Wrong cement plant in the wrong place
The mammoth $300 million cement plant proposed for Greenport, N.Y., by St. Lawrence Cement should not concern Berkshire residents, according to company representatives who met with The Eagle's editorial board. In fact, Berkshire residents should be extremely concerned. The plant will release particulates into the upper atmosphere, where they can take the fast track east to the Berkshires; there are little or no enforcement measures in place to make St. Lawrence keep its promises, and the company's appeal of a judge's ruling that hearings on the plant should take place before permits are issued suggests the company wants nothing to reach the public beyond its cheerful ad campaign.
The plant would replace a much smaller cement plant located across the Hudson River in Catskill, N.Y., and company officials argue the new plant's greater efficiency will mean it will produce less pollution. Indeed, some pollutants will decrease but seven, according to St. Lawrence's own studies, will increase, including carbon monoxide, and they pose a threat to people with asthma, lung disease and heart problems. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) will increase almost two-fold, according to a St. Lawrence draft air quality permit, which is likely to boost the Berkshire smog level.
It is also unsettling that the 90-foot smokestack in Catskill will give way to an imposing 400-foot smokestack that will sit roughly 700 feet above sea level, and considerably farther to the east than the Catskill plant's stack. The Catskill plant may burn inefficiently but particulate matter sent skyward doesn't go particularly far. Emissions from the proposed plant will be released higher into the air and are more likely to be carried east.
Dr. John J. Godleski, a Harvard associate professor of pathology hired by St. Lawrence to review the company's data on the proposed plant, told the editorial board the plant would pose no threat to the Berkshires, but the doctor's objectivity is debatable and his dismissive attitude toward the medical staff at Columbia County Hospital of Hudson, N.Y., is troubling. The staff voted 35-1 that the plant poses a serious threat to the health of the community, and while Dr. Godleski may have felt the doctors he met with were only interested in "making speeches," they were, according to Dr. Ira Marks, an attendee, asking pertinent medical questions and reminding the doctor his conclusions were based on data supplied to him by St. Lawrence.
Berkshire residents should also take note of St. Lawrence's ads on Albany television stations which, while not directed at the Berkshires, are nonetheless revealing. The ads boast about the jobs generated by the plant but don't mention that they will be filled by current employees of the Catskill plant, not by anyone living near the new plant. Ad claims about how many millions of dollars the new plant will generate for the regional economy are unsupported by any data.
It's unfortunate that the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission and state Department of Environmental Protection were denied intervenor status in hearings before a New York judge -- a plant 40 miles from Great Barrington that could threaten the air quality of a region dependent economically upon its pristine environment is of concern to the Berkshires and Massachusetts. The country needs cement and cement plants, but the company has not made its case economically or environmentally for its new plant, and its opposition to hearings on the plant suggests it fears it can't make that case. This is the wrong plant in the wrong place, and New York state should not allow it to go forward.
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