ADIRONDACK LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
& PARK AGENCY EARN HIGH MARKS,NYS LEGISLATURE RATED LOWEST,
IN 2004 STATE OF THE PARK REPORT
In Adirondack Council's Report Card on Local, State, Federal
Government Officials Sen. Schumer, NYSAG Spitzer, Gov. Pataki,
Reps. McHugh & Sweeney Garner Praise
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
518-432-1770 (w)
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released, Thursday, October 21,
2004
ELIZABETHTOWN, NY - Local government
leaders received their highest rating in 19 years from the Adirondack
Council's annual State of the Park Report, which was released
today. The NYS Legislature earned the lowest marks in the 20-page,
illustrated report.
State of the Park 2004 details how the actions of local, state
and federal leaders helped or harmed the Adirondack Park in the
past 12 months. The Adirondack Council is a non-partisan, independent
not-for-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. The Council
doesn't accept government grants or any taxpayer-funded support.
In all, local government leaders earned 11 favorable ratings
(represented in the report by a "thumbs up"), and only
2 unfavorable rating (thumbs down).
"Protecting the quality of drinking water, as well as the
Park's vast network of lakes and streams, emerged as a real priority
for local governments all over the Park this year," said
Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian L. Houseal. "Local
leaders assisted in the push for a Constitutional Amendment that
would secure safe drinking water supplies for communities hemmed
in by the Forest Preserve. They took action to control road salt
contamination. They upgraded sewage systems and took stands against
erosion. Local governments also worked hand-in-hand with the
Adirondack Council to resist a plan to build a fake pine tree
cell tower (a.k.a. Frankenpine) on the slopes above eastern Lake
George."
"On the other hand, we have the State Legislature, which
managed to earn its lowest grades in the 19-year history of this
report," Houseal said. "It is the first time the Legislature
earned an overall negative rating, with only two positive ratings
and 4 negative ones. Individually, the Senate and Assembly had
good marks, with Assembly showing the most improvement over last
year. But both houses failed to come together on important matters.
The overall effect was negative for the Park's ecology and wild
character.
"For example, each house passed its own version of a Constitutional
Amendment designed to solve a drinking water crisis in the Park,"
Houseal explained. "The result was - so far - no action
being taken at all. The Legislature has until December to reverse
this negative rating. After that, the rules concerning the adoption
of Constitutional Amendments will prevent an official solution
for another two to three years.
"In addition, the Legislature failed to take action on the
need to control road salt, the need to inspect and repair or
replace leaking septic systems or on the need to ban all-terrain
vehicles from the Forest Preserve," Houseal said. "Both
houses did, however, manage to pass a property tax-relief plan
for the Adirondacks and prevented the Governor from using the
Environmental Protection Fund for inappropriate, day-to-day expenses."
Others who received high ratings from the report include:
Gov. George E. Pataki (6 thumbs up, 2 thumbs down), who landed
the largest conservation deal in state history in partnership
with International Paper Co. and the Conservation Fund.
US Senator Charles Schumer (2 thumbs up), who bucked partisan
politics on acid rain and secured vital funding for expansion
of the High Peaks Wilderness.
NYSAG Eliot Spitzer (3 thumbs up, 1 thumb down), who again
proved his interest in clean air by pressing important lawsuits.
Spitzer's only "thumb down" rating in two years was
partially erased when he issued a favorable opinion of a Constitutional
Amendment for drinking water (the report was printed before the
AG issued his opinion in October).
US Reps John Sweeney, R-Clifton Park, and John McHugh,
R-Pierrepont Manor (2 thumbs up), who pressed for new federal
legislation to control acid rain, and whose bill became a prototype
for the proposed Clean Air Interstate Rule.
The following is a summary
of each section of State of the Park 2004.
Governor Pataki, 6 thumbs, 2 thumbs down. Thumbs up for:
arranging the largest land conservation deal in state history;
agreeing in May to prevent the construction of new emergency
radio towers on Forest Preserve or in pristine locations in the
Adirondacks when the state constructs a wireless emergency radio
network; a $3.3 million-dollar reimbursement plan for local governments
in the Adirondack and Catskill Parks that lose money when the
state grants property tax abatements to timber companies and
other major landowners; his fine choice in August of Leilani
C. Ulrich of Old Forge to fill a long-standing vacancy on the
Adirondack Park Agency's board of commissioners; another fine
choice in appointing former Adirondack Park Agency Chairman Richard
Lefebvre as Executive Director of the Hudson River/Black River
Regulating District; and, his solution to the 2003 snowmobile
insurance crisis that closed most of the state's public and private
trails. Thumbs down for: Using the Environmental Protection
Fund to pay for a controversial new snowmobile trail in St. Lawrence
County and then announcing the grant during Passover/Good Friday
week 2004 when many reporters were on vacation; and, once again,
the governor proposed adding $25 million in day-to-day expenses
to the list of obligations to be paid for out of the EPF, which
is reserved solely for capital projects.
Legislature, Both Houses, 2 thumbs up, 4 thumbs down. Thumbs
up for: agreeing in August to begin reimbursing local governments
that have lost money due to state-ordered timberland tax abatements;
rejecting the Governor's poorly conceived proposal to shift General
Fund spending into the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF). Thumbs
down for: failing to reach agreement on a Constitutional
Amendment to avert a legal showdown over the best way to provide
clean drinking water to the hamlet of Raquette Lake, in the Town
of Long Lake, Hamilton County; refusing to overhaul the state's
antiquated regulations concerning septic systems; failing to
reach agreement on a bill to reduce the ecological damage caused
by excessive road salt; failing to pass legislation that would
eliminate all-terrain vehicles (ATV's) entirely from the Adirondack
Forest Preserve.
Legislature, Senate, 2 thumbs
up, 1 thumb down. Thumbs up for: Sen.
Elizabeth O. Little, R-Queensbury, who gained passage of a bill
she sponsored that would allow additional towns in the Adirondacks
to become eligible for state waterfront funding; and, Senator
Little's bill that would remove a financial burden from towns
in the Adirondack Park by lifting a requirement that they reimburse
the State for a portion of the cost of fighting forest fires
that occur on State land within their boundaries. Thumbs down
for: not passing a bill to ban the open burning of trash.
Legislature, Assembly, 7 thumbs
up, 2 thumbs down. Thumbs up for:
Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Tom DiNapoli, D-Great
Neck, who amended his bill on septic systems to require inspections
at the time of transfer, rather than ordering unworkable periodic
inspections of all systems; Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, D-Rochester,
who introduced new legislation that would require the Office
of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation to conduct a
thorough survey of the Park's snowmobile trails; Assemblyman
Alexander (Pete) Grannis, D- Manhattan, who sponsored a bill
that would require New York power plants to reduce their emissions
of toxic mercury; former Environmental Conservation Committee
Chair Richard Brodsky, D-Westchester, who proposed legislation
that would reduce power plant emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur
dioxide, mercury and carbon dioxide; Assemblyman DiNapoli, who
led a bill through his house that would establish an effective
"cap-and-trade" system for the reduction of carbon
dioxide emissions; Assemblyman Grannis, who persuaded his house
to pass a bill that would limit light pollution; and, Assemblyman
DiNapoli, for legislation that passed the Assembly, which would
require public boat launch sites around the state to teach boaters
how to avoid transporting invasive species in and out of water
bodies. Thumbs down for: ignoring a Senate bill that would
limit the potential liability for private landowners who allow
public recreational access to their property; and, for failing
to consider a bill by Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward, R-Willsboro,
which would allow more Adirondack communities to qualify for
Local Waterfront Revitalization Program grants.
Local Governments, 11 thumbs
up, 2 thumbs down. Thumbs up for: Adirondack Town Supervisors such as Joseph Kelly
of Minerva, Noel Merrihew of Elizabethtown, Gregg Wallace of
Long Lake, J.R. Risley of Inlet and the Essex County Board of
Supervisors who supported a proposed Constitutional Amendment
that would provide new drinking water supplies to Park communities
that need them; Keene Town Supervisor Tom Both, who went out
of his way to locate a new municipal water supply on non-Forest
Preserve lands, although the town is hemmed in on all sides by
state lands; and, the Fort Ann Town Board, which rejected a plan
by Nextel Partners to build a "Frankenpine" (a brown
and green cell tower disguised as a pine tree) on world-famous
Pilot Knob; while the Wanakena Water Company's actions in the
Five Ponds Wilderness has left many wondering about their legality,
the Town of Fine acted responsibly in moving ahead with a concurrent
upgrade to the community's sewage system, by doing the work when
the excavation for water lines is already underway; the Corinth
Town Board, which in June voted to reject a plan to create a
waste-to-energy trash incinerator on the site of the vacant International
Paper mill on the shore of the Hudson River; the towns of Benson
in Fulton County, Inlet in Herkimer County, Clare in St. Lawrence
County and Brighton in Franklin, all of which are constructing
new road salt storage facilities. Salt sheds prevent sodium and
chlorine from killing adjacent vegetation and from seeping into
underground water, where it can contaminate drinking supplies;
Fulton County Planning Board Vice Chairman Mike Lewy, who told
reporters in May that approving a request to rezone nearly 78
acres near the Village of Northville so it could be more easily
developed, would erode the character of the Adirondack Park;
a little constructive conflict between Wilmington Town Supervisor
Jeanne Ashworth and Lake Placid Mayor Robi Politi in 2003, which
resulted in a $14 million-dollar upgrade to the sewage treatment
system, plus another $1 million for ultra-violet disinfection
equipment, which began operating in June; the Town of Chester,
which worked with the Adirondack Park Agency to complete a set
of changes to the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan
that better fits the town's own development plans; the Lewis
County Sheriff's Department, which issued dozens of tickets to
snowmobilers for infractions including driving on closed roads,
reckless driving, operating vehicles while intoxicated and operating
unregistered vehicles; Franklin County town of Altamont officials,
who went through the formal process of changing the town's name
to Tupper Lake to make it easier to share services. Thumbs
down for: Saratoga County officials, who insisted upon moving
ahead with an ill-conceived plan to site emergency radio towers
on pristine mountaintops above the Great Sacandaga Lake; leaders
from the Tri-Lakes area of Essex and Franklin counties, who began
a public discussion of breaking away and forming their own Adirondack
County.
Attorney General Spitzer,
4 thumbs up, 1 thumb down (modified to ½ thumb down on
Oct. 14). Thumbs up for: legal
action in late May against a Pennsylvania power company, accusing
it of emitting air pollution that drifts across state lines,
producing smog and acid rain; leading a group of attorneys general
from eight states and the city of New York in filing a lawsuit
against five major U.S. power companies, demanding cuts in carbon-dioxide
emissions; leading a group of US Senators and attorneys general
from the Northeast, who called for an investigation into a policy
change by the US Environmental Protection Agency that lawyers
at the agency said would lead it to drop investigations of 50
power plants for Clean Air Act violations; lodging a formal objection,
along with 10 other states, to a new set of proposed federal
mercury pollution reduction rules. Spitzer asserted that the
rules don't cut emissions deep enough or fast enough. Thumbs
down for: The report gives Spitzer a single "thumbs
down" for ignoring pleas from the Adirondack Council and
others to help resolve Constitutional disputes in the Park. In
the first instance, he ignored a request from the Adirondack
Council to protect the NYS Constitution's "Forever Wild"
clause by intervening in the Adirondack Park Agency's permit
approval process for a private water company in Wanakena. This
dispute remains unresolved. In the second case, the Council criticizes
the Attorney General for not issuing an opinion on the merits
of a Constitutional Amendment that would have provided a legal
means for Adirondack communities to sort out their water shortages.
On Oct. 14, after this report was printed, Spitzer issued an
opinion stating that the amendment, as passed by the Senate,
would not conflict with any other section of the Constitution.
Adirondack Park Agency, 6
thumbs up, one thumb down. Thumbs up for: requiring a formal adjudicatory hearing to decide
the fate of a "Frankenpine" (cell tower disguised as
a pine tree) proposed by communications industry giant Nextel
for a knoll on Pilot Knob, overlooking the eastern shore of Lake
George; issuing a cease-and-desist order, requiring Canadian
Pacific Rail Road to stop building four, 150-foot-tall radio
towers along its tracks on the eastern edge of the Park; rejecting
a plan by a Dolgeville resident to reclassify a 77.6-acre parcel
of land along State Route 30 near Northville, in northern Fulton
County, so it could be developed for new housing; approving a
request from the Dept. of Environmental Conservation to eliminate
all-terrain vehicle access from four Wild Forest areas of the
western Adirondack Park; refusing to knuckle under to threats
and intimidation from Saratoga County officials and local fire/rescue
workers who want to construct three ridge-top communications
towers around the Great Sacandaga Lake; and, warning the Department
of Environmental Conservation that approving an Olympic Regional
Development Authority plan to build rental cabins on the slope
of Whiteface Mountain Ski Center because of a potential Constitutional
conflict. Thumbs down for: removing Wilderness protections
from a mile-long section of the Five Ponds Wilderness Area to
facilitate the construction of new water lines and tapping of
wells on the Forest Preserve.
Department of Environmental Conservation, 4 thumbs up, 3 thumbs
down. Thumbs up for: ordering the removal of all-terrain
vehicle access from four Wild Forest Areas of the Adirondack
Forest Preserve in July; appealing a recent court decision that
struck down a new acid rain program, while reenacting the same
regulations; convening the first meeting of the new Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative in May, bringing together stakeholders
from 11 Northeastern states to design a program to reduce carbon-dioxide
emissions. The group wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from Maine to Maryland by 2025 to a level 10 percent below 1990
levels; Commissioner Erin Crotty, who rejected an Olympic Regional
Development Authority plan to build rental cabins on Whiteface
Mountain Ski Center; ordering a study of loon migration habits
to help improve their survival rates. Thumbs down for:
releasing a draft snowmobile plan for the Adirondack Park at
6 p.m., one day prior to Christmas Eve 2003, hoping that the
media and environmentalists had already left on vacation; granting
the Town of Long Lake emergency authority to tap into underground
water supplies on the Moose River Plains Wild Forest, although
the NYS Constitution grants the DEC no such authority; planning
to poison the fish in Polliwog Pond and replace them with native
brook trout, despite the fact that the pond is contaminated with
acid rain-related organic mercury, effectively luring people
to a place where eating the fish would make them sick.
Courts, 2 thumbs up, 0 thumbs down. Thumbs up for: the
NYS Supreme Court Appellate Division's Fourth Department, which
reversed an earlier ruling against the Adirondack Park Agency
by reinforcing the APA's jurisdiction over roads and driveways
through wetlands; and, State Supreme Court Justice Leslie Stein,
for affirming that DEC had full legal authority to impose tougher
acid rain regulations.
Federal Government, 5 thumbs
up, four thumbs down. Thumbs up for: the US Environmental Protection Agency, which salvaged
the Bush Administration's plan to place new controls on acid
rain, after Congress was unable to even clear enough room on
its 2003 calendar to consider proposed clean air legislation;
US Senator Charles Schumer, who stood up to unfair criticism,
which was leveled at him because his support of the proposed
Clean Air Interstate Rule; Adirondack Congressmen John McHugh
and John Sweeney, who encouraged the Bush Administration to enact
the Clean Air Interstate Rule as quickly as possible; Sens. Schumer
and Hillary Clinton, Congressmen McHugh and Sweeney and President
George W. Bush, who all urged Congressional budget committees
this year to provide money to New York State to expand the High
Peaks Wilderness Area; US Rep. Sweeney, who managed to secure
more than $6 million in federal clean water grants for the Village
of Lake Placid, which used the money to construct a state-of-the-art
sewage treatment system. Thumbs down for: Congressional
leaders in both houses, who failed to pass any acid rain legislation
again this year; the US Senate for defeating a bill proposed
by Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Connecticut,
that would have created the first federal standards for the control
of greenhouse gases that cause global climate change; and, the
US Environmental Protection Agency, which has been slow to prosecute
the owners of power companies that stand accused of violating
the Clean Air Act's new source review provision.
Other Agencies, 1 thumb up,
2 thumbs down. Thumbs up for:
the NYS Public Service Commission for developing a Retail Renewable
Resources Portfolio Standard, which requires the state to purchase
24 percent of its energy from providers who use wind, solar,
hydro, fuels cells and sustainably harvested wood, by 2013. Thumbs
down for: the Olympic Regional Development Authority for
proposing an unconstitutional plan to the Adirondack Park Agency
in May to build a series of exclusive rental cabins on the slopes
of the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center in Wilmington; the NYS Department
of Transportation for disregarding the impact on the Adirondack
Park when it provided grant money to Canadian Pacific Rail Road
for the construction of four, 150-foot-tall, steel lattice-style
radio towers on the rail line between Dresden and Port Kent,
near Lake Champlain.
Other highlights of the report
include:
- The 2004 Conservationist of
the Year Award, as well as other awards presented at gatherings
on Lake Champlain and overlooking the East River in Manhattan;
- The Tip of the Hat section,
where the Council recognizes other organizations, advocates and
corporations that have made substantial contributions to the
Park protection effort;
- Conservation articles on the
survival of wolves, and the unique, new water studies undertaken
at Paul Smith's College.
- A mini-catalog of "Forever
Wild" merchandise bearing the Adirondack Council's logo,
sales of which help support the organization's mission.
Click here
to view the complete copy of State of the Park 2004.
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