Save the Pine Bush

by Christine Kielb Tom Ellis and Christine Kielb of Stop Trucks Assaulting Rensselaer (STAR), a group of Rensselaer residents and their allies, are continuing their work fighting the tractor trailer truck traffic passing through city neighborhoods to and from the Dunn Construction and Demolition (C&D) landfill. This landfill operation, larger than the Colonie and Albany landfills combined, is expected to continue for many years, possibly until 2036, unless successfully challenged. The problem began in 2012 when the NYS Department of…

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by Chris Kielb Rensselaer residents and others are continuing their work fighting the tractor trailer truck traffic passing through residential neighborhoods to and from the Dunn Construction and Demolition landfill. Members of the group Stop Trucks Assaulting Rensselaer (STAR) recently met for a second time with the executive committee of the Hudson-Mohawk chapter of the Sierra Club. A summary of DEC documents obtained by STAR, including the permit, public hearing notes and annual reports, was presented. Also discussed was the…

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ALBANY, NY: On November 6, I attended a combined NYS DEC and NYS DOH community meeting about a study they did concerning the health of Albany South End residents. About fifty attended at the Albany Housing Authority office on South Pearl Street. The just-completed study looked at hospitalization rates of South End residents compared to (1) the county as a whole and (2) Arbor Hill/West Hill. The information was not very useful to South End and Ezra Prentice Homes (EPH)…

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by Chris Kielb and Tom Ellis Rensselaer and East Greenbush residents and their allies (Rensselaer Environmental Coalition, REC) continue to organize to block the proposed Bio HiTech municipal solid waste processing facility on the former BASF industrial site, south of Columbia Turnpike. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) sent now-departed Rensselaer Mayor Moody a memo late last year detailing the faulty methods the city used in fast-tracking their approval of the proposed BioHiTech plant and urging them to consider…

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RENSSELAER, NY: Until mid-March, when the coronavirus slowed organizing efforts, the Rensselaer Environmental Coalition (REC) continued making steady progress towards its goal of closing the Dunn construction and demolition debris landfill in Rensselaer. This 99-acre operation is located right next to the Rensselaer public school campus, and between Rensselaer and East Greenbush neighborhoods. In response to considerable community pressure, and perhaps to avoid holding a public hearing, the NYS departments of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Health (DOH), held an”availability session”…

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by Tom Ellis New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos responded to a March 4 Albany Times Union editorial with a letter to the editor ten days later. The editorial titled, “Weak fines, weak message,” strongly criticized the DEC’s “spotty record on cracking down on local environmental violations.” Specifically discussed were the Colonie Landfill, the Port of Coeymans, and the Dunn construction and demolition (C&D) debris landfill in Rensselaer. The editorial stated: “To be a useful compliance…

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by Tom Ellis RENSSELAER, NY: While participating in a ninety-minute January 16 meeting with four top NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) officials at their Albany office to discuss worsening problems with the Dunn Landfill at the east end of Partition Street in Rensselaer, I concluded some of DEC’s top brass must suffer from anosmia, an inability to smell. Residents from across Rensselaer and parts of East Greenbush described in excruciating detail the dump odors, that, over the past eighteen…

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by Christine Kielb Tom Ellis and Christine Kielb of Stop Trucks Assaulting Rensselaer (STAR), a group of Rensselaer residents and their allies, are continuing their work fighting the tractor trailer truck traffic passing through city neighborhoods to and from the Dunn Construction and Demolition (C&D) landfill. This landfill operation, larger than the Colonie and Albany landfills combined, is expected to continue for many years, possibly until 2036, unless successfully challenged. The problem began in 2012 when the NYS Department of…

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by Christine Kielb Each weekday, from 6:30 am to 4:00 pm, up to 100 large tractor trailer trucks (18-26 wheelers) arrive off the Dunn MemoriaI Bridge onto Broadway Street in the City of Rensselaer. These trucks travel north on Broadway, turn east onto Partition Street and proceed up and down its steep hills through residential neighborhoods to a Construction and Demolition (C&D) landfill situated at the top of the hill to the east of the city. These trucks come from…

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by Tom Ellis RENSSELAER, NY: The Covid-19 pandemic highlights a major problem with government in the USA, NYS, and locally.  Executive agencies employ vastly more people than legislatures despite the complaint that legislatures are bloated. Elected executives (presidents, governors, county executives) appoint commissioners and other top staff, often subject to approval by a legislative body, to lead executive agencies.  These appointed officials are thus directly answerable to the executive, who can fire them at any time. Lower ranking employees have…

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by Tom Ellis In the wake of the George Floyd murder, much has been said and written about how policing and public safety require major overhauls in the United States. The same applies to how the New York state government regulates environmental toxins. Human health and the environment are being poisoned with the support of the state environmental conservation (DEC) and health (DOH) departments. A major aspect of the problem is that the governor appoints top staff of both agencies….

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