This week it took a fire to reignite the community to see the dangers inherent in the port of Coeymans becoming a massive transfer station. On the banks of the Hudson River, a large-scale scrap fire at the Port of Coeymans sent acrid-smelling smoke wafting making it hard to breathe for nearby residents. The facility is looking to expand its operations and the conflagration can’t possibly bode well for securing permits and plans. As fate would have it, the CAC asked its members to call Governor Hochul on the same day to throw a match at LECCLA; a bill that would further erode air quality in the RCS school district and beyond. Here’s a sample of what one of our members said to Governor Hochul:
“Dear Governor Hochul,
My name is Sonja Stark, a self-employed freelancer for a video production company and concerned resident of Selkirk, NY. I’m also a member of the Clean Air Coalition of Albany County responsible for some of the videos produced that spell out the dangers of burning TDF and RDF at the Lafarge cement plant. The plant is 5 miles downwind from where I live.It’s incredibly important that you vote NO to passing LECCLA. First and foremost there is no such thing as “low carbon concrete” and the language in this bill greenwashes the process into convincing legislators to vote for it.
Without a clearly-written definition of low carbon concrete, this bill, inevitably, will lead to the cement industry having the foothold to push for the burning of waste as an alternative fuel to coal in their kilns. This is already being done in several states throughout the country.
Regardless of what cement industries like to say about co-processing or the plumes at their facility, burning waste to make cement is NOT, I repeat, NOT safe, smart, sustainable, circular or holistic.
Burning waste, which the LECCLA procurement scheme would incentivize is like moving a landfill from land into the sky. Many of the creators of LECCLA, industry insiders, know this.
This bill would inevitably encourage cement companies to expand their mining, excavation and delivery services of aggregate thereby increasing more truck traffic. More truck traffic means bigger rigs, semi’s and truck trailers and that means more CO2 emissions. This action further erodes whatever quality of life is left in historic hamlets like the RCS (Ravena/Selkirk/Coeymans) community.
Studies have shown that even the most state-of-the-art cement stacks are far from clean with hidden emissions like dioxins, furans and organic pollutants emanating from them. Therefore, LECCLA also carries with it the potential to threaten the air, water and soil quality of the Hudson Valley.
Concrete is both the most widely used and the most destructive substance on earth and its benefits mask an enormous danger to the environment. New York State would be wise to focus on policy-making strategies that reduce our dependence and consumption on cement rather than rewarding companies that make more of it.
For all these reasons and more, please vote NO to LECCLA.
Thank you for taking my call.”