In February 1999, noted book author and national columnist Edward M. Gomez published this letter-to-the editor, recounting his experience at a public hearing about the Americlean toxic waste project. First, some background may be in order...
The Americlean project would have trucked highly carcinogenic perchloroethylene, a dry cleaning waste, from all over the Northeast, to a neglected structure in the South Bay—a former glue factory which was later dubbed “The Basilica.” The fly-by-night Canadian company would have been given $600,000 in Cuomo-era HUD grants to do this, supposedly “recycling” the perc with a supposedly patent-pending process.
Public officials including the Columbia-Hudson Partnership and Mayor Rick Scalera initially tried to hide (or else later professed ignorance of) the real nature of the project, which was presented as a benign factory which would just make coat hangers and polybags for the dry cleaning industry. But citizens dug up the company’s real goals through independent research, and demanded that the company send a representative to Hudson to explain themselves.
Backed into a corner by better-informed citizens—and firmly reminded a hasty promise to bring someone from the company to town before handing over the $600K—Scalera reluctantly agreed to a hearing. Not expecting more than a handful of “usual suspects” to attend, the Mayor scheduled the meeting for the largest auditorium in town (at the high school) hoping the audience would look small and isolated.
Instead, the hall was packed to the rafters with citizens from all walks of life—from a lifelong resident running a day care center near the path of the waste, to a prison employee who wanted to support the project, but was treated with disdain by the company rep. Citizens posed pointed, well-researched questions, and brought a toxicologist to testify to the dangers of perc.
Albany TV cameras and radio reporters were there to document the woefully unprepared and evasive answers of Americlean rep, Brett Walker, who seemed to have spent more time getting his hair cut and picking out a fancy suit than prepping for the meeting. Among other things, Walker “couldn't remember” where the company’s supposed “pilot plant” to test their miracle technology was located.
But Rick Scalera wasn’t embarrassed by Walker’s fumbling performance. Instead, he declared himself to have “never been so embarrassed” by the citizens who, once the company slunk away, had spared the town from a expensive debacle.
But don’t take it from me, take it from Edward. His firsthand reaction shortly after the hearing (and before the citizen victory several months later) follows below.
DEMOCRACY—WHAT A CONCEPT!
Chemical and political pollution in our midst.
by Edward M. Gomez
The stench of corruption and old-guard cronyism in our town’s politics and among its elected leaders is as foul as any toxic chemicals the notorious Americlean company may release into the air we all breathe if it is allowed to set up shop here.
But the good news is that a refreshing breeze is blowing through our town and through Columbia County—it’s the fresh air of people power, of good, hard-working, upstanding folks from all walks of life standing up to the corrupt political machine to say: “No! We won't let you steamroll another one of your dubious schemes through the system that you have for so long manipulated to your advantage, bypassing the public and ripping us off.”
At Thursday night’s town meeting at Hudson High School, at which a public relations representative of Americlean, invited by Hudson's mayor and his cronies, answered local residents’ questions, we saw an exciting revelation of the power of a thoughtful, inquiring, conscientious citizenry to seek out and demand the truth.
What we learned was that this toxic-waste company has no firm financial standing or bank funding for its proposed Hudson factory, no complete pay plan worked out for its workers, incomplete research in many areas, and no environmental impact survey. Add to this its intention to avoid accommodating unionized workers and an unabashedly greedy eagerness to seize upon tax deferments and de facto direct funding through taxpayer dollars—our taxpayer dollars.
How alarmed the mayor and many Common Council members, as well as their tax-dollar-funded, unelected “consultant,” appeared at the town meeting by the vigorous display of citizen activism. One alderman and his sidekick, a well-known crony of the mayor's, huffed and puffed and stormed out in outrage because they couldn't stand to see their fellow citizens stand up and demand explanations about the discrepancies in the city government’s HUD application to benefit Americlean and about the tide of misinformation that has been coming our way.
Democracy—what a concept! It has always been terrifying to despots, to those who abuse the public trust for their own ends. Hudson's homemakers, high school students, merchants, nurses, homeowners, and residents of all stripes have had enough. We care about our families, neighbors, friends and homes, and don't want anymore pollution—chemical or political—in our midst.
