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Audio Feature: Hudson River stories
Jul 14, 2017 9:33 am
Here are some stories from the Hudson River this week. Click here to hear an audio version of this report.
• The Stevens Institute reports temperatures this week in the Hudson River at Schodack Island have been between 72 and 77 degrees.
• The Albany Times Union is reporting The City of Troy municipal sewage system spilled more than six million gallons of untreated sewage into the Hudson River since late last month due to heavy rains, and the city of Albany dumped four million gallons at about the same time, they reported this week. But both cities were late in reporting the "combined sewer overflows" to the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the public. Since 2013, sewer system operators must report spills to the DEC within two hours, and to the public within four hours, but both cities were weeks late in this case. The DEC is currently working on a $136 million, 15-year plan to reduce the amount of combined sewer overflows in Albany, Troy, Cohoes, Watervliet, Rensselaer, and Green Island. Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.
• Amanda Purcell reported for Columbia-Greene Media the Hudson Common Council is moving ahead with a plan to have the Furgary shacks listed on the State and National Registry of Historic Places. Located in the city's North Bay off the Hudson River, and also known as “Shantytown” and “The Shacks," the site has been closed to the public and dormant for some time. Bill Krattinger, a regional representative with the National Register Unit of State Historic Preservation Office, told the mayor and council members last week the site is eligible for designation. The next step is to prepare documentation for the site, including an analysis of the 17 small hunting and fishing shacks on the property and to make value judgments about them, he said. Krattinger will go to the site with residents and city representatives to review the properties and help determine which of them can be salvaged. Read the full story at HudsonValley360.com.
• Leonard Sparks reports in the Times Herald-Record that while the U.S. Coast Guard announced last month a suspension of the its proposal to create 43 sites between Kingston and Yonkers where large barges and tugboats could anchor, the proposal is not dead. Instead, the Coast Guard is going to study a risk assessment of the river and its ports. The Coast Guard says the working group for the study will be 60 percent “waterway users” and 40 percent landlubbers. On July 10, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and other local officials and environmentalists spoke at the City of Newburgh’s waterfront to say they want the group to be 50/50 between waterway interests and locals. “We’re not taking our eyes off this for a second,” said Maloney. “We are not going to be hoodwinked, we are not going to be railroaded and we are not going to be left out of this process.”
• This week the City of Hudson Wastewater Treatment Facility had two-hour combined sewer overflow into the Hudson River July 12. On July 8 the Village of Catskill Wastewater Treatment Plant had a 30-minute release, spilling 50 gallons per minute, for around 1500 gallons. Catskill also had a two-and-a-half-hour release July 7, spilling 50 gallons per minute. Hudson also had a 12-hour spill July 7.
• The Stevens Institute reports temperatures this week in the Hudson River at Schodack Island have been between 72 and 77 degrees.
• The Albany Times Union is reporting The City of Troy municipal sewage system spilled more than six million gallons of untreated sewage into the Hudson River since late last month due to heavy rains, and the city of Albany dumped four million gallons at about the same time, they reported this week. But both cities were late in reporting the "combined sewer overflows" to the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the public. Since 2013, sewer system operators must report spills to the DEC within two hours, and to the public within four hours, but both cities were weeks late in this case. The DEC is currently working on a $136 million, 15-year plan to reduce the amount of combined sewer overflows in Albany, Troy, Cohoes, Watervliet, Rensselaer, and Green Island. Read the full story in the Albany Times Union.
• Amanda Purcell reported for Columbia-Greene Media the Hudson Common Council is moving ahead with a plan to have the Furgary shacks listed on the State and National Registry of Historic Places. Located in the city's North Bay off the Hudson River, and also known as “Shantytown” and “The Shacks," the site has been closed to the public and dormant for some time. Bill Krattinger, a regional representative with the National Register Unit of State Historic Preservation Office, told the mayor and council members last week the site is eligible for designation. The next step is to prepare documentation for the site, including an analysis of the 17 small hunting and fishing shacks on the property and to make value judgments about them, he said. Krattinger will go to the site with residents and city representatives to review the properties and help determine which of them can be salvaged. Read the full story at HudsonValley360.com.
• Leonard Sparks reports in the Times Herald-Record that while the U.S. Coast Guard announced last month a suspension of the its proposal to create 43 sites between Kingston and Yonkers where large barges and tugboats could anchor, the proposal is not dead. Instead, the Coast Guard is going to study a risk assessment of the river and its ports. The Coast Guard says the working group for the study will be 60 percent “waterway users” and 40 percent landlubbers. On July 10, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney and other local officials and environmentalists spoke at the City of Newburgh’s waterfront to say they want the group to be 50/50 between waterway interests and locals. “We’re not taking our eyes off this for a second,” said Maloney. “We are not going to be hoodwinked, we are not going to be railroaded and we are not going to be left out of this process.”
• This week the City of Hudson Wastewater Treatment Facility had two-hour combined sewer overflow into the Hudson River July 12. On July 8 the Village of Catskill Wastewater Treatment Plant had a 30-minute release, spilling 50 gallons per minute, for around 1500 gallons. Catskill also had a two-and-a-half-hour release July 7, spilling 50 gallons per minute. Hudson also had a 12-hour spill July 7.