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

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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.

 

DEC poised to fine Putnam for old landfill, other environmental woes
 

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.

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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.

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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.
 

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DAILY NEWS FROM INSIDEEPA.COM - TUESDAY, JUNE 17, 2008

EPA Proposes Language To Narrow Scope Of Democrats' Clean Water Bill

 

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.

 

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Westchester Land Trust

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.

For more about our activities and organization, visit our new website

 

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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
 

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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.




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

 

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The Town of New Scotland is often referred to as "the jewel of Albany County."

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.

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.

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

 

Marlboro Township, N.J.

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.
 

Palisades mall: Not all the predictions, good and bad, were realized

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