steps that are necessary to protect our drinking water supplies from the chemical concoctions being pumped into the ground by energy companies."

In May, the congressman asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at a House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee hearing about the need for such a study. Jackson told Hinchey that she believed her agency should review the risk that fracturing poses to drinking water in light of various cases across the country that raise questions about the safety of the natural gas drilling practice. Hinchey's measure would formalize that congressional request for an EPA study on the risks that toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing pose to drinking water supplies in New York and across the nation. The EPA did conduct a study on the matter in 2004 under the Bush administration, but that study is widely considered to be flawed for a variety of reasons, including the way data was selectively collected from sources that had a vested interest in the oil and gas industry while other relevant information was ignored.

The language that Hinchey had inserted into the report reads, "The conferees urge the EPA to carry out a study on the relationship between hydraulic fracturing and drinking water, using a credible approach that relies on the best available science, as well as independent sources of information. The conferees expect the study to be conducted through a transparent, peer-reviewed process that will ensure the validity and accuracy of the data. EPA shall consult with other federal agencies as well as appropriate state and interstate regulatory agencies in carrying out the study, and it should be prepared in accordance with EPA quality assurance principles."

In the now infamous 2005 Energy Policy Act, which Hinchey strongly opposed and voted against, the then Republican-controlled Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which was designed to protect people's water supply from contamination from toxic materials. This loophole, which some have called the Halliburton Loophole, created an extremely dangerous set of circumstances.

In June, Hinchey, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), and several of his colleagues introduced the FRAC ACT -- Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act, which would close the loophole that exempted hydraulic fracturing from the SDWA and require the oil and gas industry to disclose the chemicals they use in their hydraulic fracturing processes. Currently, the oil and gas industry is the only industry granted an exemption from complying with the SDWA.

"It is critical that our communities are assured that the process of hydraulic fracturing is safe and will not contaminate drinking water supplies," said DeGette (D-CO), Vice Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. "I will continue to work with EPA to encourage a robust study of hydraulic fracturing and its potential impact on drinking water."

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking,” is used in almost all natural gas wells. It is a process whereby fluids are injected at high pressure into underground rock formations to blast them open and increase the flow of fossil fuels. This injection of unknown and potentially toxic chemicals often occurs near drinking water sources. Troubling incidents have occurred around the country where people became ill after fracking operations began in their communities. Some chemicals that are known to have been used in fracking include diesel fuel, benzene, industrial solvents, and other carcinogens and endocrine disrupters.

Bowing to intense public pressure, the Chesapeake Energy Corporation says it will not drill for natural gas within the upstate New York watershed, an environmentally sensitive region that supplies unfiltered water to nine million people.

The reversal seems to signal a more conciliatory tone from the gas industry, which is facing mounting opposition in New York to its drilling practices. The decision also increases the pressure on state regulators to reverse their decision to allow drilling within the watershed.

“We are not going to develop those leases, and we are not taking any more leases, and I don’t think anybody else in the industry would dare to acquire leases in the New York City watershed,” Aubrey K. McClendon, the chief executive officer at Chesapeake Energy, said in an interview on Monday in Fort Worth. “Why go through the brain damage of that, when we have so many other opportunities?”

He spoke on the eve of the first scheduled hearing on proposed state rules governing the drilling, on Wednesday in Loch Sheldrake in Sullivan County.

Chesapeake, one of the nation’s biggest gas producers, is the largest leaseholder in the Marcellus Shale, a subterranean layer of shale rock that runs from New York to Tennessee. The shale is believed to hold substantial natural gas reserves.

But extracting gas from shale relies on a method called hydraulic fracturing that has stirred broad concerns. Water, laced with chemicals, is blasted down gas wells at high pressure to break the rock and allow gas to flow out more easily. The technology has vigorously expanded in recent years, allowing for enormous growth in the nation’s natural gas reserves.

But the concerns include the use of chemicals, the disposal of wastewater and the danger of leaks and spills into groundwater and deep aquifers. There also has been a string of explosions from Wyoming to Pennsylvania.

Under energy legislation passed in 2005, the industry won an exemption from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Chesapeake acquired 5,000 acres in the watershed when it bought Columbia Natural Resources a few years ago, and it is currently the only leaseholder in the area.

Over all, Mr. McClendon said, the company’s holdings in the watershed are “a drop in the bucket” compared with the Marcellus field’s potential. He suggested that Chesapeake had more to lose by drilling there than by forgoing it, even though he contended such drilling would do no harm.

“How could any one well be so profitable that it would be worth damaging the New York City water system?” he said.

But Chesapeake and other companies are still expected to drill for gas in areas of the state outside the watershed.

State officials have been eager to embrace the drilling because of its potential economic benefits, especially in the current downturn. This month, the state’s environmental agency said it would allow companies to drill throughout the state, imposing few specific limits on operations.

The proposed regulations, which were requested last year by Gov. David A. Paterson, do not ban drilling in the watershed, as many New York City officials and environmental advocates had urged, but would require buffer zones around reservoirs and aqueducts.

Gas industry representatives say the rules, if enacted, will be among the most restrictive in the country. Opponents say they would be inadequate to prevent contamination.

The New York watershed is an area of about one million acres, representing 4 percent of the state’s total surface. Thanks to gravity, water from the region’s rivers and streams flows to six reservoirs in the Catskills, and then, through a series of aqueducts and tunnels, to the taps of New Yorkers. This system provides unfiltered drinking water for half the state’s population, including 8.2 million people in New York City and about one million people in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties.

Some New York City politicians welcomed Chesapeake’s decision and said they hoped it would have a broader impact. “To proceed with drilling doesn’t make any business sense and doesn’t make environmental sense, and I think Chesapeake understands this, and I am happy they have come to that decision,” said James F. Gennaro, chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Environmental Protection. “If only we could get the state government to come to the same realization. It is strangely ironic.”

Chesapeake’s announcement was also praised by environmental advocates. They said the company’s position should encourage the state to reverse its decision and impose an outright drilling ban throughout the watershed.

“When the industry says it will not drill in the watershed, it sends a strong message to state regulators that drilling there is inappropriate,” said James L. Simpson, an attorney at Riverkeeper, an environmental group.

Hydraulic fracturing pumps huge volumes of water laced with chemicals like benzene into the shale to break it and release the natural gas. The process has been linked to contamination of water wells and the death of livestock exposed to potassium chloride, one of the chemicals used.

State environmental regulators have said they saw no “realistic threat” to water quality that would warrant a drilling ban in the two watersheds in the Catskills region. Their review noted that the city controlled a large amount of the land surrounding the reservoirs and could deny permission to drill in those areas.

In addition to the forum on Wednesday, hearings on the state’s proposed regulations are scheduled Nov. 10 in New York City, Nov. 12 in Broome County and Nov. 18 in Steuben County.

Chesapeake said it had started to publicize the chemical components of the fluids it uses during drilling, down to the percentages for each chemical used since last year, acknowledging criticism that companies had not been transparent enough. “The industry is moving quickly to complete disclosure," Mr. McClendon said.

New York State’s environmental regulators have proposed rules to govern drilling in the Marcellus Shale — a subterranean layer of rock curving northward from West Virginia through Ohio and Pennsylvania to New York’s southern tier. The shale contains enormous deposits of natural gas that could add to the region’s energy supplies and lift New York’s upstate economy. If done carefully — and in carefully selected places — drilling should cause minimal environmental harm.

But regulators must amend the rules to bar drilling in the New York City watershed: a million acres of forests and farmlands whose streams supply the reservoirs that send drinking water to eight million people. Accidental leaks could threaten public health and require a filtration system the city can ill afford.

Natural gas is vital to the nation’s energy needs and can be an important bridge between dirty coal and renewable alternatives. The process of extracting it, however, is not risk-free. Known as hydraulic fracturing, it involves shooting a mix of water, sand and chemicals — many of them highly toxic — into the ground at very high pressure to break down the rock formations and free the gas.

The technique is used in 90 percent of the oil and gas operations in the United States. And while most drilling occurs without incident, “fracking” has been implicated in hundreds of cases of impaired or polluted drinking water supplies in states from Alabama to Wyoming.

The dangers are particularly acute in the Marcellus Shale, which, unlike the relatively shallow formations found elsewhere, lies miles underground. Getting the gas out will require far more water and heavy doses of chemicals. While the rules would require drillers to take special precautions in the watershed, there are too many points — from the delivery of the fluid to the drilling site to the removal of spent fluid after it surfaces — where poisoned water could escape into the water supplies.

Quarantining the watershed also makes economic sense. The shale contains only one-tenth of the gas in the southern tier. One big accident could undo everything the city and state have done — buying up property, creating buffer zones around the reservoirs — to protect the watershed from development and pollution.

State officials worry that if they deny landowners the right to lease the mineral resources under their property — 70 percent of the watershed is privately owned — they will face expensive “takings” claims. But the state has a right and responsibility to prevent drilling that poses a clear danger to public health.

The state insists it has made a good-faith effort to assess the hazards, and its 800-page report is replete with scientific analysis. But it is the state’s analysis. What the state has not done, and what it must do, is give those who have serious doubts about drilling in the watershed a fair chance to state their case.

New York City’s acting environmental commissioner, Steven Lawitts, has warned of “chronic and acute impacts to water quality.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and the Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, have asked the state for extensive public hearings. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has commissioned an independent scientific study of the risks to the watershed.

A fair review will not be possible unless the state’s absurdly quick Nov. 30 deadline for public comment is extended. The mayor’s study will not even be completed until mid-December. It is dangerously irresponsible to rush this decision

The State Environmental Quality Review Act, adopted in 1976, was reviewed in 1996. No doubt, it's time for an overhaul but not along the lines suggested in your recent Opinion page article, "DEC reviewing environmental review process."

The article by Debra West of the Editorial Board discusses claims made by Pete Grannis, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, that speeding up the SEQRA process will result in economic benefits. Another motivation expressed in the article is that DEC's work force is being cut by 25 percent - on top of previous severe cuts - and it simply cannot handle the workload involved in the careful scrutiny of often extremely complex development plans under SEQRA.

The difficult economic situation that New York, like many other states, is confronting, has convinced our leaders that the road to recovery lies, in large part at least, with more development. And development will face fewer roadblocks and proceed faster if we streamline SEQRA.

Development is a broad word and encompasses many different aspects. We must ask - what kind of development do we need and want in our part of New York, meaning Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties? SEQRA was written at a time when there were still wide-open spaces available that were physically suitable for development. That has changed. Those areas have now been developed and those that are left are mostly heavily forested, or have wetlands, steep slopes and erodible soils.

A developer's capacity to blast off the top of a mountain and to cut down many thousands of trees has led to shopping malls and multi-housing developments being built where they never should have been built. And this is continuing. Weak regulations for controlling pollution carried by storm water, compounded by inappropriate developments, have resulted in our reservoirs being degraded. Nine out of the 10 Croton reservoirs are now phosphorus-impaired.

With only difficult terrain left to develop, this is certainly not the time to weaken SEQRA or euphemistically to "streamline" it. Yes, we agree, after more than 10 years, SEQRA does need improvements - those that would improve our quality of life by enhancing the health, environmental quality and economic viability of this area - not those that would destroy our natural environment by bringing more traffic, more air and water pollution to our towns and villages.

SEQRA should be rewritten so that the people who are affected most, those in the neighboring areas of a development, are brought into the process from the start, not at some later time, as they are now, when it is almost too late to have an effect - when commenting on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement is often too late in the process to be effective. The applicant answers citizens' comments in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. Those answers can be completely beside the point - i.e., non-answers or incorrect answers, but the ordinary citizen commenter has no further opportunity to reply unless the lead agency happens to decide otherwise. SEQRA should contain a clause whereby a citizen is given the opportunity to rebut an applicant's comments that are manifestly erroneous before the lead agency proceeds to its findings.

Another point: Prior to the lead agency issuing its findings, all involved agencies should have submitted their findings, preferably when comments on the DEIS are being called for. This would benefit and help the citizenry at the time when their comments on the DEIS are being solicited. Furthermore, the lead agency should definitely have all the pertinent information at its disposal when it issues its findings, not sometime after, as is now so often the case.

This proposal to "streamline" SEQRA should be looked upon with wary eyes. It appears to be part of a larger trend in our state government, not only to facilitate development but also to facilitate the exploitation of some of our natural resources; specifically, natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, part of which lies in the NYC watershed. A few months ago, Gov. David Paterson issued Executive Order No. 25, which would "evaluate, reform, or repeal, where necessary, rules and paperwork requirements ...'' This would merely streamline the processes through which developers and others could obtain permits, and make it more difficult, if not impossible, for the average citizen to have a voice in preventing environmental degradation.

In addition, the draft state energy plan says plainly that it would "encourage development of the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation with environmental safeguards that are protective of water supplies and natural resources." It is hard to imagine what realistic environmental safeguards exist that could permanently prevent any of the millions of gallons of hydrofracturing fluids with their unknown chemical mixtures from contaminating New York City's source water, not to mention local wells. (This was discussed in our Oct. 4 editorial, "NYC watershed must be spared from gas drilling." - Editor.)

The governor is looking to the $1 billion that, apparently, would come from such "fracking." But what good is $1 billion if you can't drink the water, and be charged with a $20 billion filtration plant to render it potable?

Read two recent opinion pieces on the environment - "DEC reviewing environmental review process" and "NYC watershed must be spared from gas drilling" - at lohud.com/opinion

PEACH LAKE - As these lakeshore communities prepare to correct pollution problems going back to the late 1800s, they have been required to stop and look back at what the land can tell them about the prehistoric peoples who lived there.

An archaeologist was brought in to dig for artifacts near areas that will be disturbed by the construction of a modern sewage system and treatment plant for the former summer havens in North Salem and Southeast.

The dig is mandated by the state and federal historic preservation acts, which require that the impacts on valuable historic sites be considered in development decisions.

"That was enough for us to say there was a likelihood there was a prehistoric site here," said Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist with AKRF, the planning firm on the sewer project.

Though most of the areas to be dug up for the pipes and the treatment plant have already been extensively altered, a dig near the north end of the lake has found pottery shards, a 2.5 inch chert blade, several stone projectile points (the tips for arrows or darts), tool fragments and stone flakes that show tools were made there.

Peach Lake was formed when the glaciers receded from the area more than 10,000 years ago, but the artifacts date to about a thousand years ago, when the forested land around the natural lake provided food for collecting and sheltered animals to hunt.

"Most of what we're finding are little flecks of stone they left behind as they made tools," Pappalardo said as he took a break from sifting through the dirt from a meter-square test pit one recent morning. Though the flakes would likely be passed over by people without the training to recognize their significance, for Pappalardo they draw a picture of the past on that spot.

"Somebody sat here making a tool or sharpening a tool or adapting a tool for some specific purpose," Pappalardo said.

He had the artifacts he had already found in baggies. One flat brown item that looked like a dirty stone was a piece of prehistoric pottery.

"You can just see the walls are parallel," he said, holding it up to eye level. The pottery at the time the piece was made, the Woodland period of prehistory, was tempered with crushed quartz to make it stronger and then fired. Some of the shards were decorated, including one piece of rim with a beveled edge and small decorative incisions. Other pieces of pottery had impressions from cords pressed into the clay, helping date them to the early to middle Woodland period, 2,700 to 1,200 years ago. The vessels were used for food storage or cooking.

About two dozen points that were prehistoric knives, tools or arrowheads were found.

"Hunting and cutting animals was an important activity that took place here," Pappalardo said.

The artifacts will be donated to the Southeast Museum in Brewster and will be the first pieces in their collection from the era before European settlement. The museum is already planning an exhibition, said Amy Campanaro, the executive director.

"The museum is excited about these new additions to our artifact collection," she said. "Currently we preserve and house over 6,000 artifacts concerning the history of the Town of Southeast as well as Putnam County. These particular artifacts will be the oldest in our collection."

Though the pottery fragments and flakes of stone from tool manufacturing indicate the people of the time weren't just passing through, the artifacts don't give clues about how long they stayed. The site appears to have been occupied sporadically or temporarily by a small number of people during the Woodland period, a preliminary archaeological report said.

Later, after the Europeans arrived, the land was settled by farming families bearing names still attached to the area, including Field, Bloomer and Vail. Some of those families eventually created resorts on land by the lake, growing the area's summer colonies.

The resorts later evolved into cooperatives with more than 400 homes housing year-round residents.

The inadequate septic systems in the densely packed neighborhoods spurred plans for the sewer system to protect the water quality of the lake and the New York City reservoirs to which it's connected.

The bids for the three major components of the Peach Lake sewer project have come in and a groundbreaking is planned for November. The bids still have to be awarded and the final details worked out before construction can begin. The apparent low bidder for the treatment plant was Arben Group of Pleasantville, which came in at $11,648,000, close to what was expected. The apparent low bid for the sewer pipes on the west side of the lake came in at $2,569,695 and for the east side at $3.75 million, both below what was expected.

By Dan Hust
SULLIVAN COUNTY — The Democrat requested comment from a variety of interested and involved parties regarding the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC’s) draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) – new rules proposed to regulate gas drilling statewide.
Formal written comments from these groups are likely to be made to the DEC by the current November 30 deadline, and submission guidelines (and the draft SGEIS itself) can be found at www.dec.ny.gov/energy/58440.html.

Since Tuesday’s initial article, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability has provided a response, which is included in this followup.
As a reminder, Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther has scheduled a public hearing on the matter before the NYS Assembly, set for Thursday, October 15 at 9 a.m. in Room 306 of the State Capitol in Albany.
Following is a roundup of the remarks made by other groups and individuals:

Catskill Mountainkeeper
“Unless Pressure is Brought to Bear, The Just Released DEC Environmental Statement Clears the Way for Gas Drilling Without Adequate Protection and Controls,” says the headline from Catskill Mountainkeeper’s latest press release.
In particular, Sullivan County’s most visible environmental advocacy group worries that the draft SGEIS inadequately protects local and NYC watersheds, makes no provision for studying the cumulative impacts of multiple wells on multiple properties, doesn’t stipula te how wastewater treatment – or any other areas requiring DEC oversight – will be handled with current staff and deteriorating infrastructure, and falls short of offering enough public participation.
“While we are appreciative of the few new controls and protections the DEC report offers, overall it is dramatically inadequate in offering reasonable solutions that the public deserves,” stated Ramsay Adams, executive director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. “Unless elected officials, the media and especially the public speak out powerfully and quickly, the entire State of New York and our region, in particular, is going to be put at extreme and unnecessary levels of risk.”
Adams sees this as the area’s final opportunity to mitigate impacts.
“When the trucks are rolling, it will be too late to begin to understand the reality of what we’ve allowed ourselves to get into,” he said. “We have to act now. This is our last chance to do something to mitigate or stop gas drilling.”

Senator John Bonacic
The region’s representative on the NYS Senate, John Bonacic, offered the following take:
“Energy independence is key to both our national security and to reducing the high cost of energy. Exploring for new energy and efficiently using existing energy sources will help meet those goals.
“My initial reaction, however, is that the DEC is trying to strike an appropriate balance between the environment and our energy needs with these regulations. I would rather see the safe use of natural gas, extracted under the always watchful eye of the DEC, than give another excuse to companies like NYRI to claim there is a shortage of energy.”

Maurice Hinchey
Congressman Maurice Hinchey, whose 22nd District includes Sullivan County , has been advocating for a federal study on hydraulic fracturing and increased oversight of fracking as it pertains to drinking water supplies. In fact, he has proposed legislation to address that, called the FRAC Act.
“New York may soon see an extensive level of natural gas drilling, and it’s imperative that we take every step possible to ensure the protection of the environment from the potentially harmful practice of hydraulic fracturing,” Hinchey commented. “We cannot afford to make a mistake that could result in irreparable damage being done to our drinking water supplies and the overall environment.
“As I begin to carefully read through the draft report, I’m hopeful it will be abundantly clear that the DEC is doing everything within its power to protect our state’s residents, their drinking water supplies, and the environment as a whole,” he added

Fortuna Energy
Fortuna Energy, based in upstate Horseheads, just struck a $5,500-an-acre deal with landowners in Binghamton. And in the past few weeks, the company has evidenced an intent to lease property in the Sullivan County area for future gas drilling (although it holds no land currently in the county and will not talk about its plans).
“Fortuna Energy is pleased that the DEC has completed this important step of the SGEIS review process,” noted Fortuna President James O’Driscoll. “We hope this will bring us closer to the day when an expeditious review and turnaround of Marcellus Shale horizontal drilling permits can occur in New York.
“We expect to fully participate in the upcoming public comment period by supplying detailed written comments on the draft once we have completed our analysis of the document.”

damascus c itizens for sustainability
“Gas drilling is an industrial activity that will turn our beautiful upstate landscape into a toxic industrial zone,” said Joe Levine, co-founder of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, a nearby Pennsylvania group that is also active in opposing gas drilling in New York State.
“No one should consider this acceptable, but what is of primary importance is the threat to public health from contamination of our water supply. Hydraulic fracturing gas drilling is intrinsically contaminating because the process requires the injection of millions of gallons of fresh water mixed with dangerously toxic chemicals into the ground, which are able to infiltrate groundwater and aquifers.
“In the concentrated area of the NYC watershed alone, more than 9 million people depend on this single source of water.
“Add to this the yet unresolved drilling production wastewater disposal dilemma,” he remarked. “Where will all the water go? There are few treatment facilities capable of handling this toxic stuff.”

Trout Unlimited
Trout Unlimited (TU), which focuses on fishing in the region, joined with others in pushing for the written comment period to be extended from 60 to 90 days.
Other than that, its leaders’ comments were cautiously complimentary.
“To date, New York State’s approach has been both cautionary and proactive,” said Elizabeth Maclin, TU’s Vice President for Eastern Conservation. “Unlike other states in the Marcellus Shale region, New York has not jumped the gun on gas drilling and has required a thorough regulatory analysis prior to allowing any gas company to drill in the state. Trout Unlimited and its New York Council commend the state for this.”
“Drilling for gas in the Marcellus Shale is one of the most – if not the most – signific ant issues to impact New York’s native and wild trout fisheries in decades as well as local drinking water supplies. It is critical that it be done in a way that protects these resources for future generations of sportsmen,” said Ron Urban, TU’s New York Council Chair.
“As with any regulations, careful analysis is required to determine exactly how strong the protections will be for New York’s expansive resources,” said Maclin. “Trout Unlimited and its 7,500 New York members look forward to carefully reviewing and commenting on the state’s draft report.”

Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York
Those in favor of gas drilling tended to have little to say about the DEC’s regulations, good or bad.
“Oil and gas producers have an outstanding record of environmental and operational safety in New York. A regulatory structure that is tough but fair will allow this state to realize this tremendous economic opportunity,” said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, a trade group.
“Natural gas is a clean, abundant and affordable fuel,” he added. “Increasing production here in New York will help improve our economy, increase tax revenues and jobs, and bring our nation closer to energy independence.”

The recession may bring a side effect that the business community will like - environmental regulations loosened to spur the economy.

At least that's how some environmental activists saw recent comments from Pete Grannis, the state's top environmental enforcer.

Grannis spoke in Ulster County to "Pattern for Prog[0xad]ress," a business-heavy regional organization, and mentioned that the Department of Environmental Conservation is looking at streamlining regulations on development.

Those restrictions comprise the 1975 New York State Environmental Quality Review Act - known to anyone who's ever dealt with it as "SEQRA."

Opponents of development have used the law to stop a host of high- and low-profile projects, not the least of which was the multibillion-dollar Westway in Manhattan.

The business community's knock on SEQRA has been that it shackled developers so badly, they were taking their cash to friendlier places.

Now the recession has brought staffing cutbacks at agencies like the DEC, slowing the permitting process.

So Grannis and others have hatched the idea of a working group to look at how to streamline the law and make it work for the economy as well as the environment.

Grannis has a strong environmental pedigree, earned over 30 years as a state lawmaker, so his credibility goes a long way as he seeks to figure out a way to keep his agency effective even when it's shrinking.

He's given the task of streamlining, where possible, to Willie Janeway, the DEC's regional director for the Hudson Valley.

Janeway is partnering with Jonathan Drapkin, Pattern's president, to pull together as many diverse people as possible to see where the areas of common ground are.

Doreen Tignanelli, a retired IBM employee and self-proclaimed full-time environmentalist, heard Grannis' speech and came away concerned that the group working on revamping regulations would be dominated by business people.

"My concern with this ‘streamlining' of SEQRA is that the business community is using the downturn in the economy as an excuse to weaken environmental regulations," Tignanelli said yesterday from her Poughkeepsie home. "Hard economic times are not likely to last forever but impacts from reduced environmental review will."

Tignanelli, a member of Poughkeepsie's Conservation Advisory Commission who worked on that town's wetlands protection, said she doesn't oppose updating regulations as needed, but only if they retain the power to keep development in proper balance.

Janeway was adamant that the state statute itself is not up for discussion and the DEC was not handing the reins over to capitalists just to keep the job-creation machine humming.

"With input from a diverse number of stakeholders, we hope to develop consensus on changes that can made in the region - with how we implement the regulations," Janeway said. "We're only interested in maintaining or improving environmental protection and the transparency of the process."

"If a community has a good comprehensive plan, a handle on its infrastructure, natural resources, traffic and its character, when a project comes in that fits, it goes faster."

The DEC is compiling a checklist of 80 to 90 criteria, like distance from wetlands and impact on endangered species, that communities can use to more quickly qualify good building projects.

With some 100,000 housing units still on the drawing board for the Hudson Valley, all of us will benefit from a system that really works.

Yesterday the New York State DEC released its long anticipated draft environmental impact statement (DSGEIS) on natural gas drilling across New York State. The DSGEIS currently allows for gas drilling to take place within the NYC Watershed. While the DEC made efforts to more strictly regulate drilling in this sensitive area, Riverkeeper stands by its position that gas drilling should be banned within the NYC Watershed and all other sensitive water supply areas.

Gas drilling accidents and drinking water contamination in other states, including Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, show that this is a risky technology that does not belong in a surface drinking water supply.

The NYC Watershed provides unfiltered drinking water to more than 9 million New Yorkers - it is a resource we cannot afford to put at risk!

Please forward this email to your friends and neighbors. We will be sending out more updates to keep you informed and encourage your involvement in the public comments.

To learn more about hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale, and to review of reports of drinking water contamination in states where this type of drilling already occurs, see Riverkeeper’s Industrial Gas Drilling Reporter, Volumes 1-4, at http://www.riverkeeper.org/campaigns/safeguard/gas-drilling/.

Debate Continues on Issues of Natural Gas Drilling in the Catskills

Earlier this week, natural gas industry representatives sought to reassure nervous residents about the methodology they plan to use to extract natural gas in New York State. In addition, the industry sought to communicate that natural gas drilling presents a "great opportunity" for the region. Although drilling has not yet commenced (next summer is the anticipated start date), the crowd that gathered at the meeting expressed legitimate concerns about groundwater contamination, which has posed major problems for drillers in Wyoming and Pennsylvania.

Sullivan County sits above a geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which is rich in natural gas. The trick is to devise a method to extract the fuel safely, without causing damage to the environment or posing a threat to human health. According to the Times Herald-Record, Brad Gill, the executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, stated that there are no known incidents of contamination in other regions of New York State, and troubles in other states are primarily related to differences in geology. In addition, stricter state regulations are expected from the Department of Environmental Conservation this fall, which should provide New York with a considerable safety margin.

Residents also expressed concerns about wastewater disposal, the transport of equipment through rural communities and noise, which industry officials attempted to assuage, citing strict regulations for handling waste and the temporary nature of any disruption to the community.

PHILADELPHIA — Residents living along the Delaware River from upstate New York to Philadelphia have said they fear that the recent start of natural gas drilling along the banks of the river threatens their drinking water supply, a September 7 KYW Newsradio report.

The residents are pushing for an environmental impact study on the drilling process. During a drilling practice known as hydrofracturing, or “fracking,” water mixed with chemicals is pumped into deep wells under pressure to crack rock formation and release trapped natural gas, a process that is thought by some to contaminate the groundwater. There is concern about the chemicals used in the hydrofracking water solution, as WaterTech Online® has previously reported.

“The major problem that comes from all this drilling is the fact that we will not have drinking water because you cannot filter this stuff out. That means that 72 million people in the northeastern United States are close to not having any drinking water,” Mark Barbash from Center City, PA, is quoted saying.

The Delaware River Basin Commission is scheduled to hold hearings on the process on September 23 and October 22, the report said.

To read the full report, click here.

Cuomo decision halts North Castle housing proposal

NORTH CASTLE - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has approved a nonprofit group's plans to sell 30 acres of wooded land to Mount Kisco - a move that halts plans to put a housing development there. The Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments - which owns the land at 1 Baldwin Road in North Castle - is selling it to the village for $475,000.

Mount Kisco Mayor J. Michael Cindrich said the village would work closely with the land trust "to formulate some type of agreement where the property is preserved in perpetuity."

The Dubos center for years sought to sell the property for $1.2 million to Valhalla-based developer Michael Cappelli. But Cappelli's plans to put several luxury homes on the site upset conservationists, as well as local, county and state officials.

Mount Kisco officials were particularly concerned because the land rests next to Byram Lake, the village's main drinking water supply.

In 2007, the Dubos Center filed litigation in state Supreme Court

in White Plains seeking permission to sell to Cappelli. The center purchased the property in 1979 using $275,000 it got from two charities - the DeWitt Wallace Fund and the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation.

But the center's president, Ruth Eblen, said in court papers that Dubos received the grant money to use the land for programs that ultimately never panned out. The nonprofit wanted to sell the land to pay off debts and continue environmental education work.

But Cuomo's office, which regulates charities, opposed the move. The attorney general argued that selling the land for development ran afoul of the reason the center got its original purchase money in the first place. State Supreme Court Justice W. Denis Donovan agreed in a 2007 ruling. That opened the door for a sale to Mount Kisco, which had offered to buy the land.

"We must protect the spaces that are intended to be kept in their natural state and honor the wishes of those who generously donate to worthy causes," Cuomo said in a news release.

As we catch our breath following last week's historic action by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on global warming, I want to take this moment to thank you for all you have done and to sketch out the road ahead.

There is no doubt that the Environmental Defense Fund Action Network team played an instrumental roll in last week's victory.

From making phone calls to sending emails to recruiting new activists and spreading the word to making generous donations, you kept the pressure on and made committee passage of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act possible.

And, make no mistake, this is a landmark bill. It would establish an aggressive, declining, economy-wide cap on America's global warming pollution starting at 17% reductions by 2020 and reaching 83% reductions by 2050. It also calls for 20% of America's energy to come from clean, renewable energy sources by 2020.

In short, it would set us on a course that unleashes our clean energy future and avoids the catastrophic threat of runaway global warming.

As significant as last week's vote was, the battle to enact landmark climate legislation in 2009 is far from over.

Congress is on recess this week, but we are already redeploying our resources and preparing for the fight in the full House and Senate. We have dozens of new congressional targets, and our legislative team is already scheduling meetings and working the phones.

This is the first time many members have had to focus on this issue, so our job is to educate them about the urgency and the opportunity of climate action this year.

As our National Climate Campaign ramps up for the fight ahead, here are ways you can stay in touch with our team:

This can be our year. We have already beaten the odds by overcoming a truly gargantuan effort by old line oil and gas, and far right conservatives to derail climate action in committee.

But our victory last week will lead the opposition to redouble their efforts. And it is always easier by far to stop a bill in Washington than to enact one.

We are counting on your help as activists, as supporters, and as evangelists for action in the weeks ahead.

This month, the Open Space Institute teamed up with the town of Rochester, New York to protect the 55-year-old Domino dairy farm, situated in the heart of the scenic Rondout Valley. This agricultural preservation project, our 18th overall in the Rondout and the neighboring Walkill Valley, is part of our ongoing effort to protect the legacy of New York State. Farming has been a vital part of our culture and economy for generations, and OSI is committed to seeking out the sound fiscal partnerships that allow us to preserve our open spaces and keep our farmers farming.

We celebrated an anniversary with the Black Rock Forest Consortium, donating a gift of land to honor the Consortium’s 20 years of protecting prime forest just a few short miles from New York City. And, as summer gets going and Quadricentennial events take center stage, we spoke with U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey about the storied history of the Hudson River and the people who treasure it.

BEDFORD, N.Y. — When New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled his sweeping environmental vision for the city two years ago, the venerable American Museum of Natural History served as his setting, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Tony Blair, then the British prime minister, piped in messages of support via two large television screens.

Not to be outdone, this wealthy enclave 45 minutes north of the city rolled out its own stars on Saturday as it part of its ambitious plan for a sustainable future. Bob Woodruff, a reporter for ABC News, who lives in nearby Rye, gave the keynote address. Chevy Chase, who owns a home here, introduced the closing panel. And though the setting was a high school, not a fancy museum or hotel, nearly 1,000 people gathered to listen to experts talk about global threats to the environment and problems as close as their backyards.

Bedford, which has a population of 18,000, consists of three hamlets in the Croton watershed, an ecotopia of lakes, ponds and wetlands that provides New York City with part of its drinking water.

The town is among a number of smaller communities across the country that have joined cities in trying to reduce their carbon footprints, motivated by concerns over global warming. Bedford hopes to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next 11 years.

The conference, billed as the Bedford Environmental Summit, drew more than 85 speakers — all volunteering their time — ranging from local politicians to national environmental figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Thomas Lovejoy, creator of the public television program “Nature.”

Pulling off such an ambitious event was a testament to the town’s environmental consciousness, but also, to some degree, to the wealth and influence of its residents.

But putting the rich on an energy diet has its challenges. Many of the people who came to see Mr. Kennedy give a lecture on oil depletion drove in alone in Range Rovers, Chevy Suburbans or other S.U.V.’s, making the few Toyota Priuses in the parking lot look like lonely high school nerds at lunchtime.

“This is a well-heeled community, and one of the important benefits of the enormous turnout and interest today is it starts people talking and thinking,” said Ellen Conrad, president of the Bedford Garden Club, one of the event’s sponsors. “Today is about convincing each and every person who attended that they need to make a difference, and I’m hoping the choice of cars will be an important step.”

Alas, though, when asked what kind of car she drove, Ms. Conrad sheepishly admitted, “It’s a Lexus S.U.V. — the worst.”

By way of apology, she added that her daughters drive Priuses; her husband, whose vehicle just died, is getting one; and she will get something environmentally friendly as well, when her Lexus is finally retired.

“Unfortunately that’s the balance between the economics and the cause,” she said. “Hopefully we can shift that needle a little more to the cause and away from the economics.”

Other environmental problems lurk in the town’s hills, among all those spacious, energy-hungry homes. Many of the roads leading to them are kept as dirt, to make it easy for horseback riding, but contributing to runoff. And because of regulations intended to protect New York City’s water supply, the town cannot build a sewage treatment plant. About 7,000 homes here rely on septic tanks, which can lead to higher concentrations of nitrogen in the groundwater, especially in more crowded areas, said Kevin Winn, Bedford’s commissioner of public works.

The town, led by an environmental advisory board, hopes to have a detailed plan for reducing emissions within the next few months, said Mary Beth Kass, the board’s chairwoman.

At Saturday’s conference, which was held at Fox Lane High School, a band room was turned into a lecture hall where visitors could learn about the issues facing Bedford’s water supply. In the small gymnasium was information about biodiversity and the evils of fast food, and in a classroom about oceans and fish in peril.

Down a main hallway, there was an expo where an array of companies and nonprofit groups promoted everything from low-tech organic farming to high-concept plans for green commerce. Squeezed in among them, Samantha Ruff and Eleanor Stein, both 17, displayed a project from their Advanced Placement environmental sciences course. The centerpiece was an energy pyramid, much like the familiar food pyramid, except with crop residue at the bottom leading right up to wind, solar and hydrogen at the top.

They were among 50 students from the course helping at the conference, listening to lectures and showing off their projects. For their 29-year-old teacher, Paul Frisch, the class and the conference were a sign of how much has changed in just a generation.

“I certainly didn’t have anything like this when I was in school,” he said.

In German ‘Passive Houses,’ No Furnaces but Plenty of Heat

DARMSTADT, Germany — From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the stylish new gray and orange row houses in the Kranichstein District, with wreaths on the doors and Christmas lights twinkling through a freezing drizzle. But these houses are part of a design revolution: There are no drafts, no cold tile floors, no snuggling under blankets until the furnace kicks in. There is, in fact, no furnace.

In Berthold Kaufmann’s home, there is, to be fair, one radiator for emergency backup in the living room — but it is not in use. Even on the coldest nights in central Germany, Mr. Kaufmann’s new “passive house” and others of this design get all the heat and hot water they need from the amount of energy that would be needed to run a hair dryer.

“You don’t think about temperature — the house just adjusts,” said Mr. Kaufmann, watching his 2-year-old daughter, dressed in a T-shirt, tuck into her sausage in the spacious living room, whose glass doors open to a patio. His new home uses about one-twentieth the heating energy of his parents’ home of roughly the same size, he said.

Architects in many countries, in attempts to meet new energy efficiency standards like the Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design standard in the United States, are designing homes with better insulation and high-efficiency appliances, as well as tapping into alternative sources of power, like solar panels and wind turbines.

The concept of the passive house, pioneered in this city of 140,000 outside Frankfurt, approaches the challenge from a different angle. Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in.

That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants’ bodies.

Decades ago, attempts at creating sealed solar-heated homes failed, because of stagnant air and mold. But new passive houses use an ingenious central ventilation system. The warm air going out passes side-by-side with clean cold air coming in, exchanging heat with 90 percent efficiency.

“The myth before was that to be warm you had to have heating. Our goal is to create a warm house without energy demand,” said Wolfgang Hasper, an engineer at the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt. “This is not about wearing thick pullovers, turning the thermostat down and putting up with drafts. It’s about being comfortable with less energy input, and we do this by recycling heating.”

There are now an estimated 15,000 passive houses around the world, the vast majority built in the past few years in German-speaking countries or Scandinavia. The first passive home was built here in 1991 by Wolfgang Feist, a local physicist, but diffusion of the idea was slowed by language. The courses and literature were mostly in German, and even now the components are mass-produced only in this part of the world.

The industry is thriving in Germany, however — for example, schools in Frankfurt are built with the technique — and it is spreading. The European Commission is promoting passive-house building, and the European Parliament has proposed that new buildings meet passive-house standards by 2011.

The United States Army, long a presence in this part of Germany, is considering passive-house barracks. “Awareness is skyrocketing; it’s hard for us to keep up with requests,” Mr. Hasper said.

Nabih Tahan, a California architect who worked in Austria for 11 years, is completing one of the first passive houses in the United States for his family in Berkeley. He heads a group of 70 Bay Area architects and engineers working to encourage wider acceptance of the standards. “This is a recipe for energy that makes sense to people,” Mr. Tahan said. “Why not reuse this heat you get for free?”

Ironically, however, when California inspectors were examining the Berkeley home to determine whether it met “green” building codes (it did), he could not get credit for the heat exchanger, a device that is still uncommon in the United States. “When you think about passive-house standards, you start looking at buildings in a different way,” he said.

Buildings that are certified hermetically sealed may sound suffocating. (To meet the standard, a building must pass a “blow test” showing that it loses minimal air under pressure.) In fact, passive houses have plenty of windows — though far more face south than north — and all can be opened.

Inside, a passive home does have a slightly different gestalt from conventional houses, just as an electric car drives differently from its gas-using cousin. There is a kind of spaceship-like uniformity of air and temperature. The air from outside all goes through HEPA filters before entering the rooms. The cement floor of the basement isn’t cold. The walls and the air are basically the same temperature.

Look closer and there are technical differences: When the windows are swung open, you see their layers of glass and gas, as well as the elaborate seals around the edges. A small, grated duct near the ceiling in the living room brings in clean air. In the basement there is no furnace, but instead what looks like a giant Styrofoam cooler, containing the heat exchanger.

Passive houses need no human tinkering, but most architects put in a switch with three settings, which can be turned down for vacations, or up to circulate air for a party (though you can also just open the windows). “We’ve found it’s very important to people that they feel they can influence the system,” Mr. Hasper said.

The houses may be too radical for those who treasure an experience like drinking hot chocolate in a cold kitchen. But not for others. “I grew up in a great old house that was always 10 degrees too cold, so I knew I wanted to make something different,” said Georg W. Zielke, who built his first passive house here, for his family, in 2003 and now designs no other kinds of buildings.

In Germany, passive houses cost about 5 to 7 percent more than conventional houses to build. With growing popularity and an ever-larger array of attractive off-the-shelf components, the buildings have become cheaper.

But the sophisticated windows and heat-exchange ventilation systems needed to make passive houses work properly are not readily available in the United States. So the construction of passive houses in the United States, at least initially, is likely to entail a higher price differential.

Moreover, the kinds of home construction popular in the United States are more difficult to adapt to the standard: residential buildings tend not to have built-in ventilation systems of any kind, and sliding windows are hard to seal.

Dr. Feist’s original passive house — a boxy white building with four apartments — looks like the science project that it was intended to be. But new passive houses come in many shapes and styles. The Passivhaus Institut, which he founded a decade ago, continues to conduct research, teaches architects, and tests homes to make sure they meet standards. It now has affiliates in Britain and the United States.

Because a successful passive house requires the interplay of the building, the sun and the climate, architects need to be careful about site selection. Passive-house heating might not work in a shady valley in Switzerland, or on an urban street with no south-facing wall. Researchers are looking into whether the concept will work in warmer climates — where a heat exchanger could be used in reverse, to keep cool air in and warm air out.

And those who want passive-house mansions may be disappointed. Compact shapes are simpler to seal, while sprawling homes are difficult to insulate and heat.

Most passive houses allow about 500 square feet per person, a comfortable though not expansive living space. Mr. Hasper said people who want thousands of square feet per person should look for another design.

“Anyone who feels they need that much space to live,” he said, “well, that’s a different discussion.”

EPA targets water runoff

Strict rules ahead for 3 Mass. towns

By Bina Venkataraman

Globe Correspondent / November 17, 2008

The US Environmental Protection Agency is set to announce today that it will, for the first time, require some big-box stores, malls, and other businesses to reduce the amount of rainwater that runs off their roofs and parking lots. Federal officials will test the new policy in the Massachusetts towns of Milford, Bellingham, and Franklin.

The EPA, using its authority under the Clean Water Act, will require large commercial and industrial landowners in these towns to steeply reduce the storm-water runoff that picks up pollutants and pours them into the Charles River, officials said last week in interviews. Storm-water runoff is rain and snowmelt that mixes with leaf litter, toxic metals, oil, and exhaust fume deposits as it washes over parking lots, rooftops, and roadways.

"Cities and towns are already investing a lot in storm water," said Ken Moraff, deputy director for ecosystem protection of the EPA's New England region. "These commercial facilities are missing pieces of the puzzle." The new regulations, he said, will help complete the cleanup effort.

In a parallel development, the state Department of Environmental Protection plans to release its own draft rules today that will expand the effort to reduce storm-water runoff throughout the 35 communities that make up the Charles River Watershed area.

The state will require that any commercial development with two or more acres of "impervious" surfaces, such as concrete or asphalt, reduce their storm-water runoff by 65 percent - the same requirements to be made by EPA in the three towns. Outside the watershed, facilities with 5 or more acres of these surfaces would need to make more modest reductions.

The state will give facilities and landowners 10 years to comply after the rules take effect. EPA officials said they have not determined when landowners and businesses must reduce their runoff, or when they will expand the requirement beyond the three test towns to other parts of New England and beyond.

"From a precedent perspective, it's very important," said Chris Kilian, director of the clean water program for the Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental advocacy group. "Having EPA involved in interpreting the Clean Water Act in this way is critical for getting storm water cleaned up all over the country."

Limiting storm-water runoff is not entirely new; for the past several years, Massachusetts has required that new developments and redevelopments near wetlands build features on parking lots and rooftops to help storm water filter through the ground instead of draining across concrete and blacktop into pipes that empty into waterways. The new federal and state regulations will now require many facilities built before the late '90s to retrofit their property to reduce runoff.

"I think it's going to be a shock," said Michael Santora, Milford's town engineer. "Large commercial developments that are older will be impacted most significantly."

Storm-water runoff, rich in phosphorous, fuels toxic algal blooms in waterways, such as those that plagued the lower Charles in the summers of 2006 and 2007. Commercial and industrial sites in the Charles River Watershed, even though they account for only 8 percent of the land in the watershed, contribute 23 percent of the phosphorous that runs annually into the waterway.

The vast majority of the phosphorous from commercial and industrial sites comes from the three towns that will be regulated by the EPA.

The EPA announcement comes on the heels of a National Academy of Sciences report released last month that faulted the agency for failing to protect the country's waterways from storm-water pollution.

"If you look across the country," said Thomas Ballestero, a professor of engineering and hydrology at the University of New Hampshire's Stormwater Center, "most of the big impairments to waterways are storm water related or can be traced back to storm water."

Ballestero noted that although municipalities are already regulated by the EPA, storm water from roadways and suburban subdivisions also contributes significantly to river pollution.

Businesses last week had not been notified of the EPA policy, which comes at a difficult time for many. Commercial real estate values are at record lows, and shopping plazas face declining sales and plummeting consumer confidence. Retail sales in October were down more than 4 percent from October 2007 nationwide, and stores fear a dampened holiday shopping season.

But David Begelfer, CEO of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties' Massachusetts chapter, a real estate trade association, was among a few business people who had heard of the new rules. He was not pleased.

"It's going to be pretty disastrous . . . especially [for] those who are operating on the edge right now," said Begelfer.

The costs of installing effective storm-water technology - such as porous pavement with large stones that allow water to permeate it, or tree-lined islands that sit below a parking lot's surface so runoff can drain into them - can range from $15,000 to $50,000 per acre for new developments, said Ballestero, of UNH's Stormwater Center. And retrofitting an existing development could be 10 to 200 percent more expensive. But, he added, "It's much more cost effective than letting your river or lake get contaminated and having to do remediation."

The Charles River Watershed Association, an environmental stewardship group, praised the new rules.

"The idea is to make our cities and towns mimic the way nature would have worked had we never built them," said Bob Zimmerman, executive director of the association. "And we certainly possess the technology to do that."

Bina Venkataraman can be reached at bvenkataraman@globe.com

Don't Trash Big Boxes, Repackage Them!
BY JOEL GARREAU - WASHINGTON POST STAFF WRITER | SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2008

The Washington Post assembled a team of artists, architects, engineers and developers to think creatively about what to do with spaces once occupied by big box stores -- our most common, underrated and increasingly available major buildings. Below are some of their ideas. | Read More About the Project Here

Build a Town in the Parking Lot

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By Christopher B. Leinberger and Darrel Rippeteau

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As a developer, what Leinberger hates about parking lots is that they just sit there not making him any money. Fortunately, that can be fixed. The vast acreage of big-box parking lots seems almost providentially proportioned to be turned into walkable city blocks, he says. What you have to do is lay these blocks out with parking garages at their core, and encrust those with an outer layer of shops and apartments on all sides. That makes one block. Put together a whole bunch of these blocks, with the shops and apartments facing each other across the newly defined streets, and you've got a chunk of city. As it happens, prefabricated parking deck trusses span about 60 feet. So let's say you make your parking deck a loaf 60 feet wide and 120 feet deep. If you face it on all sides with shops that are 50 feet deep, well, voilà -- you've got yourself a walkable city block, with just enough space left over for sidewalks, bike lanes and streets. Then you build apartments or offices over the shops. Didn't you always want to live a croissant's throw away from a Target? We thought so. The great challenge is that big-box stores always have excellent automobile accessibility. So there's that enormous highway out there at the edge of your former parking lot. You want to make that into a boulevard -- a Champs-Elysees.

The Estates at Place W

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By Roger K. Lewis

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Windows? Windows? Big boxes don't need no stinking windows. If humans want to live in this building, however, they do. So the first thing is to core out the center of the big box, so you have a garden open to the sky for people to look into, suggests Roger K. Lewis, the emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Maryland who writes The Post's Shaping the City column.

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By Roger K. Lewis

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The exterior walls are not hard to punch windows into -- structurally, they're just steel uprights sometimes reinforced with diagonal struts. Then you punch skylights in over the interior walkways, and the apartments almost start laying themselves out. You add a balcony here, a second floor there, a sleeping loft over yonder, and you're looking at the niftiest affordable housing ever. Unless you make them too nice. Then the yuppies are going to want to move in, and there goes the neighborhood.

The Garden of Gaithersburg
Decide for yourself what this says about the zeitgeist, but everybody wanted to make these things into gardens. You want a growth industry? This takes the "eat local" movement to a whole new level.

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By Darrel Rippeteau. Enlarge Left | Enlarge Right
Organic gardeners routinely lay down weed-suppressing black plastic into which they poke holes to plant their seeds. Asphalt is just like that, only a little thicker, observes Darrel Rippeteau, principal of Rippeteau Architects. So in the process of creating a truck garden (below), the parking lot becomes an orchard. Under the parking lot you find an elaborate network of drainage pipes -- if you think big-box owners want to see women in high heels slipping on ice, you are out of your mind. In its new incarnation, the system collects rainwater for irrigation. In fact, the water can be piped into the fire-suppression sprinkler system in the big box, which now serves as a monster mister. (You could also go hydroponic.) Much of the roof, of course, has become glass or translucent plastic. Those gigunda halogens make great grow lights. The concrete slab floor works as a heat sump. Major-league climate control comes with the package. Much of the produce is packed up in the back and shipped to farmers' markets. But you can also pick your own.

Once it sinks in how big that roof is, one's thoughts quickly turn to solar voltaic, as demonstrated by Phil Esocoff, principal of the architecture firm Esocoff and Associates, who also adds a recharging area for electric cars and a veneer of apartments for people who really want to get near their groceries. He also specifies that everything be easily disassembled and moved as the economics of the box location changes. Once you get into how high those ceilings are, Harold Linton's mind turned to letting the grow space of the big box become the Virginia Arbor Conservatory. Yes, trees. Linton is chair of George Mason University's Department of Art and Visual Technology. Or how about a vineyard? Rusty Meadows, an engineer by training who is director of the Washington office of Perkins + Will, an outfit that specializes in commercial buildings, loves the idea of the Clos de Germantown.

Variation on a Garden

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(Esocoff & Associates|Architects)

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This additional garden transformation is the work of Esocoff & Associates. The vast roof supports solar voltaics, which enables not only a greenhouse, but a recharging area for electric cars, and a veneer of apartments for people who really want to get near their groceries. Everything is designed to be easily disassembled and moved as the economics of the box location changes.

The SoHo of the Suburbs

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By Peter Winant and Tom Ashcraft

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Give this assignment to artists and they start thinking about buildings comparable to circus tents that are sitting in former rail yards and pretty soon they wind up with ideas for artists living and working and exhibiting that are possibly unlike any other on Earth. Peter Winant and Tom Ashcraft are both sculptors and associate chairs of the Department of Art and Visual Technology at George Mason. Thinking about how "the circus tent opens and folds and closes," they got the idea to open up both ends of the big box, and start rolling in railroad freight cars and trailer-size freight containers. They're cheap, fairly maneuverable and stackable, like a kid's blocks.

If you pile two or more, the upper ones can be for living and eating and entertaining, and the lower ones given over to studios where the art is made. The big center sliding doors of the freight cars can open up to galleries in which the public interacts with the work of the artists.

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By Peter Winant and Tom Ashcraft

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The ways you stack these things in turn define courtyards and stages and display spaces where people can sit and converse and make music and have small-scale performances. The inside space would transition to the outdoor space, which could be filled with basketball courts, tennis courts, gardens and green space.

All of this would be the product of artists' hands, work and money. Nothing would cost any single artist much more than $30,000 or $40,000, Winant estimates.

But wait a minute, you say. If you open up the ends of the big box to the weather, even if you have a roof, won't that place get awfully cold in the winter? "They'll have wood stoves," says Winant. "They're artists, right? They'll get pallets, break them up and burn them." After all, what is art without suffering?

Hydroponic Truck Farm Market

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(By Darrel Rippeteau )

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Architect Darrel Rippeteau suggests a garden center that provides seasonal vegetables and fruits to local markets.

The big box stores' roofing panels could be swapped out for translucent skylights. Consumers could walk through the space to browse the offerings as at any standard farmers market, or make drive-through purchases with the aid of a small road through the middle of the space.

Fruits and vegetables could be grown hydroponically and continuously all year, allowing for good horticultural practices. The space's existing sprinkler system would become a mechanism for daily watering.

La Vigne de la Grande BoÎte

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(By Rusty Meadows and Tammi Kim)

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Imagine a big box in which the roof as well as the parking lots are covered with wine grapes.

That's what Rusty Meadows and Tammy Tim, of the Washington office of Perkins + Will, did.

The interior of the big box has plenty of space for a retail outlet as well as areas for bottling, case storage, processing and shipping. It also features a wine-making school and a cafe.

Virginia Arbor Conservatory

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By Harold Linton

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An expansive selection of plants native to Virginia grow inside and outside this tree-hugger's paradise. The facility's roof has been rolled back to form skylit portals for various groupings of trees and plants. The space would serve as both a commercial outlet for shoppers and an educational institute for individuals and communities seeking to learn more about landscape concepts and environmental applications to residential and commercial design plans.

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(By Darrel Rippeteau)

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Got Your Own Suggestions?
We'd like to hear our readers' ideas for future uses of big box store space.

E-mail your plan in words and/or an illustration to us at style@washpost.com.

Be sure to include the phrase "Big Box" in the subject line of your message.

Undeveloped watershed

• November 13, 2008

It's good to see that clean water and common sense prevailed in the sale of an undeveloped 30-acre property that drains right into the Village of Mount Kisco's main drinking-water supply. Mount Kisco now plans to buy the property near Byram Lake for $475,000 and preserve it as open space.

The property is owned by the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments, which, despite its name, is not an environmental organization, but one devoted to education and research. The center had sought to sell the land to Michael Cappelli, a luxury housing developer and brother of Westchester's mega-developer, Louis Cappelli. The Center and Cappelli had a deal worth $1.2 million, or more than twice the current sale price, but that agreement couldn't withstand the loud objections to the sale that came from many quarters, including officials from Mount Kisco and neighboring North Castle, the Westchester county executive, the state Attorney General's Office and the Westchester Land Trust.

Last year, the state Supreme Court ruled that the land had to be preserved. It turns out that the Dubos center bought the wooded property in 1979 with $275,000 donated by the Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation and the DeWitt Wallace Fund for the express purpose of preserving the land. The Meyer and Wallace families had each owned large estates overlooking Byram Lake, and the property was essentially in their backyards.

It has been clear since the ruling by state Supreme Court Justice W. Denis Donovan that luxury housing would not be built on the property. What's still left to figure out is whether some of those who helped block the development of the land will pitch in and help Mount Kisco pay to keep the property wild. As staff writer Sean Gorman noted in a story yesterday, the village plans to seek partners in the purchase. Now is the time for the village's partners to rise to the occasion.

A Journal News editorial

Please note article below:

1). A citizen complained and Jerry's concerns were dismissed as have so many of our concerns over the years and our efforts ridiculed but here we have it eight years after the original complaint and the regulatory agencies have finally responded.

2). Additionally, what the excellent Elan article did not state was whether any of the contaminants meandered into the adjoining site - the hotel, etc. Was that site also thoroughly examined by the DEC? The hotel will have another claim to fame: overlooking a toxic dump which can be seen from the heights of another Camarda/Town extravanganza: The 321 unit senior Retreat at Stoneleigh which according to Pulte representatives is experiencing "geo-techno" difficulties or in the words of Tim Miller, "slope instability." I was there yesterday and for $529,000 you can have a front row window seat, looking right at it, a few feet from your doorstep. You cannot make it up.

By the way all of this instability has compelled an instability in site plans with buildings being merged and moved but never the total reduced. (Any relation to the original Camarda site plan as approved is purely coincidental).

Question: Has the DEP responded to resident complaints about the condition of retaining walls, esp. after heavy rains (had to be rebuilt and reinforced around the Club House) and possible malfunctioning of detention ponds? Ans. No. The DEP was satisfied by the Town of Carmel's response that all is well at the Retreat.

By Susan Elan • The Journal News • August 10, 2008

The state Department of Environmental Conservation plans to fine Putnam County for violations related to a long-unused county landfill in Carmel and other breaches of environmental law, according to state and county officials.

A state order, not yet issued by the DEC, will require Putnam to clean up the 4-acre site off Old Route 6 where the county operated a landfill from April 1975 to July 1976. In addition, the state agency wants Putnam to devise a plan for recycling, to replace a faulty wastewater treatment plant at the county-owned Putnam National Golf Club in Mahopac and to correct violations involving bulk storage of petroleum at county sites.

"The consent order is not finalized yet, so there is no information re: fines or specific compliance information available at this time," DEC spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach wrote in an e-mail Friday.

"The main possible environmental impacts associated with the Putnam County landfill are contaminated groundwater and contaminated sediments," Rosenbach said.

The landfill lies within the New York City watershed and adjacent to property where developer Paul Camarda proposed a hotel and conference center. Jaral Properties Inc., a Garden City, Long Island, company, now owns the site.

County Legislator Sam Oliverio Jr., D-Putnam Valley, chairman of the Health, Social, Educational and Environmental Committee, described the potential cost of righting the environmental problems as "catastrophic" but said Putnam has no choice but to correct them.

The DEC has been negotiating with Putnam over a number of environmental issues for about 16 months, County Attorney Jennifer Bumgarner said last week. DEC officials did not respond to inquiries about why they began enforcement action against the county now.

The unanticipated county liabilities come as Putnam enters its 2009 budget season, expected to be among the toughest in decades.

Rosenbach said Putnam had performed "some remedial measures" at the "unlined municipal landfill." They include site regrading, improvement of surface drainage and installation of engineering controls including dry wells and trenches to control "leachate discharges" (the liquid that drains or leaches from a landfill), she said. The county's measures reduced but have not eliminated the discharges, she said.

A 1991 DEC report described leachate at the landfill as a "reddish-brown" liquid containing, among other things, toluene and phenol - toxic solvents that are potent cancer-causing organic compounds. The report said the discharged liquid from the landfill entered Michael's Brook near the Middle Branch Reservoir.

Suggestions for remediation at that time included capping the landfill and a leachate collection system. Estimated costs ranged from $1.1 million to $2.4 million.

Instead, the county had a 2-foot-thick layer of cover soil installed, Rosenbach said Friday. She did not say what year that took place or whether the DEC had approved that option. Portions of the cover soil have eroded, exposing the solid waste in the landfill, Rosenbach said.

The dump figured on the DEC's list of inactive hazardous-waste sites in 1987 but it was later removed.

Mahopac resident Jerry Ravnitsky said on Friday he contacted the DEC and county and Carmel officials with his concerns about pollution from the former landfill in 2000 when Camarda planned to buy 19 acres of town-owned land near the landfill for development of the hotel complex and other ventures. His concerns were dismissed, Ravnitsky said.

The former county dump operated on land belonging to Saul Shapiro, a builder based in Ossining, and his partner, Emil Landau. The dump was closed in the mid-1970s after the state Commission of Investigation found that a former county official had acted illegally by brokering the deal to run the dump between the county and the property owners.

In 1987, Shapiro sued Putnam, seeking damages and cleanup costs under a federal environmental law that holds operators of dumps responsible for cleanup. The county argued that it contracted with a third party to operate the dump and was thus not responsible.

In 1991, Putnam settled the lawsuit for $100,000. The county acquired the deed to the property in 1994 over the strenuous objections of County Executive Robert Bondi, who said it would prove costly for Putnam later.

Last week Bondi said the best remedy is to remove remaining waste from the site.

The county's environmental woes don't end there. Oliverio said his committee will tackle the continued lack of a county recycling plan when it meets Aug. 19.

Putnam shut its only recycling facility - the Donald B. Smith County Government Campus off Old Route 6 in Carmel - in April to save money. Bondi said it is up to the towns to provide recycling, or residents can have it picked up by their private hauler. DEC officials say Putnam must provide an alternative to private pickup.

County fuel storage tanks also have come under DEC scrutiny. Under a mandate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the DEC is required to inspect fuel tanks in Putnam with a capacity of 1,100 gallons or more for proper storage and handling of petroleum to prevent leaks and spills.

Some Putnam tanks don't comply with regulations, but DEC officials have not revealed what the violations entail.

The DEC cited Putnam Valley in 2006 and again in April for oil tank storage violations with a warning that penalties could amount to $37,000 a day.

The DEC also wants Putnam to replace a sewage treatment plant at Putnam National, the 374-acre country club the county bought in December 2003 using $11.35 million in New York City Department of Environmental Protection watershed money. Bondi said last week that the DEP had agreed as part of the deal to fix the club's leaking sewage plant.

"We pumped out the system to try to limit the pollution," Bondi said. "But we have been waiting for the DEP to upgrade the sewage treatment plant. New York City has not begun the upgrade."

DEP officials did not respond to calls for comment.

Reach Susan Elan at 845-228-2277 or selan@lohud.com.

Putnam Valley, landowner at war over use of Cimarron Ranch

By Susan Elan • The Journal News • July 20, 2008

PUTNAM VALLEY -

The green street sign at an entrance to the 450-acre Cimarron Ranch reads "Vineyard Trail" and a painted wooden sign welcoming visitors to the property is labeled "Valley View Organics."

But several hundred feet up the wide dirt entry road, the scene is anything but bucolic. A backhoe loads dirt into a 10-wheeler. Mountains of hacked-up tree stumps, leaves, roots and branches stretch along one side of a muddy clearing. On the other side, tires and boulders are strewn over a denuded hillside.

Residents say property owner Alexander Kaspar has transformed their wooded neighborhood into an industrial zone where rock grinding, earth moving, clear-cutting and wood chipping go on from sun up to sun down six days a week. Sundays and evenings when heavy machinery and chain saws are not in use, motorcycles and ATVs tear over roads carved out of once-tree-covered hillsides, further disturbing their tranquility, they say.

"There's an explosion of steel as construction debris, rocks and landscape debris are dumped into steel Dumpsters," said Lawrence Zarcone, a nearby neighbor and Sproutbrook Road resident since 1972. "They pound at this debris with heavy equipment."

Zarcone estimates that 30 to 40 trucks a day "barrel through" the neighborhood "destroying the roads" and endangering the children who live there.

"We can't sit outside near the swimming pool," he said. "Our quality of life has diminished and the value of our homes has diminished greatly."

Next month, Kaspar and Putnam Valley will face off in state Supreme Court in Carmel in a case brought by the town in 2006 to stop what it describes as "commercial and industrial activities" on a property reserved for agriculture.

The Appellate Division in Brooklyn recently upheld an injunction requested by the town and granted in state Supreme Court ordering Kaspar to stop work at the site. During Kaspar's appeal, the injunction was lifted. Since the Appellate decision, noise and trucking activity have decreased, neighbors say. A trial before state Supreme Court Justice Andrew O'Rourke is set for Aug. 18.

Kaspar said his good intentions have been misunderstood by the town and his neighbors. He said he bought the 340-acre parcel about a year ago for $1 million to save it from becoming a housing subdivision. Kaspar managed the property for about a decade before purchasing it and other parcels that stretch from Putnam Valley into Philipstown near the Appalachian Trail.

Kaspar said he wants to clear the land for a vineyard and plant evergreens and ferns. He also plans to build greenhouses to grow organic vegetables and to bring back horses to the property that many longtime residents fondly recall as a place to ride, square-dance or have a drink in a Western-motif saloon.

The aging Western-style buildings, once used for movie backdrops, are now covered with fading and peeling paint. The barn is empty and the riding ring is overgrown with weeds. An old metal horse trough stands empty on its side with holes rotting through its bottom.

"There are no ferns or fruit trees," said Town Supervisor Robert Tendy, a criminal attorney. "He grinds tree stumps to make mulch and sells the mulch. That's not agriculture."

Marco Gennarelli, supervisor of public works in Croton-on-Hudson, said the village sends 60 to 70 truckloads a year of leaves, grass and tree branches to Kaspar's property at a price of $250 per vehicle.

"It's strictly organic," Gennarelli said.

Last month Putnam Valley got permission to dig at Kaspar's property in preparation for a court hearing. The dig turned up unprotected oil tanks, samples of asbestos, insulation, flooring materials, pipes for plumbing, electrical wiring, marble counter tops and other buried building materials, Tendy said.

They are the remains of an old building that he was ordered to take down, Kaspar said.

Wendy Rosenbach, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the agency is investigating.

But Carmel attorney Robert Lusardi, Putnam Valley's special counsel in the lawsuit against Kaspar, said the town is frustrated with all the foot dragging.

Complaints about zoning violations at the property date as far back as 2001. They include allowing contractors to dump debris, illegal logging, filling in wetlands, storing forbidden items such as air-conditioning equipment on the land, renting space to businesses not allowed on the site and maintaining an unsafe building.

Mark Fang, Kaspar's White Plains lawyer, said his client was cited with 31 town code violations between 2005 and 2006, but 30 of them were dismissed by the town justice court.

"His contention is that his activities do not violate town code," Fang said. "He took a plea for the house demolition and paid a $300 fine."

The town's "limited success" in the local court is the result of the property's inclusion in the county's Agricultural District because that trumps local laws, Lusardi said.

In May, troubled by "sand and gravel excavation and removal operations" and "heavy trucks constantly delivering construction debris to the premises for disposition," Putnam's Agriculture and Farmland Protection Board asked Patrick Hooker, commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets, to confirm that Kaspar's activities "seriously conflict" with the requirements for an agricultural district.

In a June 11 letter to Tendy, Hooker wrote that Kaspar's use of cleared land "to compost municipal yard waste … does not appear to be agriculturally related."

This month, Tendy asked the Putnam Legislature, which had included the property in the county agricultural district, to revoke its designation as farmland. But he was told there is no procedure to do so before a review scheduled for 2011.

"They would not pull the status because there are no procedures to allow them to review early," Tendy said.

Kaspar said he expects things to go smoothly now that he has "thrown out" a tenant who was "doing things to abuse the property." Once the court case is settled, he said he will proceed with plans to clear land for pastures at the former dude ranch.

But Kaspar remained adamant about his right to do with his property as he sees fit, including selling off its old stone walls.

"I used them to pay my attorney fees and taxes," he said.

Because it is classified as vacant farmland, Kaspar is not taxed for the businesses he is running on the property, Tendy said.

"He's paying less than he should be for running a commercial operation," Tendy said.

Dutchess considers bonding for more open space preservation

POUGHKEEPSIE – Since Dutchess County began its open space preservation program a number of years ago, it has preserved a dozen properties and the county administration has asked the county legislature to consider bonding for $1.6 million for additional properties.

The Environment Committee debated the issue with County Planning Commissioner Roger Akeley Thursday.

“We have completed 12 open space and farmland acquisitions and that amounts to about 1,600 acres of farmland and 382 acres of public open space,” he said. Now, the administration is asking for approval to make seven more purchases.

But, some members of the Democratic majority on the legislature said they resented Republican County Executive William Steinhaus’ inference that they are opposed to open space preservation.

Lawmakers are going to further discuss the issue on Monday.

Also to be discussed then is authorizing $10 million in bonding for parks and park facilities.

EPA is urging key lawmakers to scale back legislation that would expand the scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA), which supporters are pushing as a way to clarify which waters are subject to EPA regulation in the wake of recent high court rulings that created uncertainty about the law's regulatory scope.

EPA water chief Ben Grumbles, together with Army Assistant Secretary of Civil Works John Paul Woodley Jr. outlined concerns with the legislation in a letter last month to House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN).

The House bill, H.R. 2421, and its Senate companion, S. 1870, would make all waters of the United States subject to regulation by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, rather than just “navigable waters." Supporters of the legislation say it is necessary to restore the integrity of the water act following Supreme Court decisions in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a separate high court case, Rapanos, et ux., et al. v. United States, which both created lingering regulatory uncertainty about federal jurisdiction over some marginal wetlands and other waters.

But scores of lawmakers, industry and municipal officials have expressed concern the bill would expand the CWA beyond the act’s original congressional intent.

At a marathon, 23-witness hearing earlier this year, Oberstar expressed a willingness to consider altering provisions of the legislation, saying he hopes to treat the bill as a “working draft” and offering to change language to win over some lawmakers who are sitting on the fence deciding whether to support the bill.

After the hearing, Oberstar asked Grumbles and the other witnesses to provide “specific legislative suggestions” for revising the bill, including language protecting “geographically isolated, intrastate waters, and intermittent, ephemeral and headwater streams” to the extent these waters were protected before the high court rulings.

In their letter, Grumbles and Woodly suggest that removing the word “navigable” from the CWA would be a mistake, as the term “provides an important indication of Congress’s intended basis of authority in enacting the statute, and serves to bolster the regulatory framework that continues to support our jurisdictional determinations.”

The officials also raise concerns that some current exemptions to CWA regulation would not be covered by H.R. 2421, including prior converted cropland and certain waste treatment systems. While the CWA regulates “discharges” to water from a point source, the legislation uses the term “activities.” Oberstar appeared amenable to changing the word “activities” during the April hearing.

Additionally, EPA and the Corps in the letter express a desire to make unspecified additions to the CWA to promote state takeover of wetlands conservation plans, and to extend permit terms from five years to ten.

“In order to further enhance the state role in promoting wetland conservation, we would support targeted legislative revisions designed to promote state assumption of wetlands conservation within federal jurisdiction,”the officials write.

And issuing new permits every five years “does not always yield substantive improvements to the permits but often delays timely reissuance and can result in lack of permit coverage for the regulated public,” the letter says.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) sent a May 28 letter to Oberstar expressing its desire to see Congress “restore the definition of waters covered by the Clean Water Act.”

The state group also echoes EPA’s cry for more state oversight of wetlands conservation, saying, “the States believe the 404 section of the Act needs to be amended in order to facilitate the delegation of the program from [the Corps and EPA].” ECOS notes “two primary obstacles to delegation,” saying EPA is prohibited from funding implementation of the 404 program, and that partial or incremental delegation of power to states is not allowed.

ECOS, however, supports removing the term “navigable” from the CWA’s definition of regulated waters, suggesting that all such references in the law be changed to “waters of the U.S.,” with exception of “use of the water by commercial and other shipping,” where the group says the term may remain.

Westchester Land Trust is thrilled to announce one of the biggest land preservation deals ever in Westchester County. Working with a private-public partnership, we've protected 690 acres at the Valeria community in Cortlandt, forever.

The project was completed by Westchester Land Trust and its Cortlandt Land Trust chapter, AVR Homebuilders of Yonkers, the Town of Cortlandt and Valeria's Dickerson Pond Association.

The protected land stretches across a beautiful landscape that includes the 43-acre Dickerson Pond (that's it in the photo above) and the 740-foot Dickerson Mountain. By protecting the land, the project's partners are protecting critical watershed lands, wildlife habitat and scenic vistas.

We've got all the details on our website, Westchesterlandtrust.org.

Land trusts toast new preserve

By Michael Risinit
The Journal News • May 23, 2008

PUTNAM VALLEY - The excursion yesterday began in Putnam Valley, where an overgrown hay field met the edge of Indian Hill Road. The group of land preservationists and their benefactors rambled along an old farm road, through a shrubby, invasive mix of multiflora rose, honeysuckle and oriental bittersweet, broken occasionally by a pocket of sugar maples and other trees.

They stopped on the south side of a stone wall marking the border between Putnam and Westchester counties. There, representatives of the Westchester Land Trust, Putnam County Land Trust and Yorktown Land Trust offered their praise and thanks to the Danners, who donated the 28 acres, and assurances it would be protected forever.

"Places like this are very important for everybody," Judy Terlizzi, president of the Putnam trust, told the group. "Being able to get out and be in nature is one of the most healing things for all of us."

Gene and Josephine Danner of Suffolk County gave their land to the Westchester Land Trust. The property straddles the Westchester-Putnam line, with about half the acreage in each county. The Putnam and Yorktown trusts own conservation easements on the portions in their counties.

The Danner Family Preserve will be Westchester Land Trust's eighth preserve open to the public for hiking and other passive pursuits. As Tom Andersen, the Westchester trust's communications director, spoke, a bevy of birds tucked away in the brush provided a soundtrack. The cooing of mourning doves, the scream of blue jays and the flute-like notes of a wood thrush floated through the air.

The last bird caught Andersen's attention. The Danners owned the land for more than four decades, buying it just as its farming use ended. A young forest of shrubs and saplings is now replacing the the fields and attracting species that wouldn't necessarily benefit from the region's mostly maturing forests. Wood thrushes, which are considered a declining species by the National Audubon Society, can depend on the edge of forests and shrubby areas to nest.

"It's a good habitat for birds that are declining locally," Andersen said.

The Danners envisioned building their retirement home on the property, some of the only flat acreage fronting Indian Hill Road, or subdividing it. Preserving it ended up being the right decision.

"This is the greatest treasure we've gotten out of this, owning it for 44 years," Gene Danner said.

The land sits close to the Donald Trump State Park-Indian Hill section, part of 436 acres the billionaire developer donated to the state in 2006. Large, green signs on the nearby Taconic State Parkway alert drivers to that park.

"I can't guarantee the Danner name will be on the Taconic Parkway but it should be," Yorktown Councilman Nicholas Bianco told the couple.

Reach Michael Risinit at mrisinit@lohud.com or 845-228-2274

Shad-less festival highlights river's plight

By Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy • The Journal News • May 19, 2008

GARRISON - Like lilacs and tulips, the American shad has long been a symbol of spring, a time when the fry returned from the ocean to spawn in the warm temperatures of the Hudson River.

The environmental group Riverkeeper first used the opportunity 19 years ago to celebrate the bounty of the Hudson by organizing an annual Shad Festival to raise awareness of the health of the river.

In addition to locally grown organic produce, one of the main festival food draws was the whole broiled shad, a fish with thick flesh and a sweet taste, and shad roe, a springtime delicacy.

But there was no shad served at the Shad Fest yesterday at Boscobel in Garrison.

The reason: A study commissioned by Riverkeeper found a 90 percent drop in the American shad numbers in the Hudson over the last 20 years.

"I'm bummed out, man," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the chief prosecuting attorney and a member of the board of directors of Riverkeeper. "The American shad were once so plentiful. Now they have disappeared."

Festivalgoers didn't seem to mind the shad-less fest.

"They are absolutely right to not serve shad," said Mary Callan of Grandview, who attended the event with her husband and four daughters. "We support their efforts to save the environment."

Mindy Kimball of West Point watched a falconer talk about various birds with her son, Daniel, 5.

"He is very impressionable right now and very receptive to ideas about recycling, and so anything that brings him closer to nature is a good thing," Kimball said.

This year, Riverkeeper is launching a new campaign to rescue the shad - and nine other imperiled Hudson River fish - and restore their numbers to sustainable levels.

The serious decline in the Hudson's shad population forced the state this year to set severe limits on commercial fisherman and ban recreational shad fishing.

John Lipscomb, a patrol boat operator for Riverkeeper, said shad conservation efforts, if restricted only to the Hudson River, might not yield good results.

"It has to be the whole eastern seaboard - from Canada to Florida," Lipscomb said.

Beth Whipple, a Croton-on-Hudson woman who attended the event, is happy to do her part.

"To be honest with you, I always found it strange when they served shad the last few years," she said. "If we are trying to rescue them, then why are we eating them?"

Reach Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy at svenugop@lohud.com or 914-694-5004.

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Bill Robinson shows off a Harris hawk during the 19th annual Riverkeeper Shad Festival and Hudson River Celebration at Boscobel Restoration in Garrison. (Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

On the Web
Photo Gallery: 2008 Shad Festival

The Times-Union reports that residents of New Scotland voiced opposition to big-box development for hours before the Town Board passed a unanimous moratorium on building projects over 30,000 square feet.

New Scotlanders for Sound Economic Development handed the board about 2,500 signatures from residents opposing the retail complex, which was proposed to be built on a cornfield in the center of the town.

About three dozen speakers took turns denouncing the development, interrupted with numerous standing ovations from the crowd, which numbered over 500 people and packed Voorheesville High School, where the meeting was held.

Conservation center welcomes wolf pups

By Rob Ryser
The Journal News • May 12, 2008

SOUTH SALEM - The wolf pens deep in the woods overlooking this community might appear to be the eccentric contraptions of a philanthropist.

But to peer into the puckered face of a week-old pup that holds all the promise of a species' survival is to know something momentous has happened at the Wolf Conservation Center.

The center's first pups have been born to pairs of Mexican gray wolves - one of the rarest mammals in the country - giving this nonprofit conservation and education organization its biggest thrill since it was founded in 1999.

"It's incredible because it is the culmination of years of work," said curator Rebecca Bose, who pulled seven pups from their den to give them a one-week checkup late last month. "It was one of the greatest things I have ever done."

The healthy newborn pups - four males and three females born to two females in late April - are cuddly products of a tenuous and controversial federally supervised effort to reintroduce wolves to the American Southwest.

A mere 50 Mexican gray wolves are living in the wild, making them a critically endangered species. And 350 more wolves are being held for breeding and release in zoos and wolf centers across the country, including South Salem.

"These pups make us one of the largest holding areas in the East for Mexican gray wolves," said Maggie Howell, the managing director of the wolf center, swatting May flies from her face one morning as schoolchildren made their way up the hill for an educational presentation. "The fact that we went from zero wolves to 25 in such a short time is a big deal."

The mission, a vision of French pianist Helen Grimaud and photographer J. Henry Fair, is seen as worthy conservation work to some -particularly those in the East - but in states such as Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, wolves are viewed as a threat to the ranchers, farmers and hunters whose ancestors began the first campaigns to exterminate them hundreds of years ago.

All the more reason why wolf pups are so valuable, conservationists say.

Except for the paws, and perhaps the jaws, the pups have every appearance of man's best friend. And the way they are heralded at the center, they would certainly seem to be.

But don't expect a glimpse of them if you visit the wolf center.

The only wolves visitors may see are the so-called ambassadors. A pack of four, all with names, the ambassador wolves are comfortable enough around people to visit gymnasiums as well as put on howling displays in a special visitor's section on the 28-acre center. Atka, the center's traveling ambassador wolf, recently drew more than 100 people in a two-day appearance at Borders in Mount Kisco that was partly to raise money for the soon-to-be-born pups.

The other wolves that are candidates to be released have minimal contact with people to preserve their healthy fear of humans.

"People, roads, ranches, cars, pets - we want the wolves to be uninterested in them," Howell said. "Making sure these wolves are best equipped to live in the wild means keeping them away from anything associated with humans."

Yet is is hard to come to the center and not feel a connection with the creatures.

"How often can you have this in Westchester? Never," said Ed Thompson, 80, of North Salem, a wolf center volunteer and the former editor in chief of Reader's Digest. "And this is just the beginning."

Reach Rob Ryser at rryser@lohud.com or 914-666-6489.

Candidates lining up for Putnam Legislature

By Susan Elan • The Journal News • May 10, 2008

Candidates are lining up to replace two of the three Putnam County legislators who have decided not to seek re-election in November.

Carmel Councilman Carmine DiBattista got the backing of the Carmel Republican Committee in his bid to replace longtime Legislator Robert McGuigan, R-Mahopac. But DiBattista faces challenges from two Republican hopefuls for the District 8 seat. Dini Lo Bue, a four-year member of Carmel's Architectural Review Board, and Gary Kiernan, a local businessman, have announced their intentions to run.

Lynne Eckardt, Putnam Democratic chairwoman, said the party is seeking a candidate for McGuigan's seat.

In Kent, the Republican Town Committee has endorsed Kent historian Richard Othmer, a retired New York City firefighter and a masonry contractor, to replace Legislator Terry Intrary, R-Kent, who joined the Legislature in 2000 and is not seeking re-election. Othmer's late father, also Richard, was a six-term Democratic supervisor of Carmel.

Former Democratic Kent Councilman Joseph D'Ambrosio has the endorsement of town and county Democrats in his bid for the District 3 seat.

Legislator Sam Oliverio, D-Putnam Valley, whose three-year term is also up Dec. 31, plans to seek a fifth term. Oliverio is the only Democrat on the nine-member board.

McGuigan, a legislator since 1997, has faced criticism for his chronic absenteeism from committee and full legislative meetings during the last several years. He missed the May 6 meeting of the full Legislature due to the illness of one of his children, he said.

McGuigan, 50, said he supports term limits and will back Kiernan, in part because of the respect he showed the incumbent by waiting to enter the race until McGuigan announced his decision to step down. That decision was due in part, McGuigan said, to the open opposition showed him by Putnam's Republican chairman, Anthony Scannapieco Jr., who did not return a call for comment.

DiBattista, who now works as a marketing consultant, cites 31 years of labor experience dealing with local, county and state government and a master's degree in public administration among his qualifications for office. His service as a councilman has helped hone his political skills, DiBattista said. His campaign will focus on taxes.

"Taxpayers feel powerless and they are tired of hearing about raising taxes when they can barely afford the taxes that they pay now," DiBattista said. "We have to look at other means of raising capital to operate county government."

Lo Bue, a 38-year county resident, said she would bring "innovative and creative solutions" to the fiscal problems Putnam faces. Her suggestions to generate new county revenue include stepping up tourism with "Bike Putnam, Fish Putnam and Hike Putnam" campaigns and better marketing of the county-owned Tilly Foster Farm in Southeast and Putnam National Golf Club in Mahopac. The county should establish a film commission, open a film office to encourage movie-making, and open a theater similar to the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, she said.

Kiernan said his qualifications include 30 years in business administration "working with various city and state agencies and negotiation and management of numerous New York City and state contracts." Kiernan, who also runs a family-owned automotive facility and real-estate management company, said he would focus on open government and illegal immigration.

Intrary, a retired Carmel police officer, said he would support Othmer for his seat. Othmer, who is making his first run for elected office, said finding new tenants for the many vacant stores in Putnam would help reduce the burden on county taxpayers.

"I'd like to work with the Economic Development Committee to help get them filled and lessen the property tax burden," he said.

Othmer said he would also focus on finding ways to help the Sheriff's Department retain its staff instead of seeing them leave for higher-paid departments.

D'Ambrosio, a political science professor at Marist College and president of the Family Partnership Center, both in Poughkeepsie, said his professional experience combined with eight years of service on the Kent council make him well-suited to fulfill the responsibilities of legislator. He would call for a charter revision and greater consolidation of services between towns. The county budget could be reduced through consolidation and by eliminating patronage jobs, he said.

Oliverio hopes to remain on the board in part to provide the institutional memory needed as its composition shifts to the recently elected.

Legislators are paid $35,136 a year. Their benefits package, including medical insurance, can bring the value of their annual compensation to $60,746.

Reach Susan Elan at selan@lohud.com or 845-228-2277.

New EPA Standards Would Cut Amount Of Lead in the Air

Agency Scientists Urge Stricter Limits

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008; Page A02

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday proposed tightening the federal limits for lead in the air, but the proposal fell short of what its own scientists said is required to protect public health.

Lead, which is emitted by smelters, mining, aviation fuel and waste incinerators, can enter the bloodstream and affect young children's development and IQ, as well as cause cardiovascular, blood pressure and kidney problems in adults. The United States has not changed its atmospheric lead standards in 30 years, but the Bush administration is under a court order to issue new rules by September.

U.S. emissions of lead have dropped from 74,000 tons a year three decades ago to 1,300 tons a year now, largely because leaded gasoline was taken off the market. Since 1990, however, more than 6,000 studies have examined the impact of lead on public health and the environment and have revealed that it has harmful effects at lower concentrations than previously thought.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, EPA Deputy Administrator Marcus C. Peacock announced that the agency is proposing to cut the current standard of 1.5 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air to a range of between 0.10 and 0.30 micrograms per cubic meter.

"We are writing the next chapter in America's clean air story," Peacock said, adding the new standard would be "up to 93 percent stronger than the current standard."

Environmentalists criticized the administration for proposing a range of lead levels that exceeds what an independent scientific advisory panel and the EPA's scientific staff identified as the maximum amount of lead that should be in the air. Both groups said the new standard should not exceed 0.20 micrograms of lead per cubic meter of air, and EPA staff members said it could be set as low as 0.02 micrograms.

The two groups also recommended that the agency average lead emissions from any given source over a single month, rather than over three months, as EPA officials proposed yesterday.

Avinash Kar, an attorney for the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council, called the rule "a flawed proposal" even though it is "moving in the right direction."

"According to EPA projections, emissions of 60 pounds of lead from a single pollution source could cause a median loss of up to three IQ points in children," Kar said. "Thousands of children across the United States live near lead plants emitting more than 60 pounds of lead every year. In fact, some plants emit tons of lead annually."

Frank O'Donnell, who heads the advocacy group Clean Air Watch, said the agency engaged in "statistical trickery" by providing a range of possible lead limits and lengthening the period over which polluters could average the amount of lead they put into the air.

But Rogene Henderson, who chairs the independent air advisory committee, said she was pleased with EPA's decision. "They heard us," she said.

Robert J. Meyers, principal deputy assistant administrator at the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, said officials tried to "tease out" how much of the lead in the air comes from atmospheric emissions, as opposed to the lead in pipes, paint and other sources. Adults and children inhale lead from the air, which then works its way into the bloodstream from the lungs, but people can also ingest lead that has been deposited in the soil or on surfaces in the home.

The EPA estimates that the proposed rule would apply to 16,000 sources of lead nationwide and, depending on what standard is eventually adopted, between 12 and 23 U.S. counties would fail to meet the stricter standards.

Jeffrey R. Holmstead, who directed the EPA's office of air and radiation from 2001 to 2005 and now heads the environmental strategies group at the law firm Bracewell & Giuliani, said the 60-day comment period on the rule that will start once it is published in the Federal Register "will be even more important than usual."

"Most people thought the lead issue had been solved, and it's only recently that people have begun to focus on it," he said in an interview. "They're really taking comment on a broad range here."

The agency is also soliciting comments on setting the standard higher or lower than the proposed range, up to 0.50 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Putnam Valley deals with DEC violations on underground oil tanks

By Barbara Livingston Nackman
The Journal News • April 28, 2008

PUTNAM VALLEY - The Town Board has scheduled a special meeting for tonight to discuss what action to take in the wake of pending violations - and possibly thousands of dollars in penalties - from a state agency concerned about aging oil tanks buried under Town Hall.

The Department of Environmental Conservation cited the municipality with a violation in 2006, and again April 9, for not complying with petroleum bulk storage regulations, which detail proper storage and handling of petroleum to prevent leaks and spills. Last year, the agency stepped up its efforts to bring properties with such underground tanks into compliance with the law and turned its sights this month on Putnam Valley.

At issue are the tanks at the Town Hall complex on Oscawana Lake Road. Violations range from unregistered tanks and no color coding on filling ports, to not having leak monitoring on some tanks and failure to report a spill. Town officials had attempted to move ahead with remediation, according to a resolution adopted in July 2006 that authorized the hiring of a Newburgh-based consulting firm for $9,490. But the town has not done so to the satisfaction of state inspectors, who visited the site this month.

The town could be subject to penalties of $37,000 a day, but it is more likely to pay a one-time penalty of roughly $5,000 if it can produce a plan to quickly remedy the situation, town officials said Friday.

DEC officials met with town officials Wednesday to discuss a settlement agreement.

"It seems we are not in compliance and we are getting details on how to change this," said Deputy Supervisor Eugene Yetter Jr., who joined the board in January. "I don't know much more now, but will by Monday."

The board is expected to meet with the town engineer and others knowledgeable about tank storage at 5 p.m. at Town Hall. The focus will be the violations, a resolution authorizing the hiring of necessary consultants or contractors or both, and the payment of a penalty, according to a meeting agenda made available Thursday. Because potential litigation is involved, the board is expected to discuss some topics in executive session.

Town Attorney William Zutt said Friday that a consent order had been presented and that it needed to be discussed.

"The town is trying to respond and react responsibly," he said, "but first we need to develop the history to determine what needs to be done."

Under a mandate from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the DEC is required to inspect tanks with a capacity of 1,100 gallons or more, spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach said. In Putnam, this is done through the state agency, whereas in Westchester and Rockland it is handled by the counties' health departments. Because of the size of the tanks, most properties that house them are municipal buildings, schools or industrial-commercial centers.

"We do try to work with the property owner, in this case the municipality, to resolve the issue. That is our goal, not collecting fines," Rosenbach said. "We are strict because a leak in a tank could result in possibly contaminating water supplies or nearby properties."

Details about the Putnam Valley situation were not immediately available because some members of the state's technical staff were attending a conference outside the office.

Reach Barbara Livingston Nackman at bnackman@lohud.com or 845-228-2272.

Officials Pleaded Guilty, but Town Was Changed Forever

By RONALD SMOTHERS
Published: July 11, 2005

MARLBORO TOWNSHIP, N.J., July 6 - The price of corruption in this New Jersey town may best be seen in the many rooflines that snake down Woodcliff Boulevard at a uniform 25-foot setback from the curb. Or perhaps in the postmodern stylings of the luxury five- and six-bedroom homes in the planned community of Lexington Estates.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/07/11/nyregion/11monmouth1.184.jpg

Noah K. Murray/The Star-Ledger
Mayor Robert Kleinberg blames former officials for Marlboro's overdevelopment.

Marko Georgiev for The New York Times
The Woodcliff Estates is one of the township's subdivisions.

Maybe another way to view it is in the population increase, 100 percent in 15 years, to 40,000 today from 20,000 in 1990.

Or some say it can be summed up in one word: sprawl.

In the last decade, this Monmouth County suburb was transformed from a town that was open and airy to one that is condensed and clustered with new development bordering new development - but where housing for blue-collar families and others of moderate income is in short supply.

Local, state and federal officials say the rapid growth is not an accident but the consequence of development that went largely unchecked because of complicity between builders and local officials.

A federal inquiry into corruption in this town led to the arrests of a former mayor, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges this spring; a former utility authority commissioner and Democratic leader, who on Tuesday pleaded guilty to extortion and bribery charges; and a local developer, who is charged with bribery. At the same time, a flood of subpoenas have been served on current and former town planning and zoning officials.

The arrests and subpoenas are part of a broader sweep of Monmouth County that has led to 19 arrests or indictments of elected and appointed officials or contractors and three guilty pleas this year, with the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the office of United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie continuing.

Investigators and current local officials say they have identified a pattern in which some developers received zoning variances to build sprawling, high-profit housing subdivisions on land that had been set aside for commercial development. In many cases, they were able to build these subdivisions at higher densities than would ordinarily have been allowed.

Often, developers, as well as local officials, justified the rezoning and higher densities of the subdivisions by citing the town's need to meet state goals for building so-called affordable housing.

But what actually happened in most cases, said lawyers for the town and current town officials, was a shell game of land swaps in which units of low- and moderate-income housing that were included in early drafts of plans fell by the wayside, and the resulting developments were solely market-rate housing at the higher density anyway.

From 1995 to 2005, 3,388 new homes were built in this 33-square-mile town, much of which was made up of horse farms and cornfields as recently as 20 years ago. Of that number, only 184 homes that meet the state's definition of affordable for moderate-income families were built, far short of the 1,019 units that the state's Council on Affordable Housing required to be built by July 2004.

As a result, the township, which officials say has already been strained by the surge in development, is still required by the state to immediately build additional units for low- and moderate-income residents.

Mayor Robert Kleinberg, who was a local gadfly until he was elected in 2003 after the investigation of the developers and the former mayor, has appealed to the state to back off its requirement.

"We have argued that because a lot of the land-use actions were criminal and the subject of ongoing investigations, that we should be allowed to put it off for a time," Mr. Kleinberg said." We haven't met our goals because of all the manipulation and wheeling and dealing by town officials and developers."

Mr. Kleinberg and other officials say that the last thing the town needs right now is more housing. In addition to a glut of four- and five-bedroom homes, the town is suffering from schools swelled to bursting, congested local roads, and flooding and drainage problems. He and other officials have said they will build lower-price housing, but would like to put it off until the federal inquiry is complete, and so they can mix it with more taxable commercial properties that will help ease burdens on residents. (The town carries enormous debt because the previous administration chose to borrow rather than raise taxes, Mr. Kleinberg said.)

Kathleen Cali, a resident for decades, asked: "What will affordable housing do now but just increase the number of people in a smaller area, kids in the school and traffic on the roads?"

She added, "Sometimes I can't even get out of my development because of the traffic. It seems that we are going to suffer because of those wrong decisions made by officials in the past."

Stony Point considers a law to make companies responsible for their environmental mess

By Akiko Matsuda • The Journal News • April 6, 2008

STONY POINT - The town is considering a law to protect it from being responsible for a corporation's environmental mess.

The Town Board will hold a public hearing Tuesday on the "Environmental Protection and Abandoned Commercial Property Reclamation Law."

"This is about handling all environmental issues so that the wrongdoers pay for the cleanup, not the hard-working taxpayers," said Dennis Lynch, the town's special counsel.

Supervisor Phil Marino said the proposed law was not targeting a specific company, but it was prepared because of the scheduled closure of Mirant Lovett Generating Plant in Tomkins Cove.

"Obviously, that's the pressing issue," Marino said.

Lovett's environmental problems were pointed out by Mirant itself when the company sued Orange and Rockland Utilities, a former owner of the plant. Mirant accused O&R of failing to disclose environmental problems, such as Lovett's coal-ash containment facility and inadequate containment system for oil storage tanks.

Lovett has been scheduled to discontinue operations at the end of this month.

Jeffrey Perry, president of Mirant Lovett LLC, said Friday that he was not aware of the proposed law and would not be able to comment on it. But he said the company has been following requirements by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

"We do have the plants to demolish," Perry said. "We are working with the DEC on any requirements for the demolition, which includes a cleanup of the facility."

If approved, the new law would be applied to a company that deals with hazardous substances or wastes occupying more than 25,000 square feet of buildings on a single parcel or contiguous parcels of land. When such a company plans to sell the property or terminate operations, it would have to remove hazardous materials from the facility.

The town's Environmental Review Board, which would consist of five town residents including one from the Zoning Board of Appeals and one from the Planning Board, would be in charge of overseeing cases that fall under the new law.

In case pollution is found at the site, the owner of the property would have to work with the town's Environmental Review Board to clean up.

George Potanovic, president of the Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment, suggested in May 2007 that the town consider such a law, said he would support it because he it was "designed to prevent large international corporations from leaving small communities like Stony Point with big environmental problems that are expensive to remediate"

Reach Akiko Matsuda at 845-578-2431 or amatsuda@lohud.com.

April 1, 2008

As a series of opinion pieces and news articles made plain, the Palisades Center in West Nyack has make quite the impression during its 10-year existence. The mall now attracts some 20 million visitors annually, making it a regional player in commerce and retailing. Its prominence is beyond dispute, though the perspective afforded by history invites discussion as to whether it lived up to the grand billing and promises of developer Pyramid Cos. and likewise the dire prophecies of its critics. The short answer to both, in a word, is "No." While the mall has been an economic engine, it is hardly the shining community leader promised by the developer. By the same token, it has not brought daily traffic nightmares or reduced property values that so many predicted.

Indeed, after 10 years, the Palisades Center seems to have blended into the Rockland landscape, with a faint memory of the drama that marked its development. That would have been hard to believe in the beginning. Clarkstown had never seen the likes of this kind of developer - one that fought back, built alliances and worked the political system to get what it wanted, and, even in the face of organized community opposition, just didn't go away.

Skepticism

The dozen years it took for Pyramid Cos. to get a shovel in the ground was just the beginning of a tense relationship. Within a year of its opening, the Palisades Center and Clarkstown were in a property assessment dispute. The mall refused to pay $17 million in taxes on an assessment it called "illegal," and headed to court. In 2000, the town settled the tax flap and cut the tax bill back to $12 million. Two years later, when the mall wanted to lease about 243,000 square feet of unused space, residents handily defeated the move in a public referendum. Many viewed the fact that the "void" space existed in the first place as proof that Pyramid constructed the mall with built-in expansion options, and then bet on winning approval later.

The mall had launched a major PR campaign complete with invitations to "come see our 'empty attic'" advertisements, to underscore how the space already existed for more businesses, and a tax-base boon. After the loss, the walls and windows-to-nowhere on the fourth-floor space continued to carry the "empty attic," labels as mall management made clear its disappointment. Ironically, a wonderful community-minded program, STAR Kids program, which offered free sports opportunities - from ice skating to fencing to chess - was hosted in the mall area voted down for expansion.

Today, locals may shop at the mall, and may do so frequently. The fourth-floor community rooms host all kinds of public meetings and informational forums. But it has not become the "community center" that sponsor partner Tom Valenti hoped for.

Predictions

The mall's big promise of enriching the town, county and Clarkstown school district coffers from the broadened property tax base didn't turn out to be a boon, after all. Of course tax collection went up, but so did expenses. Government grew, absorbing the extra property- and sales-tax funding and taking on more expenses. Some of those costs, most notably police expenses for Clarkstown, were pushed by the mall itself. Today, Rockland has become heavily dependent on sales tax revenues. The rate is now 8.375 percent, which makes for fat coffers during times of economic excess, rough going when the economy sours, the current state of affairs. In short, the mall has been no economic panacea for Rockland.

Crime was a major worry for townfolk and leaders alike, who feared the crowds would bring violence to a town consistently ranked among the safest in the nation. Clarkstown still earns that designation each year, even with a swell of shoplifting and petty larceny arrests made since the West Nyack center opened. Violent crime numbers certainly haven't matched the dire expectations. Of course, knowledge that any magnet of people and money will also attract crime - the Nanuet Mall has also been the scene of some tragic incidents - means the town and the mall must continue to be vigilant. Additionally, the mall and police must continue to address the worrisome night-time dynamics of the mall: youth violence and a growing gang presence are real concerns.

Neighbors feared their quiet streets would be cut-throughs for the hoardes of shoppers (note the weird traffic pattern along Snake Hill Road). Side streets weren't swamped, though Route 59 eastbound backs up during the holiday shopping season. The ring roads within the mall and the main road exits and entrances into the mall property, though, are a mess. The system needs yet another serious review, with the developer footing the bill this time.

Blame

Since the Palisades Center has been built, the impact on Rockland's commerce has been felt. In the last decade, movie theaters in Pearl River, Nanuet and northern New City have been boarded up (we are thankful that Suffern's Lafayette Theatre's Beaux Arts beauty was saved from multiplex homogeny in 2000), family-owned clothing stores have continued to fade away and what became the "second mall" in Nanuet, built in 1969 and blamed in its heyday for killing other shopping meccas, started a precipitous decline.

At age 10, the Palisades Center may find new trends biting at its heels. Across Rockland and the Lower Hudson Valley, downtown revitalizations are restoring walkable, shoppable villages and hamlets to draw back the foot traffic lost in the last decades. Nanuet Mall's owner, Simon Properties, has announced plans to relaunch the shopping mall as a new "lifestyle" center, whatever that means. In another decade, the mall's place in our culture could end up being just a place to shop, not the community center Palisades Center once pushed as its vision.

A Journal News editorial

By Aman Ali • The Journal News • March 21, 2008

RYE - A monthlong investigation by The Journal News has revealed the previous town administration spent almost $2 million in no-bid contracts with a property assessment firm with a rocky track record in Putnam and Dutchess counties and an additional $458,000 on a consultant with few records to show what work he did for the town.

Supervisor Joseph Carvin said this week that the town is considering suing Queens-based firm MJW Consulting and consultant Paul Jonke to retrieve the money, which was spent in connection with a 2004 townwide revaluation. Carvin said the town had wasted a hefty sum of taxpayer dollars on poor quality work from both MJW and Jonke, the town assessor in Carmel.

"Our goal is to stop the town's hemorrhaging from untidy practices that clearly don't hold up to any kind of scrutiny," Carvin said.

Last month, the Town Board fired MJW - one of several municipalities in the area to do so - after questioning its work to bring the town's assessed values to 100 percent of market value.

In response, MJW President John Watch said the issue of revaluation is often politically charged because property assessments form the basis for property taxes.

"People always want someone to blame for their property taxes going up," Watch said. "We know in our line of work that we will be the fall guy."

Previous Supervisor Robert Morabito hired Watch by issuing his firm three no-bid contracts, with payments from the town totaling $1,935,757. But only the first contract appears to have been voted on by the Town Board. The first contract totaled $80,000 and was approved by the board on Sept. 20, 2001. A month later, without the board's approval, changes to the contract were made that gave an extra $542,500 to MJW Consulting.

No board resolutions are on file authorizing the other two contracts - one for $960,000 signed by Morabito on Sept. 20, 2002, and another for $440,000 on Dec. 15, 2005.

Morabito maintained the board did vote to hire MJW to do the town assessment "for a million-some-odd dollars" during a public vote in December 2003. And board member Michele Mendicino, who was on the board in 2003, said she wasn't sure of the specific date, but the town did vote on it.

"We definitely voted on it," Mendicino said. "There's no way we could have done the reval without public hearings and committees looking into it."

Town Clerk Hope Vespia said no record of that vote is on file.

Morabito defended Watch's work, calling him an "invaluable asset to the town of Rye and an invaluable asset to me."

"I'm not going to nitpick what John (Watch) did," Morabito said. "Joe Carvin is the supervisor now and he's entitled to hire and fire whomever he wants. Yes, John was a little lax in his file work and, I guess on that end, that could be his flaw."

Last year, then-Supervisor Morabito asked an independent group -the International Assessment of Association Officers - to review MJW's revaluation as a routine double-check of the work.

In January, the IAAO said it was unable to finish its review because MJW's cooperation was "very limited." IAAO consultant Pat O'Connor said the company's data appeared good, but Watch -who uses software different from the state's - was not able to document how it was produced.

Watch said he has not read the report but is aware of its findings. He said he had "unequivocal documentation" in e-mails saying he cooperated with the IAOO investigation. O'Connor acknowledged Watch did make several attempts to send documents he asked for, but the files sent were "usually corrupted in some kind of way."

Meanwhile, Rye town paid $458,584 over nine years to Jonke, who helped hire MJW to do the Rye town work and was a consultant to Rye town on the contract.

Vespia, the town clerk, said there are few records indicating what kind of work Jonke did for the town, aside from board resolutions authorizing his employment.

Carvin also ended that relationship.

"Mr. Jonke was paid close to half a million dollars, and we're having difficulty finding any record of work he's done," he said. "That's problematic."

Jonke said he wasn't sure why the town didn't have records of his work. He said he "was the go-between" for the town and MJW during the 2004 assessment; a characterization Morabito affirmed.

However, Rye Town Assessor Mitchell Markowitz said Jonke's role in the 2004 assessment was minimal.

"I had very limited communication with him over time," Markowitz said. "I didn't find his participation up to what it should have been, given the fact he was expected to oversee the work."

Putnam County hired MJW under two contracts in 2001, totaling $73,500. The firm was to perform trending analyses, a process which involves updating assessment values year after year.

But assessors from Kent, Patterson and Southeast did not use the data. Patterson Assessor Chris Boryk said he questioned Watch's procedures and the final analysis he produced.

"That guy could sell ketchup ice pops to nuns wearing white gloves," Boryk said of Watch. "He's a good salesman but his deliverables never seem to pan out."

Southeast Assessor William Ford said Watch couldn't convert his data into the town's software -something Watch disputes.

"We would have had to convert his numbers by entering all his data into our system by hand," Ford said. "There's no way you can enter in 12,000 pieces of information without getting significant errors."

Jonke said he recommended the firm to Rye town after hearing from George Michaud, Putnam County's head of Real Property Tax Services, who handled the MJW contract there.

Three years after that contract was singed, Michaud's son, Greg, was listed as an MJW employee in a contract with the town of Fishkill.

Michaud downplayed the connection, noting that the county ethics board found no conflict.

"John was looking for data entry help and Greg and some of his college friends were looking for work," Michaud said of his son. "But it had nothing to do with the contract in Putnam County. Greg ended up getting fired for poor work and he deserved it."

Last month, the town of Fishkill terminated a $407,000 contract with MJW, saying the firm had done unsatisfactory work. Fishkill secured the contract collectively with the Southern Dutchess Consortium, a group of Dutchess County municipalities that also includes Beekman, East Fishkill, LaGrange, the towns of Poughkeepsie and Wappinger, the city of Beacon and village of Fishkill.

Contracts for the eight municipalities totaled about $3.4 million.

"When you do poor work, you can't expect to get paid the money promised," Fishkill Town Assessor Christian Harkins said. "Now he's trying to sue us for nonpayment and breach of contract."

Watch's legal claim says the town still owes his firm $175,496 for its work.

"He cut off all our access to the data he provided," Harkins said. "We paid him about 80 percent of the contract, yet he is holding 100 percent of the data until he gets the rest of his money."

LaGrange, East Fishkill and Beekman also have terminated agreements with MJW, and Harkins said the town of Wappinger, where he is also the assessor, would terminate its agreement with MJW in the next few weeks.

Poughkeepsie Assessor Kathy Taber, on the other hand, seems satisfied with the company's work.

"I'm not going to say that everything he did was perfect, but I knew the job he did was a difficult one," Taber said. "I feel bad for the other towns because things didn't work out quite as well with them. But I guess we fared better than everybody because we did our reval first and I had more time to go over the data with MJW."

Asked about being terminated from at least nine municipalities in three counties, Watch said the criticism is no surprise.

"Every town we work with has the ability to opt out of their contracts and that is perfectly fine," he said.

He noted that the state Office of Real Property Services gave him high marks for his work in Rye town and Putnam County, finding MJW "complied with 100 percent of its standards."

ORPS spokesman Joe Hersch said the department did certify MJW's 2004 work in Rye town and the 2001 work in Putnam County, finding the values computed were at 100 percent of market value. As a result in Rye, the state rewarded the town with a six-year grant averaging $53,000 annually.

But Hersch said ORPS rates assessments by mainly looking at raw data, not at the procedures used to get those numbers.

Reach Aman Ali at 914-694-5063 or aali@lohud.com.

The following summary is courtesy of Joyce Mitchell from Kent Fiscal Watch who attended the Putnam County Legislative meeting that discussed this measure and I am told by Joyce that it lent its approval.

There is no doubt that only with resident pressure that dependency on property taxes for school funding, will be eliminated. We need to review the measure carefully. I've highlighted certain portions. The bill is online for all to read. Comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Ann

Tuesday March 18, 2008
Putnam County Office Building
Room 318
6:25 PM - SHARP!

Dear Friends,

The Putnam County Legislature will be voting this coming Tuesday, March 18th
at 6:25 PM, to support Assemblyman Kevin Cahill's Education and Property Tax
Reform Bill entitled "The Equity In Education Act" ( A04746 )

This bill will provide meaningful property tax reform and guarantee quality
education to every child in New York State, not only those from wealthier
districts. It will, over 5 years, eliminate the school property tax portion
of your annual tax bill as the method for financing public schools and
replace that funding with a graduated addition to state income taxes. During
a recent informal poll of PlanPutnam readers, respondents showed they would
save money under the new system, from $250 to more than $1000 a year.

Assemblyman Cahill's bill is the only bill in Albany that provides a
permanent and equitable solution to our school property tax crises. This
bill is not a quick fix, it's not a "circuit breaker" and it's not a complex
"cap". It is a permanent solution - which is exactly what we need.

Under this proposal 95% of New Yorkers will come out ahead, and more
importantly, it will provide a certain measure of security from losing your
home due to inability to pay the school portion of your property taxes. It
is an abomination for the most vulnerable of our citizens to be forced from
their homes because they cannot pay the crushing burden of property taxes to
support our public schools. School property taxes in our area have risen 60%
since 1995, with an increase of 42% in the last 5 years alone! This is an
issue that affects us all, especially our seniors, those just starting out,
those on fixed incomes, and those who may have a health or other crisis.

It is essential for our state to maintain quality education to compete
nationally and internationally. EVERY child in New York State should have
access to a basic quality education, regardless of which school district
they reside in. Beside the onerous financial burden of health care costs and
insurance, education funding is the single most pressing issue that affects
US ALL, Republican, Democrats, everyone.

The Putnam County Legislature will vote to support the Cahill bill at a
special Legislative session on March 18th - This Coming Tuesday.

The meeting will be held in the County Office Building in Room 318, at 6:25
pm - Sharp.

It is important that we all show up to support this courageous, historic and
important action that will prove to be the spark that gets REAL property tax
REFORM out of committee and passed by the NYS Legislature. When we add our
voices demanding change to all the others across our state, our collective
voices have great power.

PLEASE show up in support of Kevin Cahill's Bill, Education and TRUE
PROPERTY TAX REFORM!

Write your County Legislator and tell them that you support a permanent
solution to this problem and ask them to vote in favor on Tuesday!

ASSEMBLY BILL: A04746

Makes provisions for the state to assume all costs of basic quality
education and for the elimination of real property taxes for the support of
education;
requires board of regents to establish a schedule of mandatory basic
services and costs thereof; school districts shall submit an annual basic
budget to
the department of education for basic services; increases taxes on personal
income and business; makes special provisions for reduction of tax in
certain cities and for reduction in rent by tenants in such cities; provides
for phased in methods of funding using a "Basic Quality Education" formula;
repeals certain provisions of the tax law and real property tax relating
thereto.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this plan is to permit the financing of public
schools in New York State within the context of the following objectives:

1) the elimination of the inequitable and regressive real estate tax as the
support of public schools;

2) the retention of present levels of local control by school districts; and

3) the guarantee of quality and equality of educational opportunity for all
children of the state.

Read the full synopsis at http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?bn=A04746

Background Buried in Bottles: a Survey of Beverage Containers in New York’s Litter Myths and Facts About Updating the Bottle Bill Report: 20 Years of Happy Returns Bottled Up in Albany: Report on Industry Lobbying and Contributions Survey of New Yorkers’ Attitudes…” Proposed changes to the Bottle Bil Endorsement Form List of BBBB endorsers

The bottle bill is New York’s most effective recycling and litter control program. Since 1982, more than 90 billion bottles and cans have been returned and recycled in New York because of the 5-cent refundable deposit on beer and soda containers. The bottle bill has worked hand in hand with local recycling programs to make our communities cleaner and healthier places to live. We all share responsibility for keeping our communities clean and healthy. State legislators need to do their part by updating the current bottle bill. Nearly three billion bottles and cans end up in the trash or polluting our state’s rivers, beaches and neighborhoods each year because of a loophole in our current laws that the politicians in Albany have failed to close.It’s time to make New York’s most successful litter prevention and recycling program even more effective. Because the bottle bill was enacted in 1982, before bottled water and sports drinks became popular, it did not include non-carbonated beverages. Today, these drinks account for more than 25% of the market, and sales are growing rapidly. It makes no sense for a bottle of sparkling water to be covered under the bottle bill and a bottle of plain water to end up as pollution.

Governor Eliot Spitzer has proposed updating the bottle bill to include bottled water and other non-carbonated beverages that were left out of the original law. He has also proposed in his budget to require beverage companies to transfer unclaimed bottle deposits to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund to support clean air, water, parks and open space.Click here to take action!
Urge the New York State Legislature to support cleaner communities, a healthier environment, and increased funding for environmental programs by including the Bigger Better Bottle Bill in the 2008-2009 state budget.

Cleaner Communities
The original purpose of the bottle bill was to control the growing problem of litter. As the beverage industry shifted from refillable bottles to disposable containers, New Yorkers began seeing more and more bottles and cans polluting our streams and rivers and broken glass in our streets and playgrounds.

The bottle bill has been tremendously successful in cleaning up our communities. The deposit provides an economic incentive for people to return their beverage containers rather than discard them. Immediately after the bottle bill passed, total litter rates dropped by 30%, with a 70% reduction in beverage container litter. Unfortunately, the bottle bill has not kept up with the times. Today, non-carbonated beverages make up more than one-quarter of the beverage market, and a disproportionate amount of our litter. Litter surveys conducted by NYPIRG and other groups found that nearly two-thirds of the bottles and retrieved in litter cleanups around New York State are non-deposit containers. NYPIRG’s survey conducted in fall 2007 found that these containers made up 10% of the total litter volume. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill will prevent litter and make our communities cleaner.

Healthier Environment
With an average return rate of over 70%, the bottle bill is by far New York’s most effective recycling program. Since 1982, more than six million tons of glass, plastic, and metal have been recycled through the bottle bill, conserving natural resources and energy and reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills. The bottle bill saves taxpayers money by making beverage companies responsible for the waste they generate, rather than placing the burden on local governments.

Today, New Yorkers have more recycling choices because most communities now have curbside recycling. However, curbside programs are not effective at capturing single-serve beverage containers. That’s because thirst-quenchers like bottled water and sports drinks are typically consumed and discarded away from home. Less than 20% of non-deposit beverage containers end up in recycling bins. In contrast, an estimated 80% of deposit containers are recycled - 70% through the bottle bill, and another 10% through curbside programs.

Updating the bottle bill to include non-carbonated beverages would ensure that almost 3 billion additional bottles and cans will get recycled in New York each year. In plastic bottles alone, this would save roughly 600,000 barrels of crude oil and 20,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill will increase recycling and save taxpayers money. Support for Environmental Programs
Currently, beverage companies are keeping at least $85 million each year in unclaimed deposits from bottles and cans that are not returned. New York is out of step with many other states, which require beverage companies to return unclaimed bottle deposits to benefit the public. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill would direct unclaimed deposits to the State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), a dedicated trust fund for New York’s environment. The EPF supports local recycling programs, parks, waterfront revitalization, open space, farmland preservation, and other programs to protect our land, air, and water. Currently, New York’s environmental funding needs far outpace existing resources. The Bigger Better Bottle Bill will generate at least $100 million a year to support the Environmental Protection Fund, and by some estimates more than $200 million. . For more information about the bottle bill, go to:
Container Recycling Institute: http://www.bottlebill.org
N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation: http://www.dec.ny.gov

www.nypirg.org: consumer protection | environment | straph

Good morning all - wonder why the most egregious projects in Carmel, Kent and Southeast have received DEP approval (Camarda Park, Camarda Senior Housing, Kent Manor, Brewster Highlands and Terravest) and Patterson Crossing in the wings, please read the following post from New Jerseyite, Bill Wolfe. Riverkeeper at one time wrote a monograph of the organizational workings of the DEP and titled it "A Culture of Mismanagement." It needs to be retitled as "A Culture of Corruption."

Sincerely,
Ann
www.putopenspaces.com
PS - Please note comments at end of post.

Public business done behind closed doors

Posted by Bill Wolfe February 15, 2008 5:54PM DEP does the people's business - its internal workings should be able to withstand public scrutiny.

Today, I attended a public hearing at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) headquarters in Trenton. The hearing was DEP's attempt to solicit public input into developing revised storm water management regulations. I applaud those efforts.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/02/large_DEP%20Trenton%20003.jpg

Bill WolfeDEP Headquarters. Trenton, NJ.

The hearing was fairly well attended by the usual suspects - government staffers; lawyers, lobbyists and engineers representing developers; and environmental advocates. There were only 3 citizens and no press in attendance. The hearing was announced publicly well in advance, open to the public, the discussions were recorded, and a DEP facilitator took extensive notes.

Nothing shady, secret, or inappropriate going on today during that meeting.

Just the opposite - there was an open and healthy exchange of viewpoints; participants were known to all; policy issues, alternatives, and upcoming decisions were transparent; and the discussions are all a matter of public record.

But this meeting is not my concern - it was what I saw after the meeting that disturbs me.

You see, the DEP building was literally crawling with lawyers, engineers, and lobbyists representing the chemical industry, developers, major air & water polluters, and other private interests that have huge economic stakes in the outcome of work that goes on inside the DEP building. This kind of access by private sector interests is a daily routine at DEP.

I don't think the public has any idea how much access the developers and polluters have to DEP managers on a daily basis and how much influence these lobbyists have on the outcome of DEP decisions.

The DEP is supposed to be doing the people's business so its internal workings should be able to withstand public scrutiny.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/02/medium_Senate%20Environment%2008%20start%20026.jpg

Bill WolfeChemical industry lobbyist - former DEP staffer - had a meeting with DEP today. With whom? To discuss what? Doesn't the public have a right to know?
DEP's decisions impact public health and environment. By law, DEP manages natural resources that are held in trust for the public. DEP s supposed to make decisions openly, based on science and law. But there is often a tremendous amount of discretion or judgment inherent in those decisions. Regulations are ambiguous and subject to interpretation and the science is almost always uncertain.

This is why access to DEP decision makers is such a critical issue.

We have tried to bring more transparency and openness to curb the special interest influence on DEP. Recently, we petitioned DEP to:

* 1) Provide public disclosure of meetings with regulated industry. DEP convenes closed-door meetings with lobbyists and designated insiders with no public attendance or publication of meeting agendas.

This request was denied by DEP Commissioner Jackson who claimed that meetings with regulated industries must stay confidential as a matter of "executive privilege and the deliberative process privilege". The Commissioner claimed the substance and participants in those meetings are exempt from OPRA public records laws.

All visitors to DEP already sign in to a daily log that identifies the DEP staff person to be visited. Yet our OPRA request for that log was denied. What does DEP have to hide?

* 2) Publish the daily meeting calendars of top managers on the DEP website. The DEP Commissioner and top deputies routinely make decisions on enforcement and other pollution control policies in meetings with corporate lobbyists and executives, often from the same companies that are charged with violations.

Commissioner Jackson rejected that request on the grounds that it "implicates the privacy interests" of attendees. Tellingly, she also argued that revealing the "identity and the sequence of the persons with whom the Department senior staff consult could reveal the substance or direction or the mental processes of the Commissioner and Department staff"; and

* 3) Repeal a gag order and current Press Office policy that forbids DEP staffers answering questions posed by Media and the public. Under current DEP rules, agency scientists and other specialists are barred from speaking without prior approval from the agency Press Office.

Commissioner Jackson denied that request and maintained that any "issues" staff have should be raised within the management chain-of-command, noting that there are also whistleblower statutes. New Jersey whistleblower law does not, however, protect employee disclosures about threats to public health, manipulation of science or gross mismanagement, among other topics.

(for further details, see:
NEW JERSEY SAYS SECRET MEETINGS KEY TO ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY -- Petition for New Transparency Rules Rejected the Same Day Notice Is Published

Trenton -- The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has formally rejected a petition to give the public notice of its meetings with lobbyists and to post appointment calendars of its top officials, according to an agency ruling released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The action by DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson was dated the same day, July 2, 2007, the PEER petition for rulemaking was first published for public review in the July 2, 2007 New Jersey Register.
(for full report: http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=885

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission has rules which require disclosure of any communications by registered lobbyist with DEP managers. Why doesn't DEP have similar rules?

This is a fundamental reform issue about whether the agency operates in the public interest, is perceived as objective, and makes decision based on science and law, and not political influence and access.

We all lose when special interests exploit the back door and revolving door at DEP.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/02/large_DEP%20Trenton%20010.jpg

Bill WolfeDEP Trenton HQ - back door courtyard view

Posted by nohesitation on 02/15/08 at 9:42PM
I don't just want to complain about it I am trying to fix it.

This is not normal - we can do better.

If every lobbyist going into the DEP building knew that what he recommended was a public record posted on the internet, then his influence would be greatly curbed.

DEP staffers also would be empowered to apply the science and the laws in the public interest -

Managers would be far more reluctant to follow unwise orders dictated from above, often for political reasons.

Inappropriate? Alert us.

Post a comment

Posted by notebene on 02/16/08 at 8:14AM
Bravo Bill Wolfe. Sad to say what you describe is typical of all state agencies. The "regulated" have the access and the clout to move their agendas in Trenton, Newark and in the legislature even while their cases are pending. This administration is not much different than the others. Access and confidentiality and deliberative process are all part of the smoke screen to cover up what actually goes on when big bucks are at stake. The "sunshine law" and OPRA are so much blather when it comes to stopping the manipulation of policy by vested interests. Hail to the $$$$$$ long live the revolving doors!

Inappropriate? Alert us.

Post a comment

Posted by hglindquist on 02/16/08 at 8:19AM
This is a fundamental reform issue about whether the agency operates in the public interest, is perceived as objective, and makes decision based on science and law, and not political influence and access.

nohesitation,

This is an excellent post! I am going to spend some time with it and try to digest all of your facts, opinions, and suggestions.

Based on my first reading -- with your followup comment -- I would say immediately that "a public record posted on the internet" garners a rock-solid A+

Can you imagine what the NJ Voices bloggers could do with THAT?!

[Sound of cheering crowd]

[Fade to black]

Posted by nohesitation on 02/16/08 at 10:13AM
Hglinquist and notabene

Thanks - just think for a moment - aside from bad decisions that all that access to DEP provides. What about potential corruption?

Local mayors have gone to jail for getting their driveways paved - all for a couple thousand bucks.

A State Senator was just indicted for kickbacks for legislative favors - for $5,500 per month.

One of the facts disclosed in US Attorney's plea agreement with John Lynch was that Lynch was lobbyisnbg DEP for various environmental approvals.

So why does the pay to play, ethics, and corurption debates NEVER focus on DEP?

DEP approvals are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Posted by hglindquist on 02/16/08 at 10:57AM
nohesitation,

I've already suggested over on Jon Shure and John Atlas threads that we make this a collaborative NJ Voices issue following your lead.

And though I will chide you mercilessly on occasion ... this is a -- what did Maslow call them? -- peak, self-actualizing moment of creative thought.

It's what makes the adventure here on NJ Voices worth the time and effort.

We the people need this access to information to effectively participate in governing ourselves.

Posted by jerseyswamp2 on 02/16/08 at 7:18PM
Top management lays out the mores of any organization. In this case the Governor and the Commissioner have clearly let it be known that the people coming through the back door are DEP's "clients". Business and industry are to be served and their lobbiests taken very seriously. For example a lobbiest like Harold Hodes of Public Strategies Impact Inc., not only represents polluters put he is a major fund raiser and political strategist for the dems. If his client wants a rule changed, bent or more likely "reinterpreted" his client will walk through the back door of the DEP building and be served coffee and doughnuts while three or four assistant commissioners take copious notes of exactly what "adjustments" his clients would find helpful. Operatives like Hodes have long ago figured out the recipe for cooking the system. To disrupt this highly refined well entrenched system is not a matter of "blowing the whistle" it is more a matter of changing the culture at DEP and other state agencies. Unfortunately that only happens when top management seriously emphasizes an ethic of principal and public service.

I
Posted by nohesitation on 02/17/08 at 9:46AM
jswamp - again, your enlightened comments surpass the original post!

We need to change the culture at DEP from the top down - the first step should reflect the old adage:

"sunlight is the best disinfectant"

Posted by byramaniac on 02/17/08 at 11:27AM
Wolfe - once again, great job!

It's not just DEP that suffers the "revolving back door" problem - it's prevalent all throughout NJ government.

Take this example I'm dealing with in Byram, regarding a major roadway project on Route 206. The text below comes verbatim from a director in the Community Relations department, to our township manager. This group could REALLY use some sunshine!

Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 11:03 AM
To: (Township Manager)
Subject: Re: Route 206 Widening Project

Good morning, (Township Manager name removed),

I spoke with the Mayor this morning by phone on my way into work about this very topic, and assured him that this "10 year list" is only in DRAFT form. It could change at any time. HOWEVER, I told the Mayor that I will do EVERYTHING that I can possibly do from my end to make sure this project stays on track. My biggest concern is the press getting a hold of this info and having a field day with it. I know (name of project opponent removed) will use this as a means to attempt to again derail this project and I expressed this to the Mayor. If at all possible I think it should be kept out of the papers which I know won't happen. My suggestion to the Mayor was to contact (name removed), owner of the Shop-Rite, and ask him to send a letter down to the Commissioner. The Mayor then suggested having the Chamber of Commerce sending a letter down as well. I, if I get the chance, will speak directly to the Deputy Commissioner who met with Freeholder (name removed) last week and expressed to him the importance of this project and see if he is willing to take a field trip with me so that he can ask the different business owners along Rte. 206 how they feel. I think it would be a real 'eye opener' for him. Having done that myself, I know only too well that the business owners would be very upset if this project did not move forward. With regard to the '10 year list', the project manager, (name removed), told me that once this list is finalized by the Department it then has to go to the MPOs for review. So with Freeholder (name removed) sitting on that board, and as Director of that board, I believe, I can't imagine that it would be approved. At least that would be my wish!! Hopefully this info has been helpful and again, I did speak directly to the Mayor this morning about it. (DOT project manager name removed) stated to me when I spoke to him that he is still planning on moving forward with the Final Design phase until otherwise told to do so. So we still are planning on coming up for that CSD meeting later this month. And (DOT project manager name removed) and I will be at the Planning Board meeting this Thursday, Feb. 7th evening. Take care and have a great day. If you need to discuss further, I will be in the office all day today, feel free to contact me at (609) (number removed).

(name removed)
NJDOT
Office of Community Relations

Honestly, Wolfe, you can't make this stuff up!

Good morning all - in the face of reports concerning the rejection of bids for the operation of Putnam National Golf Course by the County, the following excerpt from the Executive Summary of the entire report by Comptroller DiNapoli should be of interest for all residents. It appears that culpability lies on the shoulders of all county officials.

Sincerely,
Ann

Local Government and School Accountability

County of Putnam

Contracting for the Management of the Putnam National Golf Course and Internal Controls Over Purchasing
Executive SummaryComplete Audit in PDF
Putnam County (County) is governed by the County Legislature which comprises nine elected members and is responsible for developing policies and overseeing the County’s financial affairs. The County Executive is the chief executive officer and is responsible, along with other administrative staff, for the daily management of the County under the direction of the County Legislature. The County Legislature adopted a budget of approximately $121 million for the 2007 fiscal year.

The Purchasing Department is responsible for procuring goods and services for County operations. The County’s procurement policy and the General Municipal Law govern County purchasing procedures. The County owns a golf course facility, which is currently managed by Putnam Golf, Inc. The County retains all profit and absorbs all losses incurred by Putnam Golf, Inc. in operating the golf course.

Scope and Objective

We examined the County’s process for contracting for management of the Putnam National Golf Course and internal controls over purchasing for the period January 1, 2005 to August 31, 2006 to determine if County officials were properly safeguarding their financial resources. Our audit addressed the following questions:

Did the County solicit competition from vendors prior to entering the agreement to manage the Golf Course?
Is the agreement to manage the Golf Course appropriate and in the best interest of the County and its taxpayers?
Were controls over purchasing adequate to ensure that goods and services were purchased prudently and in compliance with applicable laws and established policies and procedures? Audit Results

The County did not use a Request for Proposals (RFP) to select a manager for the golf course. The County entered into a management agreement with Putnam Golf, Inc., which is solely owned by the County Commissioner of Highways and Facilities (Commissioner). The agreement contains terms and conditions that allow the Commissioner to operate Putnam Golf, Inc. as if it is a County department. The County absorbs Putnam Golf, Inc. revenues, expenditures, profits, and losses. The total dollar amount of operating cost incurred by the County for the golf course cannot be easily determined because Putnam Golf, Inc. revenue and expenditures are accounted for within the County’s Highway and Facilities Department and the Parks Department. The County cannot and has not properly evaluated the financial impact of the golf course’s operations due to the lack of separate detailed accounting records. The contractual agreement also allows County officials to circumvent County purchasing policies and procedures, such as competitive bidding, that would ensure prudent and economical use of taxpayer moneys. However, it appears that the County established Putnam Golf, Inc. in this way to avoid oversight that normally occurs in County departments. In effect, the County has established an agent to operate in a manner in which the County could not act. The management agreement entered into by the County Executive is inappropriate and not in the best interests of taxpayers. Under the terms of the agreement, the vendor, a County employee, has no incentive to operate and maintain the Golf Course in an efficient and economical manner.

Internal controls related to County purchases need to be improved. The Legislature and the County Executive did not develop and implement a procurement policy that would require the use of RFPs when contracting for professional services. The County expended approximately $6.5 million on professional services during 2005 and another $3.4 million from January through August 2006. We tested $6 million of the payments made for professional services and found that the Director of Purchasing obtained these services without seeking competition through RFPs. As a result, County officials cannot be certain that these services were obtained in the most economically beneficial manner.

We also found that the Director of Purchasing did not adequately implement the County’s purchasing policy. We selected two samples consisting of 36 and 25 purchase orders totaling $136,220 and $6.5 million, respectively and found no documentation for 17 written/verbal quotes totaling $67,174 and five bid advertisements totaling $155,000. In addition, the County did not document its decision to make purchases of $15,768 from sole-source suppliers as required by the County policy.

Comments of County Officials

The results of our audit and recommendations have been discussed with County officials and their comments, which appear in Appendix A, have been considered in preparing this report. County officials disagreed with many of the recommendations included in our report. We have included additional commentary in Appendix B to more fully communicate the rationale for our position.

Putnam County gets first Empire Zone
By Allan Drury
The Journal News • February 9, 2008

BREWSTER - The state this week granted Putnam County its first Empire Zone, a move that local economic development officials hope will produce good-paying jobs.

The county's three-year fight for an Empire Zone designation finally paid off when a state board gave its approval, allowing lucrative tax breaks for companies that create jobs.

"We finally got our piece of the pie that, in my opinion, we should have gotten earlier," said Richard Ruchala, who owns a business on Main Street in Brewster and is vice chairman of the Putnam County Industrial Development Agency.

"I'm hoping for the best jobs possible," he said. "I'd like to see high-end, incubator-type jobs. But even if you create one job, you're eligible for some tax benefits."

He said the zone includes about 200 acres in Brewster and can be expanded up to 1,280 acres outside the village.

Ruchala said that until several years ago, Putnam was not eligible for the program because the county's median income was too high.

Companies in an Empire Zone can get tax benefits based on their job creation and investment. It's possible for a company to operate virtually property tax free for 10 years.

The company would still pay its tax bill but would get reimbursed by the state, he said.

The best program available now from the county IDA offers up to 50 percent off a company's property taxes during the first year. The tax break declines by 5 percent a year, he said.

Ruchala said a company can get up to $3,500 for each new job it creates.

A business outside the designated zone can benefit, too, he said. That company would have to show that its development is a "regionally significant project," to qualify for some of the benefits, Ruchala said.

Rockland got its first Empire Zone designation in 2006. Steve Porath, director of economic development at the Rockland Economic Development Corp., said it has helped attract or keep 11 businesses and about 500 jobs. The most recent company to take advantage of the program was Plastic Grinding International, which is in Hillburn and recycles plastic bottles, he said.

In Westchester, Yonkers and Mount Vernon have areas designated as Empire Zones.

Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Carmel, said he was pleased with the designation. Ball said he promised during his 2006 campaign to fight for an Empire Zone in the county.

"The creation of an Empire Zone will help strengthen our local economy, not only through attracting lucrative businesses, but by ensuring those that are already here have the support needed to grow," he said in a prepared statement.

Reach Allan Drury at adrury@lohud.com or 914-694-5069.

Good morning all

New Year brings all sorts of new and different things, some portend good and some fall flat. And so it was with the unhappy selection of a company to trumpet the efforts of the EDC.

Don't recognize the initials. Well, it is one of those organizations that I termed "the shadow government" at one meeting of the Carmel Town Board and I believe legislature. EDC has come out of the shadows and is inaugurating a monthly program to acquaint the residents with their efforts to attract businesses - good clean only - to Putnam County. We should have such an organization and they should be commended.

What is the EDC? EDC is the Economic Development Committee made up of volunteers who indeed seek to expand the number and diversity of businesses in Putnam County. Along with Eric Gross, who served as moderator and Kevin Bailey, the program highlighted Joe DeVestra from Smith Barney and John Lynch, Commissioner of Planning for Putnam.

The program was informative. Residents should be aware of this organization since according to the participants they brought in $30 million in new jobs. But paradoxically - (yes, they mentioned the Putnam Paradox), they chose to highlight as the poster child for their successful efforts - Powers Fasteners, a company recently relocated to Brewster.

In viewing this particular segment, I gringed but then how many folks are there like me who are familiar with its record. They recently paid $6 million to the family of the unfortunate woman who was using the "BIG DIG" in Boston to drive home and was killed by material dislodged from the ceiling of the tunnel. You guessed it. Powers was involved and as their name connotes; they make fasteners. Just in case, you may have missed the Boston Globe article, I've attached it below.

That being said. Future programs should be very careful in their selection but this misstep should not deter the efforts of the EDC to provide information to the public nor discourage those involved in the program.

Sincerely,
Ann
www.putopenspaces.com

Criminal trial of Powers Fasteners to proceed

The criminal manslaughter trial of Powers Fasteners will proceed after a Massachusetts judge rejected the fastener and adhesives manufacturer’s move to dismiss the charges, The Boston Globe reported.

Judge Patrick Brady rejected the Brewster, N.Y.-based company’s that Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley's office should not be able to prosecute the case because it also filed a civil lawsuit against Powers and other companies, stemming from the fatal ceiling collapse in one of Boston’s “Big Dig” tunnels last year.

The indictment alleges that Powers supplied the epoxy, “Power-Fast Epoxy Injection Gel Fast Set,” used to secure the concrete ceiling of the tunnel that collapsed last July, killing 38-year-old Milena Del Valle.

Brady ruled that the attorney general's office is "authorized to conduct the civil and criminal cases at the same time. … Powers has not shown there is any conflict or other reason to disqualify the office."

Powers, the only company facing criminal charges related to the accident, also faces a civil suit brought by Del Valle’s family. That case may be settled for roughly $6 million, according to a separate Globe report. The Del Valle family’s suit also names 14 other defendants, including Big Dig project manager Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and several contractors.

Lawyers involved in the case told the newspaper that if Powers accepts responsibility for the incident and compensates Del Valle's husband and three children, it could help in its fight against the manslaughter charge

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