Monday, February 25, 2013

The Word on the Water

The attention paid to fracking brine and its potential to contaminate Hudson's water supply at the Churchtown Reservoir in Taghkanic--or anywhere along the way--prompted Rob Perry, superintendent of Public Works, to contact Gossips. He provided the text of New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR) that relates to the City of Hudson water supply, which is repeated in Chapter A334 of the Hudson City Code, "Watershed Rules." 

Perry also had this to say about Hudson's water system, which has existed for more than 130 years:

It all started in c. 1880 with an act of the NYS Legislature that created the City of Hudson Water Commission. This created the foundation for the issuance of debt to establish easements/rights of way, property acquisition, riparian rights, construction and the creation of laws.
It's a magnificent system made even more awe-inspiring when one considers it was created in the Edwardian Era, with contrasting technologies: horse and buggy and steam shovel. Maintaining this system is much more than a material or regulatory obligation, it is a labor of love and true stewardship.

4 comments:

  1. Hate to be pedantic but 1880 is the Victorian period, not the Edwardian. Victoria died in 1901. Her son Edward VII died in 1910.

    (And of course the Prince of Wales is the great-grandson of Edward VII, and his current wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall is the great-granddaughter of Edward's most important mistress, Alice Keppel.)

    -- Jock Spivy

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  2. Personally ,I find the 1972,Rules and Regs spelled out above in "Chapter A334 of the Hudson City Code, "Watershed Rules."
    are very disturbing. I Hope DPW Employees of City of Hudson really
    do practice "true stewardship" for all of our sakes. Worth reading!

    Did DPW Supervisor send this , because of Alderman Friedman's statements?
    Top of this article
    "The attention paid to fracking brine and its potential to contaminate Hudson's water supply at the Churchtown Reservoir in Taghkanic--or anywhere along the way" . ....was brought up by Alderman Friedman.

    Gossips 2/20.."In the discussion of the proposed law and its efficacy to protect the health and safety of the people of Hudson, Friedman made the point that the real threat to Hudson from fracking was in the Town of Taghkanic, which is the source of our water. "If they use fracking waste on their roads, it's going to migrate into our water supply," said Friedman. Of the proposed local law before them, Friedman concluded, "We can only do what we can do. If we attempt to exceed our power, we will be litigated against."


    Taghkanic as of Nov 2012and Germantown as of April 2012 both have 18 mo. Moratorium's banning fracking and by-producuts.

    We have to make Hudson as safe as we can ,it will take our County Representatives in Hudson to push for a County wide Ban,as has been done successfully in Westchester Co. and Ulster Co to name two..that their primary focus is on the Hazards of fracking's toxic waste and by-products , their ground and waterways and their drinking water and not actual drilling., however that is in BAN.





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  3. Greenport made a good portion of the watershed that supplies their drinking water into a Critical Environmental Area (CEA). The map of Greenport's CEA - the only one in Columbia County - is here:

    http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/permits_ej_operations_pdf/greenport.pdf

    The DEC provides a description of CEA's at the following page, although the matter is academic concerning our own water supply:

    http://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/45500.html

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  4. Hudson cannot easily lay claim to any sort of forward-thinking environmental protection legislation.

    Until recently, all City of Hudson water bills came with a cancer warning. How is water that is subject to run-off from farmers' fields with all the attendant pesticides and fertilizers good to drink?

    A water supply system with its infrastructure roots (steam shovels!) in the 1880s and the Mauve Decade is apt, given Hudson's ramshackle steampunk aura.

    For God's sake, the sewer in Union Street was in recent memory a mere wooden pipe that emptied right into the Hudson River!

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