Rick Karlin is reporting for the Times Union Hudson Riverkeeper has announced its opposition to a proposed waste-to-fuel plant at the site of the former BASF chemical factory in Rensselaer. “There are significant environmental justice concerns in the area of the proposed project,” the environmental group said in a recent letter to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, citing the facility's proximity to the water and the industry that already exists in the city. Riverkeeper's letter noted that Rensselaer, with a population of 9,300 in a city of just 3.5 square miles, already has the S.A. Dunn facility, a major construction debris landfill, as well as a gas-fired power plant and an Amtrak train station and rail hub. “The combined effects of these form an overwhelming assault on the health and well-being of Rensselaer residents,” Riverkeeper wrote. The city is also the site of a state Superfund site where the BASF chemical plant used to be. It is on that site that BioHiTech wants to construct a 72,000-square-foot, $35 million facility that would convert waste products into fuel for operations like steel mills and cement plants. Riverkeeper and other groups, including the local Rensselaer Environmental Coalition, are joining county legislators in expressing concern that material being processed in the pits at BioHiTech could eventually seep into the Hudson River. Read the full story in the Times Union.