Reject cement plant proposal
State officials should not allow a massive cement plant to be built in Columbia County. St. Lawrence Cement's plans are out of scale with the area.
The company wants to close down its old, dirty factory in Catskill, Greene County, and replace it with what executives say will be a much more efficient facility across the Hudson River in Greenport, a few miles north of the Dutchess County line.
Efficient, perhaps, but the facility would be far too big, would emit far too many pollutants and would do the area far more harm than good.
Yet, as proposed, new state air pollution policies wouldn't apply to St. Lawrence Cement's proposal, and that is an outrage.
The Journal has taken a middle-of-the-road stand on this cement plant proposal before, saying state leaders considering the project should hold it to the highest environmental standards. What we didn't say explicitly and are saying now is that a project of this massive size in a critical scenic venue cannot be supported. The state must undergo a full environmental review of this project, leaving nothing to chance. Two judges have correctly squelched one of St. Lawrence's arguments: that its plans shouldn't be subject to a full review because it has owned the land it wants to build on since before the environmental review laws were written.
No dice, said Helene Goldberger and Maria Villa, administrative law judges with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
The judges determined that the scope of this project goes well beyond merely expanding or renovating the existing factory. The Greenport plant would be a whole new facility, using an entirely different cement-making process, with a whole new set of environmental questions. The judges' recommendation next goes before DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty, who will ultimately decide the matter.
Health concerns must be priority
The plant would be located on 1,800 acres of land. It would include a 366-foot preheater tower and a 406-foot stack. That would make it the tallest structure between New York City and Albany, a dominant image the Hudson Valley can do without. And it would sit just three miles away from one of the Hudson Valley's most popular tourist destinations: Olana, the former home of famed 19th-century landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church. St. Lawrence and the environmental groups strongly disagree on how visible the plant's 406-foot steam stack would be from Olana.
While environmental groups are right to oppose this plant, the status quo won't do either. Building a new plant or retrofitting the old one, under strictly enforced environmental controls, are better options than continuing to let the aging Catskill facility continue to operate, or throwing some 155 people out of work in a region that's hurting for decent jobs.
But the Greenport proposal is not the right approach.
Commissioner Crotty has yet to rule on another important issue: whether to allow opponents of the plant to present their concerns about particulates. She must welcome that discussion.
Medical experts say this fine material could lead to an increase in asthma and lung cancer, among other ailments. They say the new plant's permit applications would set the maximum limit for all pollutants at a whopping 43 percent higher, pound for pound, than the Catskill plant.
That alone should give the state ample grounds to reject this project.
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