Good News for the River
The Register-Star reports today that the route of the proposed power line from Canada to New York City has been changed: "Power line project changes course." The original plan was to bury the power line under the Hudson River from Coeymans to New York City. The new route will have the power line buried under the CSX tracks on the west side of the river. For this stretch of the river, it means the power line will be buried in Greene County.
Hats off to Scenic Hudson, Riverkeeper and the trout people.
ReplyDeleteThey each do the big things with confidence and fluency, the big brokered deals.
As for the more piddling campaigns, Scenic Hudson did offer an admirable presence during the recent campaign to find an alternative for a truck route through Hudson's South Bay.
It boggles the mind why Scenic Hudson did not continue their effort to defend the South Bay solely on the basis of the stipulations they themselves won - and which were subsequently violated - against the limitations of the DEC's 2009 Freshwater Wetlands Permit for the "causeway" road. We may never know the answer why they dropped the case, but we had certainly collected all the data they needed to make it.
Riverkeeper, at the very least, makes up for some of the indirect wrong visited on the South Bay for totally ignoring us last year.
They did nothing for the South Bay, despite months of contacts and tons of up-to-date information sent to their offices. They couldn't even spare an hour last autumn when their patrol boat was in the area. It almost seemed as though a decision had already been made about our case when the captain emailed me from the vessel within a few miles of our position:
"The chances of having time, and the right tide, when we are on patrol is very slim."
We have a long memory. Nevertheless, congratulations to all involved.