by Larry Beahan
President Obama’s stimulus package has brought $570 million to New York, primarily for green projects, said Judith Enck, regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in her meeting with 11 Buffalo-area environmental leaders in July.
Enck expressed the EPA’s general concerns about global warming, water quality in the Great Lakes and invasive species there (see article, page 9). She expressed her intention to promote renewable energy: wind, sun and certain hydro projects. Then she joked, “Anyone here interested in the Marcellus shale?”
I led a chorus of enthusiastic, amused response. She stepped in with an exhaustive recital of the usual pro and con arguments, including even the recent preliminary study coming out of Cornell [see Howarth article] which indicates that, when whole-life cycles are considered, gas is about as polluting as coal. She mentioned the upcoming EPA hearings in Binghamton on the study of hydrofracking effect on drinking water.
Enck responded in a spirited and exceptionally knowledgeable way to each of the comments presented by those in attendance. Here are some of the points she made:
Regarding global warming: EPA is developing a system to require carbon producers - particularly power plants - to report the quantity of carbon they release into the atmosphere. The EPA supports federal legislation. It welcomes state initiatives such as Senator Thompson’s bill.
EPA does not remediate brownfields directly but will provide information about special funds that may apply where railroads are involved, as in the rehabilitation of Buffalo’s NY Central Terminal.
She has been to the West Valley nuclear waste storage site and is particularly concerned about the plume of radioactivity developing beneath a processing building. I’m working behind the scenes; keep up the public pressure. Regarding the standoff between the federal government and state over who is financially responsible for the clean up, she asked “Isn’t it time for congressional hearings?”
The Peace Bridge Authority is responsible for introducing major quantities of pollution into one of Buffalo’s poorest communities and inducing high levels of asthma there. The authority claims it is free to ignore Buffalo laws because the authority is chartered by a treaty between the U.S. and Canada. Enck cited a similar case she handled in the state Attorney General’s Office in which a sanitation district claimed it was an authority and therefore not subject to state law. That stand was overturned in court. She added that air pollution is primarily handled by the DEC, but she would check what is required to trigger EPA involvement.
She was critical of those who say they favor wind turbines but oppose them at particular locations. “Global warming is here. We can’t waste time. We have to do SEQR quickly and then Suck it up.”
She listened to detailed a presentation on the complex issue of toxic waste and the expansion of Chemical Waste Management (CWM) waste storage site near Niagara Falls. Enck’s comments indicated detailed knowledge of the problem, but no solution. She did, however, agree to look into the appropriateness of a local EPA executive said to have the CWM logo displayed on his blog.
She discussed the problem of cumulative impacts. “We do permitting plant-by-individual-plant; soon there are ten of them and no way to control their cumulative effect.”
One of Enck’s major points was her effort to make EPA data available on the Internet as easily as possible. She mentioned an EPA site that allowed her to type in her old Rensselaer zip code and her present Brooklyn zip code to discover that she now lives with three times the risk of lung cancer.
Enck says “The recession is going to go on at least a couple of more years. People want a clean environment but don’t want to pay taxes to support it. The DEC is starved for personnel and can’t do the necessary enforcement. Why not tax industry to pay for enforcement?”
In addition to the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club, these other groups were represented: Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Wind Action Group, Coalition on West Valley Nuclear Waste, Sea Grant, Central Terminal Restoration, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, SUNY at Buffalo, Clean Air Coalition, Residents for Responsible Government (opposing CWM Chemical Services) and a representative of Senator Antoine Thompson.