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Audio Feature: Hudson River stories
Sep 30, 2017 9:35 am
Here are some stories from the Hudson River this week. Click here to hear an audio version of this report. (4:52)
• The Stevens Institute reports temperatures this week in the Hudson River at Schodack Island have been between 72 and 77 degrees.
• Brian Mann for North Country Public Radio reports that in Warren County, the Saratoga North Creek Railroad is floating a plan to store industrial freight cars on a section of unused track in the Adirondack Park near the Hudson River. Hundreds of freight and tanker cars would reside in a wild and scenic stretch of the river, similar to a similar plan, shot down in 2015, from the railroad’s parent company Iowa Pacific. Then, they wanted to allow many Dot-111 oil tanker cars on a stretch of unused track they own near High Peaks Wilderness along the upper Hudson River. But criticism then stopped the plan. Now there's more criticism. "We don't think it's a good idea and we think it undermines much of what the Adirondack Park is all about," said Peter Bauer of the group Protect the Adirondacks. Justin Gonyo, the company’s local representative, claimed to a group of town supervisors recently that the site would not become a graveyard for unused freight and tanker cars because, "a leasing company... owns these cars and they don't want them just sitting around." But Iowa Pacific's word might not be good. Warren County treasurer Michael Swan told local officials that Iowa Pacific and the Saratoga North Creek Railroad still haven’t paid thousands of dollars in fees owed to the county. "The railroad, they still owe us some of the minimum payment for the last contract year and we haven't received anything from them for July and August," said Swan. Read the full story at the North Country Public Radio website.
• Riverkeeper reports Sept. 21, that New York's Department of Environmental Conservation finalized solid waste regulations known as the Part 360 series which includes the management of fracking waste. The group wants to completely ban fracking waste in the state. There statement listed five areas they are advocating for improvement in New York:
1) Close the loophole in state regulations that currently exempts oil and gas waste from ever being subjected to classification as hazardous.
2) Prohibit disposal of all oil and gas drilling, exploration, and production wastes in municipal solid waste, industrial, and construction and demolition landfills.
3) Prohibit disposal of leachate from landfills accepting oil and gas drilling, exploration, and production waste at Publicly Owned Treatment Works.
4) Prohibit application of liquid waste from oil and gas drilling and production sites on roads as a deicing and dust suppressant agent.
5) Re-classify drill cuttings as Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material to ensure their disposal in facilities equipped to handle the material.
• The Stevens Institute reports temperatures this week in the Hudson River at Schodack Island have been between 72 and 77 degrees.
• Brian Mann for North Country Public Radio reports that in Warren County, the Saratoga North Creek Railroad is floating a plan to store industrial freight cars on a section of unused track in the Adirondack Park near the Hudson River. Hundreds of freight and tanker cars would reside in a wild and scenic stretch of the river, similar to a similar plan, shot down in 2015, from the railroad’s parent company Iowa Pacific. Then, they wanted to allow many Dot-111 oil tanker cars on a stretch of unused track they own near High Peaks Wilderness along the upper Hudson River. But criticism then stopped the plan. Now there's more criticism. "We don't think it's a good idea and we think it undermines much of what the Adirondack Park is all about," said Peter Bauer of the group Protect the Adirondacks. Justin Gonyo, the company’s local representative, claimed to a group of town supervisors recently that the site would not become a graveyard for unused freight and tanker cars because, "a leasing company... owns these cars and they don't want them just sitting around." But Iowa Pacific's word might not be good. Warren County treasurer Michael Swan told local officials that Iowa Pacific and the Saratoga North Creek Railroad still haven’t paid thousands of dollars in fees owed to the county. "The railroad, they still owe us some of the minimum payment for the last contract year and we haven't received anything from them for July and August," said Swan. Read the full story at the North Country Public Radio website.
• Riverkeeper reports Sept. 21, that New York's Department of Environmental Conservation finalized solid waste regulations known as the Part 360 series which includes the management of fracking waste. The group wants to completely ban fracking waste in the state. There statement listed five areas they are advocating for improvement in New York:
1) Close the loophole in state regulations that currently exempts oil and gas waste from ever being subjected to classification as hazardous.
2) Prohibit disposal of all oil and gas drilling, exploration, and production wastes in municipal solid waste, industrial, and construction and demolition landfills.
3) Prohibit disposal of leachate from landfills accepting oil and gas drilling, exploration, and production waste at Publicly Owned Treatment Works.
4) Prohibit application of liquid waste from oil and gas drilling and production sites on roads as a deicing and dust suppressant agent.
5) Re-classify drill cuttings as Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material to ensure their disposal in facilities equipped to handle the material.