The following are selected photos taken in 2022 where the Hannacroix Creek enters the Hudson River. The land is managed by CAC Chair, Barbara Heinzen with help from her friends Eric Remillard and Gil Strizich. All photos on this blog were taken by Barbara Heinzen.
2022 NARRATIVE: Another dry summer started in early July 2022. Several garden plants were stunted while the sweet grass died for lack of water. Many insects were missing again in 2022 while the birds that eat them – orioles, tree swallows, and bluebirds – never settled in for the summer. Small mammals also seemed scarce but the dry conditions favored the wild rice so more will be planted in 2023. The beaver pond dried up over the summer. The lodge and dam by the Hudson River were abandoned. By November, a new beaver lodge and dam appeared in the creek only to be damaged in the December flood.
May we see a more peaceful year in 2023!
February-March 2022April-June 2022: March Marigolds and Sedges in the SwampApril-June 2022: Things that Fly!July-Sept 2022: Wild Rice along Creek and RiverOct-Nov 2022: A Lingering AutumnDecember 2022: Weather Extremes
Altamont Enterprise provides a follow-up to Barbara’s questions per an opinion piece published in their newspaper on September 22, 2022
ALBANY COUNTY — With approval from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, the industrial port in Coeymans owned by Carver Laraway, head of Carver Companies, is soon to undergo an expansion project that has left some environmental activists concerned.
The project is meant to allow the port to support the construction of offshore wind turbines.
Barbara Heinzen, of the Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena-Coeymans, says in a letter to the Enterprise editor this week, that the project will increase the amount of waste burned at the LaFarge Cement plant, in the Coeymans village of Ravena, thereby diminishing the air quality in the region. READ MORE
To the Editor: Around 8 p.m. on Sept. 2, at the start of the Labor Day weekend, the Department of Environmental Conservation circulated its decision to permit the Port of Coeymans, owned by Carver Laraway, to expand.
While the port’s application was based on an abandoned plan for an important wind power business, in fact, it supports the expansion of a major waste-management and incineration business in the upper Hudson Valley. The economic, human, and environmental consequences of that waste business were not examined by the DEC, the Army Corps of Engineers, or any other New York State Department.
This DEC decision is a travesty that exposes the corrupt flaws in New York State’s environmental protection laws. Why, for example, is there a clause in the Environmental Conservation Law that allows local governments to override a county law concerning air quality?
Thanks to that clause, the Albany County Clean Air Law cannot limit the burning of waste at the Lafarge Cement Plant in Coeymans because Coeymans Local Law was revised to allow it.
Why was the environmental impact study submitted by the Port of Coeymans not legally required to be done by an independent agency, but is instead wholly the work of consultants hired by the port to do its bidding?
Why is the DEC forbidden by law from commissioning an independent study of the cumulative impact of the Port of Coeymans waste-management complex, which has expanded one small segmented decision at a time?
Why has the DEC never forced the port to pay the fines it should each time there is another violation of environmental laws and regulations?
What is the DEC afraid will happen to it if it enforces the law to its full extent?
More locally, why has the town supervisor of Coeymans, George McHugh, ensured that all local laws now line up to support the collection and incineration of waste in Coeymans, but has never declared the number of beneficial connections he and his board have with Carver Laraway and his multiple businesses?
Why is Mr. McHugh now acting as the lawyer for the neighboring town of New Baltimore, where Carver Laraway wants to buy the Shady Harbor Marina?
And where are the politicians who should represent the people here? Why are Michelle Hinchey and Paul Tonko silent on this issue? Do their environmental credentials suddenly fall away at the gates of the Port of Coeymans? If so, why?
I have huge respect for the professional staff of the Department of Environmental Conservation. I have no respect for this decision or the laws that have allowed it.
It has forced me to ask: Is New York State really this corrupt?
Please take a moment to watch all 7 of these important YouTube videos. They were shot and edited by two concerned kayakers living in Albany County. The CAC values their efforts and contributions to help make Albany County (and the entire upper Hudson Valley) a better place for the next generation! CLICK ON THIS IMAGE TO GO TO THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
Who and why were these videos made?
“Two Viet Nam era granddads who feel the youngest generation has got it right, but as our generation was, are now being thoroughly ignored. Our YouTube narratives expand on our experience of scores of kayaking adventures on our area of the Hudson River. Those journeys have been distilled into the seven episodes on Hudson River Miles 130-135 YouTube videos. As Greta Thunberg and her young generation are saying over and over, as loudly as they can: the science tells the story ~ listen, believe, act. We provide some ideas and how to act locally while, frankly, we also believe all generations are skidding into Climate Collapse.”
SIGN OUR PETITION to convince NYS that we need an independent study of cumulative impacts!
PRESS CONFERENCE: POST PONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER
Today, there is a major waste management industrial complex expanding around the Port of Coeymans owned by Carver Laraway. Since 2006, this complex has tripled in size and the Port is now waiting for a permit to enlarge again. In total, the complex could soon occupy 600-1000 acres of land along the Hudson River, the Binnenkill, and Coeymans Creek.
What is New York State’s response? They treat this region like garbage, hiding behind narrow regulations to turn a blind eye to both current and future risks. Just when they should be protecting the health of our residents and environment, our State government is ready to sacrifice Coeymans and the Hudson River on a mountain of waste.
Before matters get worse, the Clean Air Coalition is calling for an independent review of the cumulative impact of this industrial development and its future waste management plans. We are asking Governor Hochul to insist that the DEC, the Army Corps, and the Department of State stop any permit approvals until this review has been done and independently verified.
There is a better future for the Hudson River and its Valley. This week, Congressman Paul Tonko, Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper will speak out in support of the proposed New York-New Jersey Watershed Protection Act. This act would bring millions of dollars over five years to restore the Hudson River watershed. It will support the NY Parks Department’s development of the new Hudson Eagles Recreation Area, a novel 55-mile river park in the Hudson River from Kingston to Albany.
So why, with this future in our hands, is NY State encouraging a major waste processing complex on the Hudson at Coeymans? Why should this business be allowed to expand in our new river park? The Hudson and its watershed are still recovering from earlier industrial damage. They should not be exposed to yet more toxic activity.
The Coeymans waste management complex has been growing for almost twenty years, one permitted step at a time. Its expansion needs to stop. In 2008, the Port of Coeymans was handling 80,000 tons of scrap metal, bauxite, and salt. Local people immediately began to hear the crash of loading metals at all hours of day and night. In 2009, the Port got a DEC permit to take in construction and demolition debris, including restricted fill. Residents watched as that fill was used to expand the buildable area of the Coeymans Industrial Park created in 2013 over local opposition. A few weeks after the TCI facility in Colombia County exploded in 2012, the company was given a new home at the Port of Coeymans. That TCI explosion released an unknown amount of chemicals and a warning to residents to shelter in place, yet TCI began building a new facility in the Coeymans Industrial Park in 2014, upwind of the local primary school. In December 2017, the State of Connecticut was planning to ship one-third of its municipal waste to Coeymans for use as fuel at the Ravena LafargeHolcim Cement Plant on 9W. In 2018, Carver Laraway signed a contract with NY DEC to pick up old tires from around New York State, hoping to burn them in the Lafarge kiln. These are all pointers to the waste management industry these businesses want to build.
Although these incineration plans were temporarily stopped, LafargeHolcim is still planning to use waste as fuel, regardless of the emissions that could produce. TCI, meanwhile, has submitted a proposal to treble its capacity to process PCB-laden mineral oil in order to produce fuel. Nearby, CD Man, an ally of the Port of Coeymans, is asking for a permit to turn 70 acres along Route 144 into a major transfer station for C&D. There are even proposals to run a rail spur into this transfer station and the Coeymans Industrial Park. Is this wise? NY State should be pursuing a zero-waste policy, not encouraging an industrial complex like this one.
Since the 1990s, local laws have repeatedly stopped Coeymans from becoming a dumping ground. That changed in 2019 when George McHugh, legal counsel to the Port of Coeymans, was elected Coeymans Town Supervisor (salary $35,000). The following year, backed by a Town Board with numerous family and business links to the Port of Coeymans and its owner, Carver Laraway, they revised all the Town’s protective laws on solid waste, clean air, and industrial zoning. Each revision has encouraged the expansion of the riverfront waste management business.
Is this right? Do we want to see more garbage, more restricted fill, more tires and demolition debris right inside the new Hudson Eagles Recreation Area? Do we want waste of all kinds and toxicities to be processed at the Port of Coeymans, the Coeymans Industrial Park, the LafargeHolcim cement plant, and other sites in Coeymans?
No. This is not right and not wanted. That is why the Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena-Coeymans is asking Governor Hochul, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and New York’s Department of State to turn down all current applications to expand and not review any future permit applications until a comprehensive environmental review of the Port of Coeymans Complex and its waste management businesses have been completed and independently verified.
We can see the outlines of a better, cleaner future for the Hudson River and its residents. That future needs to be protected, not trashed.
