Tag: Clean Air

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Voters of Coeymans!

TO THE VOTERS OF COEYMANS

October 1, 2025

In 2019, then Town Supervisor, Phil Crandall, and the Town Council passed a strong Clean Air Law to limit the use of waste as fuel and reduce toxic emissions. “Without clean air, clean water, and clean soils, you have nothing,” Crandall said. The Law had broad popular support, especially after stopping a 2017 plan to burn Connecticut’s municipal waste at the Ravena cement plant. When George McHugh became Town Supervisor in 2020, he weakened the Clean Air Law and changed local rules to allow a major transfer station. Stephen Donnelly was elected in 2023 but these rollbacks remain in place today.  Coeymans is clearly at risk of becoming a dumping ground: The Port of Coeymans and Coeymans Recycling already handle various waste streams. The Ravena cement plant is committed to burning waste as fuel. And, without action, Coeymans could be overrun by waste, truck traffic, and pollution.

Voters of Coeymans
Ask all Town Council candidates when they come to your door if they will restore a strong Clean Air Law and limit waste imports into our town. Our health and future depend on it!

For a detailed outline of events and sources of information, download and review this PDF page that documents the saga of industrial over-development in our beautiful river town!

This post entry was paid for by the Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena Coeymans. Not authorized by any candidate or campaign.

HISTORY OF CLEAN AIR & SOLID WASTE LAWS IN COEYMANS

SAME AS ABOVE WITHOUT PHOTOS

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Letter to the TU Editor

PHOTO BY WILL WALDREN OF THE TIMES UNION. TO READ RICK KARLIN’S STORY: https://www.timesunion.com/business/article/port-coeymans-supports-nyc-infrastructure-ample-19757108.php

Staff Reporter, Rick Karlin, of the Capital Region Times Union newspaper published a story on Sept 13, 2024, that only told half the story. Here’s what he missed:

To the Editor,

I have long admired Rick Karlin’s environmental reporting. However, his recent article about the Port of Coeymans failed to question the Port’s fanciful public relations campaign.   Josh Kowalski, the Port’s vice president of sales and business development, said “Acreage is our selling point .. we have the space …”, but a quick tour of the Port would show it is completely built out.  It can only expand by invading residential areas or corruptly manipulating local zoning laws.  Carver Companies has already clearcut an important indigenous woodland along the Hudson and would continue such destruction if allowed to expand in Coeymans.   In short, there is no more space at the Port of Coeymans.  Nor is there room on our residential two-lane roads for the heavy industrial truck traffic the Port has already attracted, let alone an increase in such traffic.  Mr. Karlin is an experienced reporter and should be able to recognize when he is being sold a fairytale that needs to be questioned before it is reported as fact.  Moreover, despite its impressive PR, the Port of Coeymans is not the only port along the Hudson that can handle large infrastructure and wind power projects; it is just the area’s only non-union port.  The Capital Region has room at the Port of Albany and has considerable space in Rensselaer.   TU reporters should take a look around or even talk to local residents before swallowing exaggerated claims from the Port of Coeymans.

Barbara Heinzen

Local Resident & Chair of Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena-Coeymans

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Hindsight is 2020

This short video, shot and edited by a volunteer sheds light on the determination and support that the residents of Coeymans have to stop tire-burning at a local cement plant. These efforts and that of hundreds of residents will continue throughout the New Year and for as long as it takes to ensure clean air for all who live in Albany County. Please watch and share this video with as many people as you can. If hindsight is 2020, then let’s build on our efforts from last year and continue this fight in 2021~