This was a letter to the journal news:
http://www.lohud.com/article/20101208/OPINION/12080312/Raising-a-stink-over-river-dumps
I am the executive director of an environmental education center located in downtown Yonkers with a two-acre park, beach and restored marsh on the Hudson River. This is the third time the Department of Environmental Conservation has given Westchester County the approval to dump millions of gallons of semi-treated sewage waste into the Hudson in the past two years. We still have kids in waders in the Hudson River participating in seining classes, right next door to the pumping station that dumps this waste into the river. We never get any advance notification that they are going to dump these million gallons of semi-treated waste, about 100 yards in front of our restored area and where we have classes of children in the water. They usually do this in the middle of the night. Twice we have had to cancel classes at the last minute because we were not given prior notice of dumping.
The DEC always gives approval, but says it is the county's responsibility to warn people. The county spokespeople always say it is an emergency and didn't have adequate time. Each time they said they would do a better job of informing the public. For them to say beaches are closed and boaters are not usually on the river this time of the year is an absolute idiotic way of logically justifying what the county does once or twice every year. Let people know in advance or develop a better system of communicating with the public.
Cliff Schneider
http://www.lohud.com/article/20101208/OPINION/12080312/Raising-a-stink-over-river-dumps
I am the executive director of an environmental education center located in downtown Yonkers with a two-acre park, beach and restored marsh on the Hudson River. This is the third time the Department of Environmental Conservation has given Westchester County the approval to dump millions of gallons of semi-treated sewage waste into the Hudson in the past two years. We still have kids in waders in the Hudson River participating in seining classes, right next door to the pumping station that dumps this waste into the river. We never get any advance notification that they are going to dump these million gallons of semi-treated waste, about 100 yards in front of our restored area and where we have classes of children in the water. They usually do this in the middle of the night. Twice we have had to cancel classes at the last minute because we were not given prior notice of dumping.
The DEC always gives approval, but says it is the county's responsibility to warn people. The county spokespeople always say it is an emergency and didn't have adequate time. Each time they said they would do a better job of informing the public. For them to say beaches are closed and boaters are not usually on the river this time of the year is an absolute idiotic way of logically justifying what the county does once or twice every year. Let people know in advance or develop a better system of communicating with the public.
Cliff Schneider
