Here's the deal. The State of New York doesn't want people to dispose of motor oil in the ground or in sewers. To discourage this, state law requires that all service stations that change oil for their customers and retailers who sell more than 1,000 gallons of oil a year accept up to five gallons of used motor oil, free of charge, from members of the public. This service may not be limited to regular customers of the establishment. So, instead of being allowed to spill out onto Partition St, this used motor oil could have been collected in a clean plastic milk carton or similar container and brought to a service station, where it would have been collected for recycling.
For more information about disposing of used motor oil and other hazardous waste, check out this publication from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
COPYRIGHT 2015 CAROLE OSTERINK
Thanks for catching this, Gossips.
ReplyDeleteI hope that after more than a year of learning about it here, readers are beginning to understand the city's unconscionable plan to divert street runoff directly into the North Bay.
The next (and last) Public Hearing on the issue will take place after the city has already received the grant money for the plan, but there's much to do before then if the photograph above is concerning for anyone.
Why doesn't the city of Hudson use permeable pavement on streets, sidewalks and parking lots to reduce pollution from stormwater runoff??
ReplyDeleteOh boy, how does one begin to address that question?
DeleteFirst though, it's a great question. And although I'd guess you haven't been in Hudson very long, I believe you're the first to ask it.
Technically, you are asking about a "control alternative" for stormwater runoff in a combined sewer system.
In the 1990s, the EPA promulgated stormwater policies for cities the size of Hudson. The city proceeded to ignore every one of them, and in retrospect this appears to have been a conscious strategy. The pattern continues to this day by virtue of the city's total lack of transparency. (The services of the NYSDOS are required on a regular basis to force the city to hand over documents it has no right to conceal.)
It's true that over the last decade the NYSDEC Division of Water forced the city to complete several federal requirements, but in every case the results were half-assed, or even dishonestly achieved. The state eventually gave up and went away, totally abandoning its preconditions for approvals and actions that have since come to pass.
The specific alternative you mention (there are many others) would have been a great subject to bring up at a public meeting, except that in its practiced disregard for federal and state policies city officials have routinely denied the public any access to its sewer/stormwater decisions.
That means that there was never any meaningful context for your excellent question. Despite the federal requirement that the city provide such a context, our officials have gone out of their way to kill our interest and involvement, and they've been almost entirely successful doing it.
Aside from this well-documented intentionality, we mustn't forget to factor in simple ignorance. Just to stay with the subject you asked about, it was only last year that the Common Council discussed amending the zoning to intentionally increase impervious surface area in the city. Yet nobody noticed anything wrong with the suggestion aside from the sharp-eyed host of the Gossips of Rivertown blog.
To come to Hudson is to make a disconcerting trip back in time. You've entered a boss rule situation from the 1920s, where the legislature reads nothing and understands less, and mayors habitually see the public as hostile inmates who must be bent to the executive's rule (our mayors are a parade of former prison guards).
Combine this with a 1950s-era complacency of city residents - young or old, it makes no difference - and you've got a perfect little tragedy on your hands. It's pretty ugly for the local ecology anyway, which cannot speak for itself.
You're more than welcome to get involved though. I'd like to include your interest in permeable surfaces in something I'm writing for the federal government. Please contact me, I mean if I haven't alienated you!
I'm a sustaining member of Riverkeeper, and I have a small sailboat at Bliss Marina in Catskill, so I'm serious about protecting the river from pollution. I can be reached at jkhunka@ix.netcom.com
ReplyDeleteGreat, thanks. I'll be in touch.
DeleteWas I shunted into your spam folder?
Delete