Dover Knolls DEIS is Accepted; the Public Comment Period is open
May 18, 2009
On April 29, 2009, the Dover Town Board accepted as complete the Dover Knolls Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS.) Residents, local and regional government officials, board and committee members, Interested Parties, neighbors and organizations from surrounding towns in NY and CT, are strongly encouraged to attend and comment on the DEIS at one or both sessions to be held at the Dover Middle/High School: Saturday, May 30th at 9am and Wednesday, June 3rd at 6:30 pm. Written comments may be submitted through June 30th.
We in Dover, Dutchess County and New York State have only one chance to get this project right. Our concerns encompass but are not limited to ensuring that: 1) local taxes don’t increase because of costs associated with an imbalance of residential options, additional school construction or wastewater facility upgrades and maintenance; 2) the Aquifer is not compromised by an unsupportable number of new residences; 3) the Great Swamp, the second largest wetlands in New York State, is not irreversibly compromised by inadequate wetlands boundary protection or an inappropriate Water and Wastewater Treatment Facility; 4) residential and commercial/retail construction is concentrated around the train station and on the existing footprint of the former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center, thus minimizing traffic and impervious surfaces; 5) steep slopes are left untouched, thereby preserving our natural resources and the Appalachian Trail viewshed, and minimizing the effects of increased stormwater runoff.
There is indeed much to review, and the Coalition will continue to offer input during this critically important process.
– Please see DEIS, Accepted as Complete by the Dover Town Board
Dover considers 1000 Megawatt Power Plant
May 17, 2009
Many town and county residents, and neighbors from CT, attended the Advanced Power (AP) presentation at the Dover High School Wednesday night, May 20th during a special meeting convened for that purpose by the Dover Town Board. The company proposes to construct and operate a 1000 megawatt power plant, Cricket Valley Energy (CVE,) in Dover, NY, west of Rt 22 and along the Great Swamp River.
We have only recently learned of the proposal but the application process is proceeding quickly; AP has an option on the property and intends to file its application and begin the scoping process in June. The benefits to the town and region are economic. The company estimates 500 local construction jobs and, once complete, revenues of $4mm a year, to be split with the County. The drawbacks thus far appear to be environmental, with negative impacts potentially reaching far and wide.
While most of the cooling of the plant would rely on air condensers, the company estimates that between 250-275,000 gallons of water could be used daily. Whether drawn from the Aquifer or from the bedrock below as AP proposes, this level of water consumption poses a great concern to residents who rely on the area’s water resources.
The chemical composition and direction of emissions from the three, 250-290 foot stacks will be of concern not only to residents of the Harlem Valley, but to those who live in the paths of the carrying winds. Comparing the resultant air pollution of the proposed natural gas power plant favorably to that of a coal-fired electric power plant as AP did during the meeting seems to us to set up the wrong argument; the better comparison would be to our air quality as it is now. A coal-fired plant would never have been proposed in the first place.
The 25-30 permanent jobs are estimated to last for about 30-40 years, as the estimated useful life of the plant is about 60 years. “It will be either re-used or torn down,” one of the members of the CVE team responded to a resident’s question.
“Any major project creates both economic benefits and environmental impacts,” Town Supervisor Ryan Courtien said during the meeting, as quoted in the Poughkeepsie Journal. ”The benefits include construction and post-construction jobs, increased tax revenues for the town, county and schools and increased local spending. The impacts include pollution, noise, change in landscape, traffic and more impervious surfaces.”
This impacts of this project should be considered in conjunction with the impacts of Dover Knolls and within the contexts of our Master Plan and the constraints of our water supply. One PoJo blogger suggested constructing windmills on our farmland: A low-impact power generation alternative that preserves open space and agriculture, our Greenway and wildlife corridor, without water or air pollution.
The links are down to the Poughkeepsie Journal articles apprearing on May 1 & 11, 2009, but you can search www.poughkeepsiejournal.com
Dover Town Board Unanimously Passes Hudsonia Biodiversity Mapping Study
May 8, 2009
On April 29th, Supervisor Ryan Courtien led the Dover Town Board in passing Resolution #1142009 in Support of Biodiversity Mapping in the Town of Dover.
Hudsonia has mapped several towns in Dutchess County, most recently the Town of Amenia to our north. With many towns left to map, we are honored and proud that Dover was selected by Hudsonia as the next to be inventoried. This study will inform land use decisions for generations to come; the results will help guide the Town and Planning Boards when faced with both strategic and pragmatic decisions, and should prove to be a valuable reference tool for developers and conservationists alike.
– Please see Resolution
– Please see Hudsonia Presentation to the Town of Dover
Restore NY Funding Application for Dover Knolls’ Demolition Proposal
May 4, 2009
Please see the attached Letter to the Dover Town Board, submitted last week in connection with a Board meeting dealing with the Town’s proposed Restore NY funding application. The application is for funding to demolish two buildings on the Dover Knolls property. It was read into the record by Town Board Member Richard Hawthorne.
CRGD reiterates an ongoing concern, stated previously during the Scoping Sessions and during Town Board discussions of the Stimulus Funds Application, over the possibility of on-site burial of C&D and therefore the possible contamination of our water supply. We believe that the Town should maintain control and supervision over the expenditure of all Restore NY funds obtained in connection with the demolition of buildings: ”the Town Board can and should insist that any Restore NY funds obtained be spent to ensure that all demolition project materials be taken off-site and that nothing be left on-site or back-filled in the tunnels.”
