Guidance on Comments
Use the info below to write your email or letter to NYS DEC
on Saratoga Biochar
(choose where you live below)
General Background Information
All hands on deck!
Now is the time to do your part to stop this disastrous project from getting permitted. Please plan to show up at the Thurs Feb 8th DEC hearing at the South Glens Falls High School, 6 pm, whether you intend to speak or not. The auditorium is large -- come help us show that public opinion is strongly against this polluting project. It would be a grave injustice for a facility in Moreau to receive 15% of the state's sewage sludge! Please talk up the hearing to your friends, neighbors, and family. You can also speak at the virtual hearing, 6 pm, Feb 7th.
You don't have to be directly impacted to show up or to speak. But we can say with certainty that many people on the CAAN mailing list will be burdened with worse air quality if this project goes through.
Read on for sample comments for the Feb 7 and Feb 8 hearings. There are suggested comments for residents of Hudson Falls, part of Glens Falls, Moreau, South Glens Falls and Fort Edward.
At the end of the sample comments, there is also important background on concerns about the biochar product and the climate impacts of the plant. The European Union bans biochar made from sewage sludge.
Also check the Not Moreau Facebook page daily for Backgrounders on different topics. (Coming this weekend -- Backgrounders on topics like PFAS "forever chemicals", air pollution, water pollution, climate impacts, problems with biochar). CAAN will send these out as well. If you have problems accessing anything we send or post, please explain the problem and we can help you access it.
Our pro bono attorney at Earthjustice tells us that it will be very helpful for people who live in DEC-designated "Disadvantaged Communities" to speak at the DEC hearings on Saratoga Biochar. Most of the village of Hudson Falls and one census tract in Glens Falls (the neighborhood across Warren Street from the Hyde Collection) are considered Disadvantaged Communities. Typically these communities are already hard hit with pollution, including industrial air pollution, hazardous waste sites, and other problems. And people living in them are more likely to have health issues resulting from environmental exposures. There are maps in the comments that follow.
Under the state climate law, DEC must provide additional protections from new pollution sources to Disadvantaged Communities. If you live in either of these places or have friends or family that do, please commit to showing up and speaking at one of the hearings and specially invite people you know who live in these communities.
The sample comments below represent one approach you can take at these hearings. As mentioned above, we will be soon be circulating Backgrounders on several topics that you can use to speak at the hearings.
And don't forget our Urgent Community Meetings on Tues night, Feb 6th, 7 - 9 pm, where 5 experts will provide the facts about anticipated pollution from Saratoga Biochar. We will have handouts from the speakers, which will also be posted on the Not Moreau Facebook after the meetings. These meetings take place at the Moreau Community Center, 144 Main Street, South Glens Falls, and the Strand Theatre, 210 Main Street, Hudson Falls. Check out our one-page ad for these meetings here. Please talk it up!
If you have questions or can volunteer, please email me at tracy.caan@gmail.com or call me at 518-692-8242 landline before Tuesday. We need a few more people to help out at the Urgent Meetings. Thank you!
Together we will win!
Tracy Frisch for Clean Air Action Network of Glens Falls