Dear Mr. Wemple and members of the Guilderland Conservation Advisory Council,

Thank you very much for allowing Karen White and I to attend the site visit for 10 New Karner Road on April 17, 2021. Save the Pine Bush re-iterates that we oppose any construction on the site.  Though the proposed building site has been clear-cut, there is no question that the land is part of the Pine Bush ecosystem and could be restored to typical Pine Bush vegetation.

A number of the members of the Guilderland Conservation Advisory Council, Karen White, and I went to the edge of the ravine behind the proposed 10A site.  We could clearly see a lot of dumping that included discarded pieces of wood, a discarded cart, wooden pallets, a pile of concrete, logs, brush, straw, fencing, discarded wooden boards, and all kinds of trash flowed down the sides of the ravine.

Mr. Hershberg was asked about the dumped trash.  He said that because the site was open to the public, that people can access the site in the middle of the night and dump trash, that the owner has no control over people dumping. This is a complete mischaracterization of the dumping situation, as we discovered a few minutes later.

After most members of the GCAC had left, Karen White and two members of GCAC saw a man drive up in a blue truck.  He proceeded to back up the truck to the ravine, and he and his companion threw brush and other stuff down the ravine.  I began to film his dumping with my mobile phone.  At that point, the man shouted at me that he had permission to dump there.  I am sure he did have permission to dump, because it was around noontime on a Saturday and he was dumping in broad daylight in front of a group of people.

After everyone had left, I got in my car and began checking my phone for messages.  My car was parked facing the ravine.  In a few minutes, a dump truck with an attached trailer backed up to the ravine, and dumped the contents of the trailer.  The driver then parked the trailer on Site 10B New Karner Road between the other vehicles parked on the property.  At that point, the driver disconnected the trailer and drove his dump truck back to the ravine, and dumped the contents of the dump truck down the ravine.

Clearly, the owner of the property allows people to dump trash down the ravine.  Does he have a permit to operate a dump?  How can we be assured that no toxic substances are dumped there that would affect the Kaikout Kill?  How does the dumping affect the stream?  Is it legal to operate a dump so close to where people live and work?

In addition, Karen White and I saw five barrels behind the strip mall.  These barrels had clearly been there a very long time (we could see the rust).  They were marked saying “Non Hazardous Waste.”  There used to be a dry cleaner in the strip mall, are the barrels from the dry cleaner? What is in these barrels and where did they come from?

Sincerely,

Lynne Jackson
For Save the Pine Bush

Learn more about proposed development at 10 New Karner Road.

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