After listening to you speak at the Moreau Community Center I realized how important local papers are. You comments ring very true with me. When Saratoga Biochar was moving through the Planning Board process almost no-one know about it. It it took a long time to let people know what was happening. When the papers started running articles the word really spread. We still struggle to let other communities in the greater Glans Falls area know that Saratoga Biochar will affect way more than Moreau. I stopped reading the papers during all the stress of COVID. I will never stop again. Thank you!
I have no solution. That is not my expertise. I do know that placing a facility like this in the center of a few thousand households on both sides of the Hudson River is very wrong. The heavy truck traffic past families living within 50 to 75 feet of the road puts families with children at risk of childhood asthma and everyone at risk for lung cancer. There was a problem with this in a neighborhood in the Albany area. The rates for illnesses were double those in neighborhoods without heavy diesel truck traffic. The pollutants in the emissions can create irreversible pollution. You cann't remove PFAS from the watershed that flows into the Hudson River where thousands of people get the municipal water from. You cann't remove it from farm fields where food crops are grown and our milk cows and meat cattle feed. The dredging of PCBs sure didn't eliminate it and PCBs were dredged and buried and still leak into the Hudson. How do we remove PFAS from our bodies that come in emissions? The company says they remove PFAS> Sometimes they say they remove some of the PFAS. The EPA in June 2022 says no. The company says this was a perfect location as there are no neighbors to be disturbed. How do they say that with all the residences the heavy trucks will have to pass as they haul 720 tons of sewage sludge here daily from all over NY State equaling 15% of the total sewage sludge created annually throughout NY State. Lets not forget the wood they will bring in to burn with the sludge, the removal of the waste products and the delivery of the biochar product elsewhere. There will be 5,000 gallons of formaldehyde used monthly. What other supplies will also be needed? Human sewage sludge carries heavy metals that are not removed by this process. Are they in the emissions? Sewage sludge can be radioactive. Did you know polio was found in sewage sludge downstate? And there are people who still think it is ok to spread it directly on farm fields!!! Heavy metals are concentrated into the biochar when the sludge is burned. It is not ok that our Planning Board refused to hire an expert to review all the theoretical and lab science that the company says they have. They don't like to share much about that saying it is proprietary to their business. That doesn't give us confidence. In a recent article it says a 4X4 unit was used to test things. I think I am correct when I say the chemistry of things changes depending on the volumes you are dealing with. Does that apply here! 720 ton of sewage sludge a day and a 4x4 contained unit was how it was tested for results they want us to accept. The Planning Board members repeatedly state they did not read all the materials the company furnished. They say they didn't understand it or were too busy. An expert on facilities like this wold have been paid for by the developer if the Planning Board had requested it. One of the members stated they didn't want to delay this developer for a year for that to happen! We will all have to live with this forever if it is built. Facilities like this do not belong in locations such as this. Moreau taxpayers do not get a dollar of school taxes form this facility. That leads us all to ask why in 2019 did our Supervisor speak of Saratoga Biochar coming to town when he asked the County for money to pay for a rail grant. How does he see this as a good thing for any of us who live for except perhaps except for his own person political or personal plans? All Bad stuff.
I was mailing several large packet of documents to elected officials on Monday and the lady at the Post office said the idea of them bringing 20 jobs to the area is meaningless. She said if I was to ask each of the local post offices how many vacant positions they have and cann't find people for (and the jobs are way better than these would be in a sewage sludge burning plant), it would be way more jobs that the jobs tat Saratoga Biochar says they will bring.
Gina. Work at the Post Office? As for myself, I would work on a dairy farm shoveling manure, before working at the Post-Office. You may have heard the phrase 'GOING POSTAL' https://www.grunge.com/706437/the-surprising-origin-of-the-phrase-going-postal/ . and have you ever watch “Customer Wars” on A&E. Effectively dealing with irate customers and irrational employes is not a skill I possess. Cows are rather docile creatures not prone to irrational outbursts and having no hands they don’t carry knives, clubs or guns.
Your statement about the quality of the jobs is subjective unless you have worked in both. Even then it will be more subjective than objective.
My problem with what Saratoga Biochar says they bring is who will fill the jobs. Will they go to the residents that live in the community that Saratoga Biochar wants to inhabit or will they import the workers like the sludge you mention in your rather length reply.
I don’t see any mention of The New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) in your rather lengthily wandering reply. Did I miss it? I thought that was one of the first things any governmental agency was required to do before considering a project?
Some of the thing I picked out are:
Can you support your claim that “heavy truck traffic past families living within 50 to 75 feet of the road puts families with children at risk of childhood asthma and everyone at risk for lung cancer.” with data?
“Human sewage sludge carries heavy metals that are not removed by this process”. Perhaps those humans should think about changing their diet. Heavy metals are found in industrial waste. A city sewage system is a somewhat complicated. Some cities I believe have or are look at a two-system approach, moving the industrial waste to its own system. A possible solution would be to test each load for heavy metals and reject those loads that are outside acceptable limits. Unless you are willing give up our modern way of life and live in a tepee like the Native Americans did. There is no such thing a zero.
PFASs are also used by major companies of the cosmetics industry in a wide range of cosmetics, including lipstick, eye liner, mascara, foundation, concealer, lip balm, blush, nail polish and other such products. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances
“Did you know polio was found in sewage sludge downstate?” No, I did not. https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/polio/wastewater.htm I’m thinking polio vaccine? What I’m unable to find is possible that high temperatures destroy the polio virus. Can’t kill virus, it’s not alive.
“Moreau taxpayers do not get a dollar of school taxes form this facility.” Why not? What do they get just 20 jobs? Sounds a bit like the 30 pieces of silver Judas Iscariot got for betraying Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15
I got a little bit of time but I’m not interested in playing whack-a-mole at light speed. Pick one or two concerns and let’s see where it leads? How about heavy truck traffic for one, you pick the other. I’m not interested in what I think nor what you believe you know only what we can prove. We might prove it will work, we might prove it will not, we might show it will work just not in this spot.
After listening to you speak at the Moreau Community Center I realized how important local papers are. You comments ring very true with me. When Saratoga Biochar was moving through the Planning Board process almost no-one know about it. It it took a long time to let people know what was happening. When the papers started running articles the word really spread. We still struggle to let other communities in the greater Glans Falls area know that Saratoga Biochar will affect way more than Moreau. I stopped reading the papers during all the stress of COVID. I will never stop again. Thank you!
Gina, That is so great to hear. Newspapers are the key to a functioning democracy. Spread the world to all your friends and neighbors.
Gina.
What is your solution to the disposal of sewer sludge? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewage_sludge
What are your concerns with Biochar? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochar
I have no solution. That is not my expertise. I do know that placing a facility like this in the center of a few thousand households on both sides of the Hudson River is very wrong. The heavy truck traffic past families living within 50 to 75 feet of the road puts families with children at risk of childhood asthma and everyone at risk for lung cancer. There was a problem with this in a neighborhood in the Albany area. The rates for illnesses were double those in neighborhoods without heavy diesel truck traffic. The pollutants in the emissions can create irreversible pollution. You cann't remove PFAS from the watershed that flows into the Hudson River where thousands of people get the municipal water from. You cann't remove it from farm fields where food crops are grown and our milk cows and meat cattle feed. The dredging of PCBs sure didn't eliminate it and PCBs were dredged and buried and still leak into the Hudson. How do we remove PFAS from our bodies that come in emissions? The company says they remove PFAS> Sometimes they say they remove some of the PFAS. The EPA in June 2022 says no. The company says this was a perfect location as there are no neighbors to be disturbed. How do they say that with all the residences the heavy trucks will have to pass as they haul 720 tons of sewage sludge here daily from all over NY State equaling 15% of the total sewage sludge created annually throughout NY State. Lets not forget the wood they will bring in to burn with the sludge, the removal of the waste products and the delivery of the biochar product elsewhere. There will be 5,000 gallons of formaldehyde used monthly. What other supplies will also be needed? Human sewage sludge carries heavy metals that are not removed by this process. Are they in the emissions? Sewage sludge can be radioactive. Did you know polio was found in sewage sludge downstate? And there are people who still think it is ok to spread it directly on farm fields!!! Heavy metals are concentrated into the biochar when the sludge is burned. It is not ok that our Planning Board refused to hire an expert to review all the theoretical and lab science that the company says they have. They don't like to share much about that saying it is proprietary to their business. That doesn't give us confidence. In a recent article it says a 4X4 unit was used to test things. I think I am correct when I say the chemistry of things changes depending on the volumes you are dealing with. Does that apply here! 720 ton of sewage sludge a day and a 4x4 contained unit was how it was tested for results they want us to accept. The Planning Board members repeatedly state they did not read all the materials the company furnished. They say they didn't understand it or were too busy. An expert on facilities like this wold have been paid for by the developer if the Planning Board had requested it. One of the members stated they didn't want to delay this developer for a year for that to happen! We will all have to live with this forever if it is built. Facilities like this do not belong in locations such as this. Moreau taxpayers do not get a dollar of school taxes form this facility. That leads us all to ask why in 2019 did our Supervisor speak of Saratoga Biochar coming to town when he asked the County for money to pay for a rail grant. How does he see this as a good thing for any of us who live for except perhaps except for his own person political or personal plans? All Bad stuff.
I was mailing several large packet of documents to elected officials on Monday and the lady at the Post office said the idea of them bringing 20 jobs to the area is meaningless. She said if I was to ask each of the local post offices how many vacant positions they have and cann't find people for (and the jobs are way better than these would be in a sewage sludge burning plant), it would be way more jobs that the jobs tat Saratoga Biochar says they will bring.
Gina. Work at the Post Office? As for myself, I would work on a dairy farm shoveling manure, before working at the Post-Office. You may have heard the phrase 'GOING POSTAL' https://www.grunge.com/706437/the-surprising-origin-of-the-phrase-going-postal/ . and have you ever watch “Customer Wars” on A&E. Effectively dealing with irate customers and irrational employes is not a skill I possess. Cows are rather docile creatures not prone to irrational outbursts and having no hands they don’t carry knives, clubs or guns.
Your statement about the quality of the jobs is subjective unless you have worked in both. Even then it will be more subjective than objective.
My problem with what Saratoga Biochar says they bring is who will fill the jobs. Will they go to the residents that live in the community that Saratoga Biochar wants to inhabit or will they import the workers like the sludge you mention in your rather length reply.
I don’t see any mention of The New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) in your rather lengthily wandering reply. Did I miss it? I thought that was one of the first things any governmental agency was required to do before considering a project?
Some of the thing I picked out are:
Can you support your claim that “heavy truck traffic past families living within 50 to 75 feet of the road puts families with children at risk of childhood asthma and everyone at risk for lung cancer.” with data?
“Human sewage sludge carries heavy metals that are not removed by this process”. Perhaps those humans should think about changing their diet. Heavy metals are found in industrial waste. A city sewage system is a somewhat complicated. Some cities I believe have or are look at a two-system approach, moving the industrial waste to its own system. A possible solution would be to test each load for heavy metals and reject those loads that are outside acceptable limits. Unless you are willing give up our modern way of life and live in a tepee like the Native Americans did. There is no such thing a zero.
PFASs are also used by major companies of the cosmetics industry in a wide range of cosmetics, including lipstick, eye liner, mascara, foundation, concealer, lip balm, blush, nail polish and other such products. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances
“Did you know polio was found in sewage sludge downstate?” No, I did not. https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/polio/wastewater.htm I’m thinking polio vaccine? What I’m unable to find is possible that high temperatures destroy the polio virus. Can’t kill virus, it’s not alive.
“Moreau taxpayers do not get a dollar of school taxes form this facility.” Why not? What do they get just 20 jobs? Sounds a bit like the 30 pieces of silver Judas Iscariot got for betraying Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15
I got a little bit of time but I’m not interested in playing whack-a-mole at light speed. Pick one or two concerns and let’s see where it leads? How about heavy truck traffic for one, you pick the other. I’m not interested in what I think nor what you believe you know only what we can prove. We might prove it will work, we might prove it will not, we might show it will work just not in this spot.
I’m not very computer literate re those things but I will try. The Post Star has caved a little more to the right lately I think. But I hope it stays.