COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Just Downriver from Us
The U.S. Coast is considering adopting regulations that would establish new anchorage grounds for commercial vessels along the Hudson River--ten sites between Yonkers and Kingston. Four sites near Kingston (and Rhinecliff on our side of the river) are being prioritized. It is suspected that it all has to do with facilitating the transport of Bakken crude on the Hudson.
Last Wednesday, there was a public forum in Rhinebeck, hosted by Dutchess County legislator Joel Tyner. The participants were John Lipscomb, boat captain for Riverkeeper; Andy Bicking, director of public policy at Scenic Hudson; and Rhinecliff-based artist Caroline Marks Blackwood. A videotape of that meeting, which is important and recommended viewing, can be seen here.
COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK
COPYRIGHT 2016 CAROLE OSTERINK
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Last summer, A. Colarusso and Son Inc. announced its own plans to expand its anchorage into State-owned underwater lands, by building a giant, rip-rap revetment to stretch down the State-owned shore.
ReplyDeleteOf course that's not how it was presented. The plan was sold as shore stabilization where none is actually needed.
Unsurprisingly, our City government took no notice and no interest; also unsurprisingly, neither did residents. Gossips provided good coverage, but it didn't seem to matter.
Last week we learned that the US Army Corps of Engineers signed off on some part of the plan, but no one knows yet which part.
Although the NYSDEC and the NYS Office of General Services must weight in, do we really suppose there's anyone in City government who knows that?
Does anyone at City Hall know what's going on at all? Which authorizing entities are playing which roles, and in what order? Who should be contacted for clarification?
Our new City government, obsessed with not rocking the boat, doesn't even know that it should care. If you're still reading this, you probably don't know that you should care either.
If you watch the videotape of the Rhinebeck meeting (I know, pretty doubtful), then please leave a little room in your two minutes of concern to feel just a bit ashamed of how incurious we are in Hudson, how dull, and slow to act.
Other communities seem to have it going on, but not us. How come?
The 10 anchorages will accommodate 43 oil barge and tanker berths! Much worse than it sounds. Besides the hardships for those living with the glare, noise and smell of these ships, ( they run their generators 24/7) many more ships carrying Bakken crude, that volatile, unstable mix that ignites at 74, will be passing Hudson and all the towns on the Hudson, from the port of Albany. Just as the cement plant was our problem as well as yours, this is your problem too. Does Hudson and other towns get their drinking water from The Hudson River, as Rhinebeck, Esopus and Poughkeepsie do?
ReplyDeletePlease check in with The group Living on The Hudson River on Facebook for news and meetings- and also the new website http://www.hudsonriveranchorages.org
Thanks, CMB, for spearheading this.
DeleteUnfortunately, the people of Hudson aren't even interested in learning the reasons for a proposed expansion of the industrial anchorage in their own City (which probably has nothing to do with oil, but who knows?).
Hudson used to get its drinking water from the river, but now it comes from points east, and as far away as "downtown" Hillsdale. Most Hudson residents don't know that, either. For Hudson residents, it just comes out of the tap.
In other words, don't waste your time or resources in such a low-consciousness place.
John Lipscomb (Riverkeeper): "I'm afraid that the answers I'm getting to the questions about why they need these anchorages is not really getting any clearer. ... Frankly, we don't have an answer yet."
ReplyDeleteIndustry representatives: "We need these anchorages for safety."
Same b.s. we're hearing in Hudson: it's about fighting erosion.
Um, no it's not ...