“A Talk for All: Thursday, Feb 20, 2025

Is the little historic Town of Coeymans and Village of Ravena really destined for even more polluting industry? CAC Chair, Barbara Heinzen and CAC member, Diana Abadie, sure hope not but this slide presentation portends otherwise. Please join the CAC and help our efforts to maintain what’s left of our Hudson River shoreline and residentially-zoned woodlands.

“What are the Facts?”

“The first fact is we are a very small town. We have just under 7,000 people with town assets of $ 1.9 million. Holcim Worldwide (cement plant) revenue was $29.3 billion in 2023. Helderberg Materials (that bought Carver’s sand and gravel business) revenue was $21 billion last year. And, Carver Company’s revenue was $ 138 million dollars (information from data found on their website). With that kind of pressure coming down on the Town, how are average citizens expected to cope or get our needs met?”

CAC Chair, Barbara Heinzen, delivered an emphatic powerpoint discussion tonight to a small subset of concerned neighbors at the Ravena Library. Her presentation delved into the pressures the Town faces with expanding industrial development along the Hudson River. With help by CAC member, Diana Abadie, the two advocates provided graphs and charts showing the respiratory impacts (asthma, COPD and cancer) affecting a large swath of our area, if not caused by, exacerbated by industrial pollution. Data presented by Abadie was able to conclude that higher incidents of hospitalizations in our area was due, in part, to higher particulates of airborne Class 1 carcinogens in the RCS area, particulates from industry.”

A “Barbet’s Duet” site on the Hannacroix Creek and Hudson River bordering Ravena and New Baltimore. It’s a place where CAC Chair, Barbara Heinzen, and her motivated team of volunteers work tirelessly to return a once-polluted eye soar to its natural habitat. The benefits of their remediation provide cleaner air, cleaner water, and cleaner soil for, not just flora and fauna but the local environment too. Barbara hopes that, someday, acts of beautification, like hers, will be rewarded and incentivized by the State of New York.

In February, a beaver lodge was abandoned but, by April, a new dam of mud and small twigs was assembled. Barbara even witnessed a small beaver grazing on the berm before crossing into the flooded pond. By October, more mud and larger sticks had formed and by December a tall ash tree was felled for further “beaver house” appeal.

In the Spring, Barbara saw snapping turtles mating in the shallow creeks where trout lilly and bloodroot blossom. The common turtle, Chelydra serpentina, can live up to 100 years weighing in at over 22 pounds. 

In July, a big thunderstorm with high winds uprooted trees and damaged roofs.  Roads were blocked, and power was lost. The sounds of chainsaws and heavy machinery permeated the air. Footpaths were cleared with help from Eric Remillard, Earl Thomasson & Barbara.

July was exceptionally wet and the fungi loved it but the weather was abnormally dry between August and November. Barbara was relieved that she was able to capture photos of these spores and ‘shrooms, some edible, most poisonous, when she did.

From April through August, after two or three years of low numbers, there was a resurgence of bugs and butterflies back to the site.

Wild plants of late summer included cardinal flowers, sneezeweed, broadleaf cattail, aster, goldenrod, duck potato, and American burnweed.

In May, Jason Redfield cleared a large area of multiflora rose & dug holes for 25 swamp roses,  Rosa palustris, most of which survived summer.

In Aug, Earl Thomasson helped to weed the berm and reduce invasive oriental bittersweet & mugwort elsewhere.  From August through Sept, Barbara spent several weeks pulling up Japanese stilt grass before it seeded on the berm. With luck, goldenrod, asters & snake root will self-seed as replacements in 2025. 

In Nov, Pam Skripal & a colleague collected native plant seeds for propagation for the Home Earth Alliance.

Tracy Frisch, founder of CANN, receives award

Tracy Frisch was selected to receive the Peter Henner Award during the NYCLU Capital Region Awards Ceremony on November 14, 2024.  Tracy has worked tirelessly – mainly for free – to stop damaging projects in the Upper Hudson while supporting many community members from across the state.  

Some of her efforts went into opposing the development of a biochar incineration project in Moreau intent to burn sewage sludge and use the residue as fertilizer.  In a 9-page decision, the DEC soundly rejected that proposal, as reported in the Albany Times Union on November 13, 2024.  

All who value clean air can only applaud this decision and everything that Tracy Frisch has done to protect the health of the rest of us.  Thank you, Tracy!

Elected Officials, Environmental and Community Leaders Announce Opposition to Sludge Incinerator in the City of Rensselaer 

Rensselaer, NY –  Today, elected officials, city residents and environmental  leaders gathered on the banks of the Hudson River near the BASF toxic waste site, to express strong opposition to a new incinerator project.  The New Jersey company called Harbor Rock is eyeing the property to incinerate river sediment  from the bottom of the Hudson River and possibly other rivers and New York Harbor.   The sediment, which may contain PFAS chemicals,  PCBs and toxic chemicals  would be burned in this small riverfront community and emit toxic air pollution into the community when incinerated from a high temperature kiln.  

The former BASF property has 5 toxic waste sites next to a residential area and public housing.

Rensselaer is a city of approximately 9,300 people, with several of its communities designated by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) as environmental justice areas. The city also meets the criteria of a disadvantaged community, a program to ensure underserved communities benefit from the state’s transition to reduced pollution, cleaner air, and economic opportunities. This project is the opposite of what is needed.

The city is overburdened with toxic pollution, as it is home to the Dunn construction and demolition dump – the largest such dump in NYS and taking waste from six states – a fracked gas powered plant, and up to 16 known or suspected toxic waste sites in the City of Rensselaer. The combined effects of this pollution is an ongoing and overwhelming assault on the health of residents and the environment. Although an application has not yet been received by the city, this project is the second incineration facility proposed at this site in the recent past. 

The former BASF property is in the midst of a very slow partial cleanup of toxic waste, such as lead, phenols, mercury and benzene. The 45 acre property contains a remediated brownfield site, three State Superfund Sites, one of which is in the process of being remediated, and a Voluntary Cleanup site left with significant arsenic contamination after remediation. Dyes and pharmaceuticals were also manufactured at the site since the 1890’s, and closed in 2000.

“As the mayor, I am opposed to any and all trash, garbage, recycling and use of an  incinerator in the City of Rensselaer that would have the potential to impact the quality life of our residents and our neighbors. We are changing the image of Rensselaer every day and these types of facilities don’t mesh with our long-term goals for the city.”  – Mayor Mike Stammel, City of Rensselaer

“As Supervisor of the neighboring Town of East Greenbush, we are already trying to mitigate the dangerous effects of the Dunn Landfill on our residents.  That project should never have been approved by DEC and the permit should not be renewed because we weren’t made aware of the deleterious effect of the chemicals emanating from the landfill until after it was in operation.  Let’s not make the same mistake again.  Projects like this must be stopped before they are approved.  And that requires elected officials who listen to their constituents.  I’m listening and all I hear are cries of “please stop bringing toxic materials into our neighborhoods.”  This project is a terrible idea, made worse by the cumulative effects of the Dunn Landfill, and should be strenuously opposed before it even gets off the ground.” 
– Supervisor Jack Conway, Town of East Greenbush

“This is a terrible proposal that should be roundly rejected.   Burning sediment from the bottom of rivers and harbors will create air pollution that will impact the entire Capital District.  High temperatures do not necessarily destroy the PCBs, PFAS chemicals and heavy metals that are known to be in sediment.  I am opposed to this project in the already overburdened City of Rensselaer and anywhere else this company attempts to get a foothold.”  – Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Administrator

“Harbor Point and the Port of Albany think a class 2 inactive hazardous waste site in an environmental justice zone is a good location for a river sludge incineration which brings air pollution, water contamination and ecosystem disruption. They need to have another think.”  – Bob Welton, Rensselaer Environmental Coalition

“We cannot allow a Norlite 2.0 to be allowed to operate in our community. In Cohoes we have seen children playing in black snow, breathing in cancerous silica dust and families being uprooted and moved due to the hazards the Norlite incinerator inflicts on its residents. Let us not repeat the failed policies of the past and reject this facility for the residents of Rennssaeler and surrounding communities.”  – Joe Ritchie Chair Lights Out Norlite