The Topic Is Storm Water
Gossips has written often about the controversial sewer separation project that would direct an estimated 242 million gallons of untreated storm water annually from the streets of Hudson into North Bay and on into the Hudson River. This morning at 10 a.m. on WGXC, Tom DePietro is devoting his hour-long radio show We the People to exploring this topic. WGXC can be heard at 90.7 FM or online.
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Update: If you missed it this morning, the show, which features DPW superintendent Rob Perry, making the case for the sewer separation project, and Timothy O'Connor, a critic of the project, has now been archived and can be heard here.
What I didn't get to say - what I was saving till last - was that residents can still set this situation right.
ReplyDeleteEven a little bit of interest in this matter will go a long way. If state regulators don't think that anyone cares, they'll end up following the city's lead and rubber stamping whatever plan was hatched behind closed doors.
The worst thing about this story so far is that the public was completely cut out of its rightful and required place in the planning.
The privately designed means and goals are reinforced whenever the project is discussed as a settled thing, when in fact the plan isn't even drawn up yet!
If the public's and the Common Council's lack of curiosity is the result of being cheated, then that's called positive reinforcement. In that case, we'd all deserve the consequences of being so easily tricked.
The North Bay, however, does not deserve such poor treatment. The system's defenselessness warrants the attention of anything potentially negative that's dumped into it in our names.
Please contact me. Even a signature could go a long way to help.
thank you unheimlich for your unending crusade to SAVE THE NORTHBAY and ask all other Hudsonians to join with you to stand up and be heard to protect our City Waterways.
Deleteyou truly are a citizen of Hudson
I'd sure stand up for Save the Northbay! Who do we write? What's the address? --peter
DeleteWe're working on it.
DeleteHigh praise indeed. You're very welcome tmdonofrio.
ReplyDeleteSomehow we have to reverse Hudson's long tradition of being run like a private club. For the added sake of our wetlands, let's begin that reversal now.
What I really don't understand is why the before mentioned "private club" wants to pollute the Hudson River. What is the benefit, or who benefits from, diverting filthy storm run-off into the river?
DeleteFrankly, I don't get it either. It appears that $600K in hand is enough to sway some folks, but they need to be reminded that it's not in hand yet.
DeleteAlso, some people have other priorities. They don't have to care about ecology anymore than I have to care about stamp collecting, but they're not supposed to elevate their interests (or lack thereof) above everyone else's interests.
But look how many approach "public service" in this way which, in Hudson, means cutting out the public at every opportunity. (It's this that I refer to as "bad faith," and not anyone else should share my interests.)
On the other hand, if DPW Commissioner Folz and Superintendent Perry do care about ecology after all, it's now too late for them to reverse the momentum they created when they narrowed the pool of public input in the first place. That was the mistake right there, but that's their culture. They probably can't correct that kind of arrogance if they tried, although for everyone's benefit, and for the benefit of the wetlands, I do hope that they'll try.