ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
URGES PUBLIC HEARING ON POWER AUTHORITY PLAN TO BUILD POWER LINE
THROUGH OLD GROWTH FOREST, WETLANDS
NYPA Plan Involves Needless Road through 97 Wetlands, Encourage
Snowmobile and ATV Trespass through Endangered Species Habitat
& Creates
Barrier Fence around Public Lands
For more information:
John F. Sheehan
518-432-1770 (ofc)
518-441-1340 (cell)
518-456-4512 (home)
Released: Tuesday, March 7, 2006
TUPPER LAKE, NY - The Adirondack
Park's largest environmental organization today called on the
Adirondack Park Agency to hold a formal public hearing on the
NY Power Authority's plan to build a new power line into this
village, citing environmental concerns with the route chosen
through 97 wetlands and a virgin white pine forest. Click
to view map of proposed route.
At the same time, a Tupper Lake
landowner, whose property would be bisected by the new 75-foot-wide,
right-of-way, has vowed to sue the Power Authority (NYPA) in
an attempt to redirect the path of construction.
"Tupper Lake has needed
a new power line for 30 years," said Adirondack Council
Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "There is only one
supply line coming into town. It can be easily knocked out when
a tree falls on it or ice pulls it down. We want to help. But
NYPA is acting like this is a crisis that just emerged last week,
and is rushing into a very bad decision on where the line should
be located. A public hearing would give everyone a chance to
explore alternatives to this proposed new road through some of
the state's most unique and endangered wildlife habitat. "I
hate to appear cynical about this, but this power line didn't
become a huge priority for NYPA until a 700-unit resort development
was proposed for Big Tupper Ski Center," Houseal noted.
"We support a new power line into Tupper. But we don't want
to create an environmental disaster just to accommodate the timetable
of an out-of-state mega-developer.
"We have a better suggestion.
Although the proposed power line would have to cross the Forest
Preserve to do so, we would prefer to see the line built tight
to the edge of State Route 56," Houseal explained. "For
a reasonable additional cost, this two-mile section could be
buried to prevent further weather-caused power outages. There
would be no need to cross wetlands, no need to degrade habitat
for the endangered spruce grouse and no need to cut down an ancient
white pine forest. Burying the line next to the road would allow
for a much narrower permanent clearing, in an already disturbed
area. This would eliminate the need to cut an additional 55 acres
of forest by eliminating the need for a permanent, new service
road."
Houseal said the Adirondack Council,
three other Adirondack environmental organizations, and the Department
of Environmental Conservation, had agreed to work together for
a Constitutional Amendment that would allow the power line to
cross the Forest Preserve along the roadside. The state highway
was originally constructed in 1882, 12 years before the creation
of the Forever Wild clause (Article 14, Section1), which prohibits
logging and development on public forests in the Adirondack Park.
An amendment allowing the power line, if pursued this legislative
session, could be on the statewide ballot by November 2007.
The power line would be operated
by National Grid, which will take over ownership from NYPA in
2012. NYPA will pay for the construction. National Grid will
have the power of eminent domain to seize private lands for the
route once an APA permit is issued.
"DEC told NYPA it needed
a Constitutional Amendment last spring," Houseal said. "We
can have a superior, constitutionally valid solution in place
by next fall, but NYPA has refused to even consider the option.
It insists that it is too costly and would take too much time.
But they are only measuring the cost in dollars and days. There
is much more at stake here. We urge APA to call an adjudicatory
hearing."
Describing potential harm from
the project, Houseal said: "At the south end of NYPA's proposed
detour into the woods is Sevey's Bog. The Environmental Impact
Statement claims, with no explanation, that there are no endangered
spruce grouse left there. That's odd. Our research indicates
that Sevey's Bog has one of the highest spruce grouse populations
in New York State. In addition, it is home to the rare black-backed
woodpecker and ruby-crowned kinglet. It is the only place in
the state where certain rare plants exist. To even suggest a
road through, or near it, should be unthinkable."
At the north end of the proposed
detour is the Crooked Lake tract, owned by a long-time, seasonal
Tupper Lake resident Wilbur Cowett. "I am prepared to go
to court to block this proposed route into the Crooked Lake property,"
Cowett noted.
"When I was first approached
by the Power Authority about the line, I was more than happy
to help," said Cowett, the managing partner of Kayem Partners,
which owns the Crooked Lake Property. "I own a camp in Tupper
Lake and I know the town needs the additional power. But I was
under the impression that they just wanted permission to route
the new line along the west side of State Highway 56.
"I was horrified when I
realized what they really proposed to do," said Cowett,
a retired senior partner of a former Wall Street investment banking
firm. "They intend to bring their right of way right up
to the edge of Crooked Lake, which will seriously affect a stand
of virgin white pine. This is one of the few private properties
in the entire Adirondack Park where virgin stands of white pine
can still be found. For generations, we have carefully kept and
protected Crooked Lake, each of the successive owners doing his
part.
"The Power Authority doesn't
need to do the kind of ecological damage this will cause,"
he continued. They are going miles out of their way, cutting
a 75-foot swath through the woods and straight through a portion
of Sevey's Bog. It is stupid."
Houseal noted that the plan to
detour the line around the Forest Preserve would prevent future
expansions of the Raquette-Boreal Wild Forest by creating a physical
barrier. The entire power line expansion is planned for an area
first identified by the Adirondack Council in 1988 as a rare,
185,000-acre low-elevation boreal forest. Such spruce and fir
forests are usually found only at mountaintops in New York, but
here are filled with rivers and wetlands. Both the DEC and The
Nature Conservancy have formal plans for protecting these lands
from roads and development. (For more information on the Low
Elevation Boreal Biome, peruse 2020 VISION
Volume I, Biological Diversity: Saving All the Pieces.)
The Adirondack Council's mission
is to ensure the ecological integrity and wild character of the
Adirondack Park. Founded in 1975, the Council is a privately
funded not-for-profit organization with 18,000 members in all
50 United States. The Council carries out its missions through
research, education, advocacy and legal action.
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