GOOD GROWTH

LETTERS to the EDITOR

June 8, 2006

Three recent letters responding to the Register-Star report of May 7 on the formation of a citizens' advisory panel by SLC Catskill: The first, signed by members of the FoH Board, focuses on SLC's long history of greenwashing, of which this panel is the latest example.  The second and third letters, by Dorothy Montague and Sarah Saul, call attention to the poor air quality in the Catskill/Germantown area and the lack of local air monitoring.
Chris Reed

Excerpt:
Recent publicity of an analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) by the Associated Press identified sites in Germantown and Catskill as being among the worst 10 percent in New York state, with some sites close to being in the worst 5 percent of the entire United States.  The proximity of two large cement plants cannot be doubted to be a contributing factor.

Dorothy Montague, Germantown Neighbors Association

Neighbors Bear Watching
Register-Star, Wednesday, May 24, 2006

To the Editor:

So, St. Lawrence Cement wants to be a good neighbor. We've heard this before. In fact we hear it every time the company wants to pull the wool over our eyes.

Remember the Forum? That was supposed to be an opportunity for the community to learn about their Greenport project. In reality it was a public relations stunt designed to promote a bad idea while deflecting public criticism.

Remember the HVEEC?  That "grassroots" group turned out to be pure astroturf, an effort to create the illusion of broad public support for their scheme. SLC has been so eager to be a good neighbor that they have even managed to blame their corporate wrongdoing on an evil twin. Remember how the company tried to distance itself from Holcim when Friends of Hudson exposed their track record?  SLC denied a connection that was apparent from even a cursory look at their websites.

Now we have SLC Catskill forming a Citizen Advisory Panel, facilitated by an out-of-state consultant. Does this sound familiar? It should. According to the Register Star, being a good corporate citizen this time could mean burning "used tires and dried sewage to decrease the need for fossil fuels." Nothing says neighborly like dried sewage.

What might a real good neighbor have done in the year since the state rejected its project?  Maybe it could have cleaned up the rotting structures at the Hudson waterfront, or maybe just come clean about its intentions for its Hudson and Greenport properties.  However, when asked about the future of SLC Greenport, Human Resource Manager Tony Madrozo ducked responsibility by saying "it was not part of the Catskill operation." This should sound familiar too.
 
A good neighbor doesn't foul your backyard. A good neighbor doesn't try to make a profit at the expense of your health.The Citizens Advisory Panel that has been formed is a familiar corporate tactic, employed by every harmful polluting industry to gain cover for its actions.  Similar tactics didn't work here before, and they won't work now.

With the withdrawal of SLC's application, FoH moved beyond that issue to take up other, more positive projects in Columbia County. We have been working with our neighbors to advance this agenda, but we haven't forgotten that SLC is still our neighbor too. Bad neighbors bear watching.

Mark Teague
Christopher Reed
Judy Grunberg
Coco Eiseman
Nancy Gordon
Board Members, Friends of Hudson

Community should get involved again
Register-Star, Wednesday, May 24, 2006

To the Editor:

The article printed in the Register Star of May 7th titled "SLC mending fences with surrounding communities" was read with great interest by many members of the Germantown Neighbors Association.

The article about the St. Lawrence Cement Company advisory board was the first substantive information this community has had about this group.

We welcome the information because it confirms the game that SLC is attempting to play once again with the public, spinning perceptions at the expense of health and the environment.

We now know that the "intensive networking" of the public relations consultant rounded up only the old political power brokers in Germantown who can be counted on to support business no matter what the cost to the public.

Although none of them has demonstrated any interest in protecting health and the environment, pressure at the time of the last election has caused three of them to join this organization.  To get votes they promised the restoration of the air monitor on the top of the school, to be run by students.

This proposal demonstrates how little they knew about the hazards of toxic pollution from the two cement plants across the river.  With funding substantially cut by the Bush administration, the DEC is not currently installing such expensive equipment.  Furthermore, the roof of the school is an inappropriate site for such a device (if it ever was) and such a complex piece of technical equipment cannot be left to the maintenance of high school students.

Certainly the people of Germantown and this entire region should be very concerned about the air they breathe.  Recent publicity of an analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) by the Associated Press identified sites in Germantown and Catskill as being among the worst 10 percent in New York state, with some sites close to being in the worst 5 percent of the entire United States.  The proximity of two large cement plants cannot be doubted to be a contributing factor.

No amount of manipulation by a public relations consultant of a so-called community advisory committee should convince any thinking person that an international cement company, presenting the burning of tires and sewage as an improvement, is interested in anything except improving the foundering bottom line of the Catskill plant.

Neither is there any reason to believe that the DEC is interested in the welfare of the public after the recent decision about burning tires at the Lafarge plant at Ravena.  The DEC track record in recent years demonstrates clearly that the agency looks for any regulatory loophole it can find to support business.

Nor can the public trust most politicians to represent their interests although this is what they are elected to do.  Raising fears about jobs and the economy they support interests of the businesses and corporations that give generous political contributions.

None of them is going to save us.  We are all vulnerable and must act to protect ourselves by becoming informed and knowledgeable about the facts.  Environmental air pollution, like cigarettes, causes lung and respiratory disease and is being increasingly linked to cardiac disease and cancer.  It is up to us to plan and take whatever action is necessary to convince legislators with our votes that we think that adequate protection of public health and the environment is crucial for our survival and that of future generations.

The GNA has recently learned that our request to appeal the loss of our case against the DEC has been denied.  Through a careless mistake on the part of our attorney the substantial merits of the case will never be heard.  This comes hard after three years of work but we are not giving up.  We are exploring new initiatives to continue our efforts and urge members of the community and the region to get involved in this important struggle.

Dorothy Montague, president
Germantown Neighbors Association

Response to SLC issue
Register-Star, Tuesday, May 23, 2006

To the editor:

This letter is being written in response to your May 7th article entitled "SLC mending fences in surrounding communities."

The report that a community advisory committee has been put together by a public relations consultant for the St. Lawrence Cement Co. is no more than a typical reaction on the part of the company to the resounding, and extremely expensive, defeat of their plan to build the largest cement plant in North America in Greenport.

SLC now hopes that such an effort will distract the public from the facts that were established during their campaign to win the hearts and minds of the people of this region to support the Greenport proposal. At that time the company was very anxious for people to know and understand just how dirty and polluting their plant in Catskill was.

Nothing has changed except that SLC now wants to divert the public's attention from thinking and acting on those hard facts by providing their usual program of "bread and circuses."  Therefore, the bogus committee that gets together once a month to have a free meal and listen to what the company wants them to believe.

I can't say how representative the group of people from Catskill may be but the intense networking effort made by the consultant in this community yielded up only the usual members of the local political machine.  These politicians never manifested any interest in the health or environment of this community until the last election.  They know and care so little about air pollution that they persist in telling residents that the Department of Conservation will provide an air monitor on the roof of the school which can be maintained by the students.  A plan which is as unlikely as it is inappropriate.

I urge people who want to breathe clean air not to get facts from politicians or multinational corporations.  Recent publicity has made the public unaware of the little-known research project of the Environmental Protection Agency known as the Toxic Release Inventory.  The TRI reports annually on the emissions of the 650 toxic chemicals, such as mercury, nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and particulate matter, from industrial plants nationwide.  The measurements are based on air emission reports by plants (which may be under reported), the paths that pollution takes as it spreads, as well as the numbers of people, by age and gender, living in proximity to these plants.

A report based on analysis by the Associated Press of 2000 TRI data indicated that parts of Cementon and Catskill n Greene County and Germantown in Columbia County were among the highest risk communities in New York state and that certain local sites were very close to the worst levels of risk in the United States.

By its own reporting, the SLC Catskill plant emitted five times more toxic pollutants than it ha previously, suggesting that the health risks to residents of Germantown and Catskill are much greater today than ever.

Air monitors were removed by the DEC from Greene and Columbia Counties just previous to the time when both SLC and Glen Falls Lehigh Cement were gearing up to request major permits from that agency.  These monitors have never been replaced.  Air which is monitored in nearby counties such as Albany and Rensselaer, however, has been recently reported as being out of attainment.  There is every reason to believe that the air in our local area would also be very far from attainment due to the two large cement plants located here.

It is only when we are willing to wake up and inform ourselves about the risks to our health from the toxic pollution to which we are exposed that we will be able to significantly influence legislators to act to restore protection for clean air and water to our communities.

Sarah Saul
Germantown

Letter to the Editor