On July 11, 2001 the Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition filed a petition with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation asking for full party status in the DEC's review of the proposed St. Lawrence Cement Co. plant and identifying nine areas where the cement facility's potential impact had not been properly assessed.
On December 7, 2001, DEC Administrative Law Judge Helene Goldberger handed down her decision regarding party status and issues for adjudication. The Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition was one of only four groups to be granted full party status, and the significant issues raised by the coalition will be addressed during the DEC's adjudicatory hearing.
The coalition's nine issues of adjudication are: |
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Visual and Aesthetic Impacts
SLC's proposed facility will be a 40-acre industrial city with
skyscraper-sized buildings towering over a 1200-acre open pit mine. At 40 stories, the tallest structure will be a visible plume, often reaching more than six miles long. This SLC plant will be a hideous new landmark in a region whose legendary scenery has been immortalized in the painting of the Hudson River School. |
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Community Character and Neighborhood Issues
The SLC site abuts historic Hudson, Greenport and Claverack. Surrounded by a largely agrarian landscape, these picturesque municipalities' building-scale and land-use patterns have remained much the same for centuries. Long a cultural center, the area is enjoying a renaissance. The past decade has seen slow but sustainable economic growth as artists, artisans, antique dealers and other business owners, as well as tourists and second-home owners, have been drawn to the region's high quality of life and
remarkable historic structures. Many property and business owners have indicated that they will leave the area if SLC's cement facilities are built. While there is a long history of industry in the region, the proposed SLC monolith - larger than the City of Hudson itself and one of the largest of its kind in the nation - bears no relationship to the small-scale, low-impact industries of the past. Without a doubt, the SLC project will have substantial adverse impacts on existing community character, including land use, economic base, historic preservation and waterfront revitalization. |
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Health Impacts from PM 2.5
The Environmental Protection Agency recently determined that PM 2.5 (fine particulates in stack emissions, diesel fumes, and fugitive dust) causes significant human health hazards, including increased risk of asthma, lung cancer and heart attacks. The young and elderly are particularly vulnerable, and there is a school and the only hospital in Columbia County within 1.5 miles of the SLC site. Although EPA regulations regarding PM 2.5 have not yet been finalized, the coalition believes that these fine
particulates cause serious risks and must be addressed in the DEC's adjudicatory hearing. |
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Impacts to Historic Resources
The massive SLC facilities will be a blight on the Hudson Valley, a region that has been named a National Heritage Area and an American Heritage River for its awe-inspiring scenic and historic richness. The area abounds with National Historic Landmarks (NHLs), the crown jewels of American heritage. Three NHLs - Olana, Cedar Grove (the home of Thomas Cole) and the Hudson River National Historic Landmark District - as well as the Plumb-Bronson House, recently nominated by the state for NHL status, are within but a few miles of the SLC site. Literally thousands of National Register listed and eligible sites and districts lie in the same area. The historic context of these priceless treasures will be forever and horribly altered if the proposed cement facilities are built. |
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Air Pollution Impacts on Historic Resources
Caustic sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions from SLC's coal-fired plant will wreak havoc on the many historic surfaces and materials in the region, including the glorious stone and painted wood structure that is Frederic Church's Olana, a National Historic Landmark. |
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Noise Impacts
SLC's non-stop, 24-hour operations - blasting, mining, crushing, and transport - is expected to exceed acceptable ambient noise levels throughout the neighboring communities. |
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Impacts From Blasting
In mining three million tons of limestone each year, SLC will be blasting up to two times per week, but their DEIS fails to provide sufficient information to assess the impacts that blasting (and the resultant significant vibrations) will have on community character, public safety and historic resources. |
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Impacts to Fish Habitats
SLC is proposing a major expansion of a seldom-used dock on Hudson's waterfront to accommodate 800-foot HudsonMax vessels and to store often-toxic raw materials like fly ash. Neither the DEIS or Joint Permit Application contain a proper fish survey, the only way to gauge the impact this would have on fish habitats, including that of the endangered shortnose sturgeon. |
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Traffic Impacts
The traffic impact study in SLC's DEIS fails to use New York State's own Department of Transportation guidelines or include any accident data in its model. As a result, traffic impacts of this facility, which will result in 120 trips made every day by 25-ton diesel-fueled trucks through the historic streets and rural roads of Hudson, Claverack and Greenport, have not yet been fully reported.
For more information, please contact Scenic Hudson Director of Environmental Quality Alix Gerosa at (845) 473-4440, ext. 226, or e-mail agerosa@scenichudson.org |
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| The proposed 1,800-acre cement complex will include a 40-story stack with a plume often reaching six miles long. |
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