Watching The Streams Flow

Michael Courtney opened the conference by explaining that The Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program he works with provides a coordinated approach to stream protection and management within the Ashokan Reservoir watershed. Their overall goal is to restore stream system stability and ecologic integrity while sustaining viable communities in the watershed. They coordinate stream management with towns and agencies and provide stream corridor management plans. Technical assistance and Stream Projects are offered, as are grants to towns and local organizations for a variety of projects. Matching Grants are available (25% of project cost up to $100,000) such as the Woodland Valley Road Stream Bank Stabilization, or Mini Grants of up to $5,000 per project, such as the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development Kiosk Panels or the Trout Unlimited Leaping Trout Panels you may have seen popping up around the area.
Elizabeth Higgins, Program Coordinator at Cornell Cooperative Extension, and Cory Ritz, Stream Project Manager, Ulster County Soil and Water, provided a few more details on stream assessments to identify erosion and clay turbidity on the region's 330 miles of waterways, which can be mitigated by planting trees and other forms of vegetation to slow down erosion. Landowners and municipalities are encouraged to contact their offices to develop plans for stream corridor management plans.
Barbara Kendall from Kendall Stormwater Services provided good reasons to care about floodplains and stormwater runoff, giving examples of how building in floodplains adversely impacts the floodplain. She noted that a floodplain is actually a storage area for streams that will overflow their banks during excessive rains or snow melt. When we allow building in these areas, we are filling in these storage areas and raising the level of the flood plain.
Kendall spoke of other ways to help lower impact by designing natural retention for storm water, mitigating and filtering heavy water flows, keeping them from impacting local streams. She said ponds, rain gardens, and large grassy areas with catch basins designed to only allow higher levels of water to spill in keep runoff to a minimum, and allow more of the water to naturally seep into the ground when the rain event is over. Another way to reduce impact of runoff, she said, is to reduce impervious surfaces. Some towns are reducing road surfaces, which in turn reduces runoff.
Art Snyder, Director Ulster County Emergency Management spoke of the impacts that flooding has in Ulster County. He pointed out many of the homes that were built in floodplains that continue to be impacted by rain. He also noted how foolish it was for the Kingston Board of Education to consider building a new High School in an area known for it's flooding.
Snyder also spoke to some uses of floodplains that are considered good - things such as recreation fields, driving ranges, farming that are not adversely affected by occasional high water levels. Snyder stressed the need to stop permanent development in these areas. He pointed out that in many areas, buyout programs are in place to help homeowners in flood prone areas to relocate.
Natalie Brown, NYS Dept. of Conservation, gave a short presentation concerning required permitting when working in and around streams, as well as new rules that took effect May 1 regarding disturbances that might affect five or more acres of land - such as in a realty subdivision.
Joe Damrath, who heads up the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection's Stormwater Regulations, provided information about various sections of the law that cover impervious surfaces, pointing out that impervious surfaces include your roof, paved driveways and parking lots - any surface that does not allow for water to drain through it. No new impervious surfaces may be within 100' of a watercourse or state wetland, or within 300' of a reservoir or controlled lake. However, these regulations are less strict if the property falls within a village or designated, so as to help communities within the watershed remain viable.
The conference later broke into afternoon sessions that addressed Municipal Floodplain Policies, Home Stormwater Protection, identified funding agencies, spoke about driveway and culvert "Best Practices."
For full information on all topics discussed, and links, visit www.ashokanstreams.org.

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Keep On Trucking, Now

Last week's freak moon rose in the sky like a sun each night, looming into our windows and forcing us awake. It was probably just a personal invitation to the Full Moon Resort in Big Indian, where the Truck Festival's debut weekend in this country offered hundreds of people true escape.
There is something magical about the land there, and the Oliverea Valley proved the perfect setting for the Truck production, which originated in the UK and is somewhat peerless in its simple integrity: Three days of more than ten bands and solo performers and quirky films each, all day long day and into the night, some people camping.
There were three stages-including a cozy tent, a gorgeous hayloft and a saloonesque bar, and everything moved smoothly. It had the feeling of an enchanted campus, with children bopping about, little groups breaking into song around campfires, all against the tree frogs and night birds, and the stars.
We sampled here and there and got steeped in a mini retrospective of Mercury Rev's dense and melodic non-linear narratives, brought to even greater levels of emotional intelligence with conducted orchestra. Everything was so fluid you could see rainbow fish swimming through it.
Heard Gary Louris was amazing, but missed him, and could have missed the whole event because it was so subtly (not) promoted, and that seemed to work out just fine.
Loved Cat Martino, who sings about nature like she has the blood of trees inside her, and fave moment of the night was a group of people doing a full out acoustic ukelele version of Outkast's "Hey Ya."
This is obviously a venture fueled by a vision, and that vision is way more about music than money, and putting things together... so there is a real vibe, and in this case, it was good enough to take back home and keep running with it.
Monday, and the world at large, lost some of its power to sting.

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School Vote May 18

A copy of the $50,022,026 school budget is now on file at the district's schoolhouses from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day prior to May 18 except Saturdays and Sundays. The document is also available at the town libraries in the towns of Hurley, Olive, Phoenicia, West Hurley, and Woodstock during regular library business hours.
Voting will take place from 2pm to 9pm at all four elementary school polling centers. Kindergarten-through-grade six students will have an early dismissal at 1 p.m. A special meeting of the board will follow, at approximately 9:30pm at the Onteora Middle-High School in Boiceville, to accept the vote's cast.
In proposition one, voters will be asked to approve the 2010/2011 Onteora district budget that includes $20,000 to support public libraries.
In proposition two, voters will be asked to approve $35,000 for the purchase of a seven passenger bus to replace a vehicle over ten years old with over 200,000 miles clocked on it.
Two three-year board of education seats will also be on the ballot. Incumbents Tom Hickey's and Rob Kurnit's names appear on the ballot with no contesting candidates.
Over the past three months, the board worked on what was described as one of the district's most difficult budgets to date. Driving matters was an increase in employee health care premiums of 14.9 percent, increase of retirement contributions from 6.19 percent to 8.62 percent, coupled with a loss of State Aid at $658,000 and loss of interest revenue of $100,000.
In order to find a tax levy that was palatable with the voters, the board needed to make deeps cuts or face a double-digit tax levy. It settled upon a .31 percent budget increase and a 3.9 percent tax levy. This created a budget shortfall of over $2 million.
As the budget took shape, programs, staff and administrators were reviewed. No stone was left unturned when it came to reductions or cuts. As School Board President Laurie Osmond said, "Everything is on the table."
After reworking the budget and taking advantage of savings through staff retirements, some programs that were initially cut from the budget were restored or trimmed. Also, additional savings were found through cuts in the district's administration budget.
Overall, 11.5 teaching positions will be eliminated. This includes GED, speech, special educators and a middle school team. Out of the eleven full time teachers, six retired and five were laid off. Twelve non-teaching positions will be eliminated. Out of that group, four retired and eight will be laid-off.
Other cuts include high school after school homework help, INDIE, technology and cheerleading. The INDIE program that was once a popular alternative school for kids who do not always fit into the traditional school setting lost its remaining $50,000. Over the years the program had a slow chipping away of its funding. Once located next to the high school, it is now an after school program located in Woodstock. Its future at this point is uncertain.
Some programs and staff initially on the chopping block have since been restored. This includes ta Librarian, Music Teacher, Marching Band, Color Guard, Volleyball, Golf and Indoor Track. The Gifted and Talented program will be partially restored.
If voters were to reject the budget two times, then a contingency budget would be put into a place at a 2.85 percent tax levy and zero budget increase. Programs once slated for elimination would be cut, including additional programs such as JV sports.

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Dual Tracks On Fracking

While most observers expect such reviews to yield more stringent parameters than those which will apply elsewhere in the state, some believe their costs, complexity, and contentiousness will ultimately prohibit drilling here in the city's watershed. Mayor Bloomberg and City Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Calloway seemed pleased by the state's announcement, with the Mayor issuing a statement saying "We firmly believe that drilling cannot be permitted in the City's watershed. We are confident that the additional reviews now required for any drilling proposal in the watershed will lead the State to the same conclusion."
Two regional advocacy groups, Tarrytown-based Riverkeeper and the Arkville-based Catskill Center for Conservation and Development also issued statements applauding the decision. But the rest of the environmental community appears warily uncertain over the state agency's latest regulatory approach.
In September 2009, DEC issued some 800 pages of new draft guidelines called a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). Intended to regulate all new deep-well gas drilling statewide and its extraction process known as hydrofracturing or "fracking," the document was, on arrival, controversial. As this new technology has proven a toxic threat to surface water resources elsewhere, most environmental and public health advocates have stressed the need for a thorough, go-slow regulatory approach.
When released last fall, the SGEIS was widely criticized (including by this newspaper) for providing inadequate review procedures and environmental protections. As DEC began sifting some14,000 public comments, it appeared the long-understaffed agency was taking the issue back to the drawing board. But in a surprise move last month, Commissioner Grannis announced that revisions would be completed by the end of this year, allowing for the permitting in early 2011 of 58 pending drilling applications, most in Sullivan County, with thousands more anticipated across a five county region of the southern Catskills and the Route 17 and I-86 corridor. That region's infrastructure now includes the massive new Millenium natural gas Pipeline, currently completed as far south as Tuxedo, NY where it connects with the Northeast's existing pipeline infrastructure. Plans call for future connection to an offshore LNG tanker port facility to be built in the Long Island Sound.
Less than enthused, however, by the state's new separation of watershed from non-watershed review procedures were a broad range of environmental groups. Kate Sinding, a senior attorney for tthe Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said "we fear this move greases the skids for drilling in the remainder of the state without adequate examination of the impacts...but we are also concerned it risks giving New York City residents a false sense of security...this announcement does little or nothing to actually protect the drinking water supplies for New York City...it removes the onus (on DEC) from responding to the devastating comments on impacts to the watershed prepared by the city's DEP, the US Environmental Protection agency.. and others... The only responsible decision from the state is to issue a full ban on gas drilling in the New York City drinking water supply, and to restart the environmental review for the rest of the state."
Statements offering similar analysis of DEC's announcement were issued by Delaware Riverkeeper and the Citizen's Campaign for the Environment. "DEC's announcement does not provide any protections for the two watersheds" reads the former group's press release, which calls on the agency to "pull back the fatally flawed draft and ban all drilling in the state while these essential issues are addressed."
"This is an attempt to take the watershed issue off the table without actually dealing with it, to fast-track drilling for the rest of us" said Ramsay Adams, Executive Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper. "And it's not even protecting the watersheds. It's bad on both levels. It appears as if the DEC is trying to give the impression that there won't be drilling in the watersheds to remove political pressure from New York City...It also appears they decided to exclude the watersheds from their final GEIS, so that they won't have to address the comments from the comprehensive scientific study prepared by NYC DEP. We are calling on the Governor and DEC to withhold any final report until all the scientific evidence now being gathered can be thoroughly evaluated."
That evidence, notably, includes a major study recently commissioned by the US Environmental Protection Agency, a study which is expected to result in new federal regulations for the industry that would ultimately supercede any state regulations. The results of that EPA study are regarded as so critical to global energy markets that Russian President Medvedev recently announced his country had curtailed any expansion of its own natural gas production infrastructure, the world's largest, pending its completion and release.
As things stand, DEC has to date neither banned nor restricted natural gas drilling within New York City's 1,600 square mile West-of Hudson watershed, including all of our readership area. And although last year one producer, Chesapeake Energy, voluntarily announced it wouldn't seek to drill here, no statutory restrictions exist to this day. Based on the fact that last fall's SGEIS reached the conclusion that gas drilling in the watershed presents "no realistic threat" to the quality or safety of the City's drinking water," few observers anticipate that the state will be taking the lead on protecting the City's water supply. Ultimately that authority rests with the State Department of Health and the US EPA.
At this moment an outright ban on drilling anywhere in the state seems unlikely. Landowner and property rights groups are widely believed ready to challenge such a move as a governmental "taking" of property, together with political allies including State Senator Bonacic and the gas industry itself. As legal actions such as this would likely delay by years any exploitation of gas resources statewide, some believe the City's acceptance of DEC's newly bifurcated review structure in place of an outright ban reflects an informal arrangement between state regulators, city government, and energy interests.
"There's much that New York can learn from the problems in Pennsylvania, which is now revising major parts of their environmental regulations" said EarthJustice's Deborah Goldberg of the situation. "Instead of leaping before we look, we should carefully examine what's happened in other states. And we should fully understand the technologies and best management practices that will protect public health and our environment before we issue a single permit."
Whether that will somehow be sorted out by next winter when the first drilling permits could be issued, we'll keep you posted.

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