Help Stop the Steel & Concrete Fabrication Plant next to the Bluestone Wild Forest, Onteora Lake and Pickerel Pond!
We have made a lot of progress, but the battle continues. The orange area in the map above is the development site.
A Recent Victory Achieved for the Bluestone Wild Forest has slowed the development, but not stopped it. We need your help to keep up the momentum.
Since June of 2019, the Mid-Hudson Group Sierra Club has been fighting a proposed concrete slab and steel manufacturing plant which threatens the quiet tranquility, wilderness character, and wildlife which inhabit the Bluestone Wild Forest, the easternmost unit of the Catskill Forest Preserve. Plans for the site, at 850 Route 28, within ¼ mile of Onteora Lake, are before the Planning Board of the Town of Kingston, a small town of fewer than 1,000 people surrounded by the towns of Hurley, Ulster, and Woodstock.
The Planning Board had initially given a green light to this project, which will involve blasting, rock crushing, and heavy truck traffic in the midst of the Bluestone Wild Forest, which almost totally surrounds it. However, after more than two years of activism from the Sierra Club, Catskill Mountainkeeper, the Woodstock Land Conservancy, Friends of Bluestone Wild Forest, and other groups and individuals, the Planning Board finally issued a Positive Declaration for the project on July 19, 2021. This means that the Planning Board recognizes that the project may have significant adverse impacts and the developer must file an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and undergo a comprehensive review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).
The Sierra Club’s involvement has consisted of personal advocacy, letter writing, attending meetings, helping with expenses, and funding a legal study on the importance of considering, under SEQRA, how a particular project may affect the character of a community. It was shortly after this Community Character Study (one of several) was submitted that the Planning Board issued its Positive Declaration.
Illegal Activities Continue
The developer (Thomas Auringer, dba 850 Route 28, LLC) reportedly has committed to submitting an EIS, but, more than three years later, has not yet filed even the initial scoping document. In the meantime, however, he has been clearing the land and storing a great deal of heavy equipment and construction materials on the site, which is not zoned for industrial use. In November of 2021, these activities resulted in a Cease-and-Desist Directive and a Notice of Violation from the DEC for lack of erosion and sediment controls and failure to obtain SPDES and Stream Disturbance permits.
On March 28, 2022, Catskill Mountainkeeper, the Woodstock Land Conservancy, and a Town of Kingston resident filed a lawsuit against the developer, the Town’s Code Enforcement Officer and the Zoning Board of Appeals for allowing these illegal activities to continue in violation of the Town’s municipal zoning code. Unfortunately the litigation, partially supported by funds from the Atlantic Chapter and Mid-Hudson Group of the Sierra Club, was dismissed last July by Judge Kevin Bryant of the Ulster County Supreme Court, on the grounds that none of the parties had standing to challenge the decision. A subsequent "Motion to Reargue" the case was similarly unsuccessful.
What You Can Do:
While enjoying the Bluestone Wild Forest, if you hear loud noises emanating from the site or witness heavy truck traffic, earth-moving, or construction activities there (at the southern end of Pickerel Pond), please report them to Andy Mossey, Executive Director at the Woodstock Land Conservancy. Letters to the editor of Ulster County newspapers (The Daily Freeman and Hudson Valley One) protesting the ongoing activities as well as the proposed manufacturing facility, can be extremely helpful in raising awareness of the issue.
And if you happen to live in or near the Town of Kingston, we are looking for volunteers to attend Town Board and Planning Board meetings and speak up when appropriate on issues related to 850 Route 28. The Friends of Bluestone Wild Forest meets once monthly via Zoom. You can sign up for these meetings and learn more about the issue through the website: http://www.saveonteoralake.org.
A New Threat to the Bluestone Wild Forest?
The Town of Kingston also recently approved the building of a hot asphalt processing plant at 530 Route 28, on the site of an old quarry also adjacent to the Bluestone Wild Forest. Despite concerns raised by nearby business owners and environmental groups about noxious gases, toxic wastewater, loud noises, and other possible adverse impacts,the Planning Board issued the project a negative declaration, allowing it to be built without an EIS or a full SEQRA review.
Less than a year after opening, the plant has now applied for a permit to expand its operations from two days a week to five, greatly increasing the tonnage of hot asphalt being processed. Concerns have been raised that the plant may already be emitting toxic fumes in excess of those allowed by its current permits.
Catskill Mountainkeeper has been active on this issue and is seeking funding to install air quality monitors to measure the level of emissions being produced by this plant.
For more information about these issues and what you can do to help, please contact Marie Caruso, our Bluestone Forest Liaison, through our group email: midhudsonsierra@twc.com.
Onteora Lake:
Equipment stored on site next to Pickerel Pond:
Construction vehicle seen from the Pickerel Pond Loop Trail:
