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TCI made big political donations after fire

In the months following its August 2012 inferno, embattled PCB (mis-)handler TCI of NY made two $1,000 political donations, according to public records made available online by The New York State Board of Elections.

The first grand went to the County Republicans on September 5th, 2012, about a month after the fire. The second “large” was given to the County Conservatives in December.

A search of the Board’s electronic records turns up no other political donations by TCI for at least 10 years previous—suggesting a correlation between the fire and the sudden generosity.

An image of the records search appears below. (Local politics is all about the Clevelands, apparently.)

 

The Partnership’s Part

Olana has recently published Art Meets Art: Perspectives On and Beyond Olana, a collection of essays and images about the famous Church landscape. I was asked to contribute the following short piece about The Olana Partnership’s role in the nearly seven-year “stop the plant” battle against St. Lawrence Cement; my text appears below.

The new publication is available at the historic site’s bookshop, and also includes texts supplied by poet John Ashbery and TOP president Sara Griffen.

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Olana’s Role in the Cement Plant Battle

by Sam Pratt

“We are very concerned about the visual impacts on the Olana viewshed, and also about acid deposition from the plant's air emissions endangering its historic structures.” So said Margaret Davidson before an anxious throng of 1,000 attendees who packed a sweltering gymnasium on the campus of Columbia-Greene Community College on June 21st, 2001. 

That day marked the first major public hearing about the St. Lawrence Cement proposal for Hudson and Greenport. With Administrative Law Judge Helene Goldberger presiding, the hearing ran from 10 am until nearly 1 am the next day. The proceedings were punctuated by thunderstorms, both actual and metaphorical.

The comments of Davidson, like those of TOP president Sara Griffen and countless other Olana supporters, were prompted by a Swiss-owned company’s vast, coal-fired project, which centered around a forty-story smokestack and 1,400-acre mine, along with a sprawling waterfront barge facility. Citizen after citizen stepped forward to denounce the proposal, with Frederic Church’s home a constant theme of longtime Olana boosters such as Arthur Baker, Peter Jung, Ruth Piwonka, and many others.

A sign designed by illustrator (and Olana board member) R.O. Blechman for the Stop the Plant campaign

A key principle established during the nearly 7-year struggle was that this “250-acre landscape at the Center of the World” was intended to be experienced as a whole. Staff and experts argued successfully that Olana consists of much more than just its famous southwestern Hudson River view. After SLC claimed that Church never depicted the area where the main facility would be sited, Hudson resident Don Christensen identified sketches of Becraft Ridge in the Olana archives, proving the company wrong.

Davidson further noted that “the Olana Partnership is concerned that the plant and its plume would be a focal point in the viewshed on both the ridge road, the carriage trail closest to the house, and from Cozy Cottage, Church’s original family house,” which was only then beginning to be restored.

Like its two main allies in the fight, Friends of Hudson and the Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition, Olana likewise argued that there was a strong economic argument to be made against the plant. While the project would not create new jobs, due to the transfer of workers from another facility, it would have caused great harm to other economic engines in the area. 

When the project was finally turned down by Secretary of State Randy Daniels in April 2005, Griffen told The Independent’s Richard Roth that “the Hudson Valley’s aesthetics are important not just on historic but on economic grounds. They talk about places like Olana being strong economic drivers. In order to protect that, you have to protect the resources around it.... I hope [the cement plant ruling] can serve as a precedent for many other decisions around the country.”

 

County committee blasts TCI—then recs new regs to avert future disasters

But has the Board of Supervisors already buried its own advisors’ recommendations?

PHOTO: Lance Wheeler

 

At least one positive change might come of the disaster last summer at TCI of NY, whose PCB-handling facility burned to the ground almost one year ago... That is, if the Columbia County Board of Supervisors heeds the advice of its Environmental Management Council (EMC), rather than suppressing its recommendations.

Finding that TCI’s operators “showed disregard for the safety of plant workers, the community, and the environment,” the EMC issued a stiff memorandum to the Supervisors back on June 24th. Drawing lessons from the TCI incident, the memo recommends “strategies that Columbia County and municipalities could adopt to avert the recurrence of such an event,” including tough new rules for the management of hazardous waste in the entire County.

However, over a month later, the Board of Supervisors still has not made the recommendations public. This site now has obtained a copy of the letter, authored by chair Ed Simonsen, and apparently recommeneded unanimously by EMC members, and it can be downloaded as a PDF via this link.

Noting the lack of disclosure, reporting, and oversight of TCI’s operations leading up to the company’s inferno, the EMC concluded that “numerous Ghent residents, and residents from surrounding communities who volunteer to fight fires, were exposed to danger due to negligence.”

Furthermore, the Committee found that even as TCI conducted at least one unpermitted activity involving PCBs, “no effective oversight was provided by any level of government.” Noting also that TCI lacked “appropriate fire suppression... chemical or smoke detection systems,” the committee then proceeds to offer 10 common-sense recommendations, which are reproduced below in full:

1. Any proposed project which would produce or handle toxic or potentially toxic substances should be subjected to a rigorous SEQRA process. Detailed plans showing all processes and operations along with their approved methodologies should be reviewed by an independent environmental consulting firm and the results of the analysis reported to the reviewing board. Plans should also include the identification of safe handling and storage practices of all appurtenant chemicals used at the site. Towns abutting this use should be designated as interested parties. Regardless of location there should be a referral to the County Departments of Health, Safety, and the County Planning Board. 
2. Conditions of approval should include provisions for unannounced inspection of the facility by a qualified and or licensed chemical engineer.  Assuming a local oversight plan, persons providing this service should be required to have the requisite education, license or experience to adequately assess those substances and procedures being used/carried out at the site. These should be augmented by NYSDEC and USEPA inspections.
3. The cost of each inspection would be the responsibility of the plant operators in perpetuity. An escrow account funded by the business operator/owner to fund inspections should be created. 
4. Costs borne by local fire and rescue squads/ companies to equip themselves and train to address accidents at the site should be paid for by applicant/plant operator. 
5. Comprehensive, detailed records should be retained by the municipality and contain all board reviews and conditions of approval or rejection.  
6. If a project is approved by the community’s designated reviewing board, monthly reports should be required to be made by the owner/plant operator to the town board or its designee and should be available to the for the public to read, These reports would itemize and describe in detail and quantify all materials entering and leaving the plant. This would include all materials in trailers or other mobile devices. Copies would be forwarded to the local Fire Company and Town Board.  The project operators shall also maintain off site material records which are held by an independent party. 
7. Consideration should follow a risk analysis to determine benefits and potential detriments of a proposal which deals with hazardous substances.  Communities may wish to exclude or deem incompatible some uses.  Short of prohibiting a given use, the community should establish a “Zone of Vulnerability” which delineates minimum separation distances to schools, nursing homes, hospitals, or heavily populated areas.
8. The plant operators/owners shall not be permitted to sub-lease or sub-contract any portion or use of the site to any other entity without review and approval granting a special use permit.
9. Proper permits should be obtained and maintained with NYSDEC, USEPA, and OSHA.
10. A chain of custody for all chemicals and toxic substances entering and leaving the premises should be available to authorities upon request. 

Despite the apparent urgency and importance of these ten recommendations, the Board of Supervisors did not release the memo publicly, prompting Simonsen to re-submit it this Tuesday, this time to the County’s Government Committee. According to one EMC member, Stuyvesant Supervisor Ron Knott “pretty much questioned most of our observations and suggestions. He further suggested that the memo be sent to the County Attorney's office to determine if the contents of the memo were legal.” 

According to its mission statement, the EMC was created by the Board of Supervisors in 1974 in compliance with State Environmental Conservation Law Article 47, a/k/a the Local Environmental Protection Act.  Its stated purpose is “to advise local and state government, and where resources within the county are influenced, the federal government, on present and proposed methods of using, protecting, and conserving the environment for the benefit of all the people.” 

Methods of pursuing that mission include “research, recommendations, reports, plans, inventories, and public information and education,” thus placing the current memorandum well within its apparent powers and goals.

According to the memo, the EMC based its review upon “available reports,” in particular the February 2013 findings of the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control.

Amid heat wave, Hudson Dems experience total meltdown

Aaron Enfield

There appears to be a whole lot more to the story (reported by The Gossips of Rivertown and The Register-Star) of former Mayor Rick Scalera spurning the nomination of the the Hudson Democratic Committee, which he once chaired. Two well-informed Democratic sources offer and confirm the following nuggets, though at this point readers may want to view the following as credible rumor:

(1) Faced with criticism from several aldermen for continuing to support Scalera for 5th Ward
Supervisor, even as he embarrassed the Democrats, newly-minted Hudson City Democratic Committee (HCDC) chair Aaron Enfield reportedly resigned yesterday morning.

(2) Enfield’s name was on the Committee to Fill Vacancies for the now-emptied Democratic petitions for 5th Ward Supervisor. But if he refuses to help choose a replacement candidate, that would mean the other two members—said to be Sarah Sterling and Debby Mayer—would have to agree on a substitute, otherwise the Dems will have no 5th Ward Supervisor candidate. NOTE: The Register article claims that the three have already “decided against nominating anyone,” despite Scalera’s repudiation of his party.

(3) Sterling reportedly sent an irate message to several fellow Democrats, denouncing any notion of finding another Democrat to run against Scalera. The 1st Ward Supervisor also is said to have threatened to file some sort of “ethics complaint” against certain aldermen for attempting to “intimidate” the Democratic Committee. (If true, Sterling may want to consider the maxim that politics ain’t beanbag—and that trying to criminalize political speech is not only difficult, but a perilously slippery slope.)

(4) While spurning his own party’s nomination, Scalera may not get the Republican line that he now intends to run on, due to a reported petitioning error. This could leave no candidates on either of the two major party lines for 5th Ward Super, unless someone files Opportunity to Ballot (OTB) petitions in the next few days. OTB petitions would create a write-in primary in either party (or both) in September. Scalera does, however, appear to have the Conservative and Independence party lines sewn up, so he would be on the ballot—just not as a Democrat or Republican.

(5) Democratic Alderman Nick Haddad has been trying to locate former Hudson police chief Ellis Richardson to encourage him to have his name written in for 5th Ward Supervisor. Note that when OTBs are filed, anyone could then have their name volunteered by voters.

(6) On the Mayoral front, Democratic candidate Victor Mendolia reportedly would not have secured the HCDC nomination if even one Committee member had changed his or her vote. Had Enfield stepped off the committee before that vote, the Dems might not have nominated anyone for Mayor.

(7) Several prominent local Democrats have reached out to 1st Ward resident Robert (Bob) Mechling to serve as acting HCDC chair, but he has declined the role, at least for the present... Getting someone to fill the role now may prove difficult, since even before this latest mess, any new chair is going to need a high tolerance for mopping up other people’s puddles.

Indeed, there is still time for anyone to file paperwork to force a write-in primary for any office in the City. 

If anyone has further information to add, or disputes the source’s reports, feel free to email this site at [email protected] ...

Indifferent editorial confuses good and bad

The Columbia Paper editorialized last week that TCI of NY has “a good environmental track record.” Was the writer actually referring to the same company whose plant burned to the ground last summer?

Over the past 30 years, all three of TCI’s PCB-handling facilities in the region have suffered fires, explosions or both:

• TCI left Newburgh in 1985 after a major blaze caused the local fire chief to condemn the building and cite the company for code violations. That shut-down was preceded by many written complaints from neighbors about smoke and emissions.
• Moving briefly to the Industrial Tract in Greenport, TCI’s 1987 transformer explosion “rocked an area within a half-mile.”
• And as everyone knows, TCI had not one but two major fires in Ghent last year—the second of them truly disastrous. The building’s contents were incinerated in a colossal, uncontrolled, two-day burn.

Try that in your backyard, and see if you’re still considered a good neighbor.

Multiple explosions endangered the lives of firefighters, generated a massive plume, showered neighbors’ properties with oily pellets, and led to most Columbia County residents being told to spend the next day indoors.

And while the editorial calls TCI a “loyal employer,” the above series of calamities and dubious management have put company workers at risk:

• According to Newburgh news reports, the Attorney General found the company “violated the toxic substances law by not training the employees to handle [PCBs].”
• The aforementioned blast in Greenport tossed a worker 20 feet, sending him to the hospital with injuries.
• Most tragically, a young man needlessly asphyxiated to death while cleaning a tank with freon at TCI in Ghent.

Compounding such problems is TCI’s apparent habit of keeping host communities in the dark about its intentions and operations:

• In Newburgh, DEC “charged the firm with transporting regulated wastes without a permit.”
• TCI’s failed 1988 plan to add an incinerator initially bypassed Ghent officials, leading to a costly legal wrangle with the Town of Ghent and neighbors, which dragged on for years.
• TCI quietly filed another expansion plan with DEC and EPA last year, without notifying the Town of its intent to expand operations.
• TCI likewise did not notify the Town that it had invited in a second company, PSS, to treat PCBs in a manner not covered by its Ghent permits, leading to the 2012 inferno.
• TCI sued the Town to prevent it from exercising ordinary zoning and planning review. (A homeowner putting in a pool could expect more enforcement than TCI seems to tolerate.)

Meanwhile, though the Columbia Paper writes of “lost tax revenue” from TCI’s possible departure, the editorialist may not realize that this multimillion-dollar company paid less than $5,000 in Town, County and fire taxes in 2012.

A local fire company had to request a $10,000 budgetary increase to help cover expenses from responding to the TCI fire, making their presence a net loss for Ghent.

One gets the sense that the editorialist was striving so hard to appear balanced, that common sense fell off the beam. If TCI’s corporate history constituted a “good” track record, what would be a bad one?

 

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NOTE: The above was submitted as a letter-to-the-editor this past weekend... Let’s see if The Columbia Paper prints it.

Sportsmen celebrate 75 on Sunday

The Federation of Polish Sportsmen celebrate their 75th anniversary with a giant barbecue this Sunday (the 14th). Tickets are $30 for the noon-8 pm gathering on Newman Road in Greenport—and can be purchased in advance at the Iron Horse on 7th Street in Hudson.

The FPS has graciously hosted numerous groups of all political stripes over the years; this is a great moment to show appreciation for their hospitality, and stewardship of their Becraft Mountain domain.

Quotable Kinsley

The scandal isn’t what's illegal; the scandal is what’s legal.

— MICHAEL KINSLEY (NOVEMBER 15, 1990, ON CROSSFIRE)

Rural Intelligence review of Food Studio

My newest piece for R.I., about the recently-opened (mostly) Vietnamese destination in Hudson, can be found at this link.

Confirmed: BaconFest bids Hudson goodbye

As speculated in this earlier post, BaconFest has decamped from Hudson to Troy, where it can piggyback (pun intended) on another event. This year’s list of vendors does not appear to include any businesses from Columbia County.

The event—which clogged Hudson’s already-stuffed summer weekend arteries—was deemed something of a debacle in 2012, when many unprepared vendors ran out of bacon well before noon.

TCI granted six months to get out of Ghent

In an interim settlement of a specious lawsuit brought by TCI of NY, the Town of Ghent has agreed to give PCB (mis-) handler six months to find a new town to bedevil.

According to an attendee of yesterday’s hearing before judge Jonathan Nichols, TCI and Ghent have signed a “tolling agreement” which suspends the lawsuit. TCI had claimed in court filings that the Town’s attorney had a conflict of interest, and had asked Nichols to prevent Ghent from enforcing its Zoning code.

Assuming TCI finds a new home in one of three other towns they have approached, including Coeymans, the company will void its application to rebuild in Ghent, and the Town will hold TCI harmless for its actions. (Good riddance to bad rubbish?) The Albany Times-Union has previously reported that the company also has scoped out sites in Saratoga, Washington and Rensselaer counties.

The company also will pay $12,500 to cover Ghent’s expenses thus far related to the now-aborted reviews. If TCI has not found a new home by the start of 2014, it could in theory reinstate its legal objections, and resume its quixotic pursuit of fresh permits from Ghent, and would presumably have to contribute an additional retainer for that review. More likely, one suspects, is that the two parties would extend the tolling agreement for another 3-6 months to give TCI more time to skip town.

The most eyebrow-raising part of the agreement is an unusual clause demanded by TCI, which compels Ghent officials to “refrain” from any “involvement” or “interference” with the company’s efforts to find an alternate site in another place

This leaves a strong appearance that TCI is afraid that Town officials might be contacted by other municipalities to which the company has applied for asylum, and that the neighboring officials might hear details of their time in Ghent.

Considering that Ghent now seems eager to have this thorn in their side removed, it’s hard to imagine that it would do so. If anything, the clause seems as likely as anything to backfire. Just imagine someone from, say, the Coeymans Planning Board (which has already called TCI on the carpet) phones a Ghent official seeking advice. But Coeymans is told by Ghent told that it is under a gag order not to talk about TCI’s operations. Wouldn’t that set off as many alarm bells with the person calling as anything the official might tell them?

In any case, with TCI’s two 2012 fires extensively covered in the T-U, New York Times, YouTube, and various local news outlets, any potential new host doing even cursory research would probably stumble upon reports of the company’s past troubles. Wherever TCI lands, they are likely to face far more scrutiny and oversight than they have had to endure over the past three decades in Columbia County.

Land of the Free (VIII)

Churchtown (NY). Part of an ongoing series: http://www.sampratt.com/sam/free/