Officials Call for Last-Minute Halt to Pipeline Work at Blue Mountain
Several local Democratic officials are calling for a halt to construction on the Algonquin gas pipeline until the plan to clear-cut hundreds of trees in Blue Mountain Preserve is reviewed by state officials.
State Assembly members Sandy Galef (D-Ossining) and David Buchwald (D-White Plains), joined several county legislators and members of Stop Algonquin Pipeline Expansion (SAPE) at the county building in White Plains Friday morning where they announced they were submitting a letter to County Executive Rob Astorino calling on him to rescind a work permit granted to Spectra Energy for the planned expansion of the Algonquin gas pipeline in the 1,538-acre county park in Cortlandt and Peekskill. Work on the project has just begun at the site.
“There is a parkland alienation law here in the state of New York,” Galef said. “If you have designated parkland, and you want to turn it into something else like the Algonquin Pipeline, you need to get state legislative approval. Also, if you remove parkland from the rolls you also need to find other parkland property to put on it.”
Galef said Astorino had signed a contract with Spectra Energy to allow the work to begin without getting proper state approval. Time was of the essence.
“We are at a really critical moment in this whole issue,” Galef told those on hand. “As you know, many of us, including Congresswoman [Nita] Lowey and Congressman [Eliot] Engel, have been working very hard to try to get an independent safety assessment of the whole Algonquin Pipeline. As Spectra goes forward digging up land, cutting down trees – maybe a thousand trees this weekend up in the Blue Mountain park reservation – once you put that underground pipeline in, it’s very hard for it not to go into effect.”
Assemblyman Steve Otis (D-Rye) has also agreed to sign the letter to Astorino, Galef said.
The pipeline expansion project would run from Stony Point, under the Hudson River, through Peekskill, Cortlandt, portions of Yorktown and into Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The project will remove an existing 26-inch gas pipeline and replace it with a 42-inch one. The gas pressure would also increase by 25 percent.
Buchwald said the county executive needs to immediately act to preserve the county land from being cleared.
“Government officials should be working to preserve that trust the public has, that when parkland is dedicated, it’s preserved for parkland,” Buchwald said. “I feel that all of us are like the Lorax, we speak for the trees. But we also speak for the residents of Westchester County.”
Also on hand for the press conference were county legislators MaryJane Shimsky (D-Hastings-on-Hudson), Catherine Parker (D-Rye) and Democratic Majority Leader Catherine Borgia (D-Ossining). Blue Mountain Preserve is located in Borgia’s district. She said losing the parkland would be harmful to the flora and fauna that call Westchester home.
“We do not have a lot of old growth forest in Westchester County – we’re an overdeveloped county,” Borgia said. “This park is a little pocket of nature that we can very ill afford to lose.”
Borgia also pointed out that the pipeline runs past Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan as well as schools and homes, which raises other safety concerns that need to be studied.
In September, Borgia and several other county leaders announced legislation urging the state Department of Environmental Conservation to freeze the issuance of any new air and water quality permits for natural gas infrastructure project applications. The resolution also calls on the state Department of Health to perform a thorough assessment of the public health and safety risks of pipelines.
“We need to slow down this process and really look at the long-term impact and we need to do it right now before trees start coming down,” Borgia said.
Examiner Media – Keeping you informed with professionally-reported local news, features, and sports coverage.