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SUMMER QUARTERLY MEETING - TUESDAY, JULY
27, 2004 - 10:30 A.M.
PLACE: Stony Point
Battlefield State Historic Site - off Route 9W, Stony Point.
Take PIP north to Exit 15. Turn left (east) toward Stony Point to
the end, about 2.7 miles. At traffic light, turn left onto Route 9W
north and proceed about 1 mile. Look for sign on the right indicating
the park entrance as the next right. This is Park Road. Proceed on
Park Road to the entrance.
10:30 A.M.
Meeting at Museum
Presentation of the Rockland County Conservation Association
Eleanor Burlingham Award to Justin Grimm-Greenblatt, Tappan Zee High School
1:15 A.M.
Program: THE HIGHLANDS
Carol
Ash, Executive Director
Palisades Interstate Park Commission
All are welcome. Please bring a picnic
lunch....
Midsummer
You sense the change in
the way the shadows fall. The pool of shade beneath a big maple
moves slightly back from its furthest reach to the.north. The beam
of sunlight slanting through a north window in the morning now has
narrowed. And at the roadside are clouds of Queen Anne's lace. Daisies
begin to fade. Wild raspberries ripen. On the oak trees young acorns
are in plain sight.
- from Hal Borland's Twelve Moons of the Year
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Tappan Zee High School's Graduating Senior
JUSTIN GRIMM-GREENBLATT
RECEIlVES THE YEAR 2004 ELEANOR BUR&INGHAM A WARD
Devotion to the environment is manifested in various ways
but not many of us have caught, measured, weighed and tagged
green sea turtles in Hawaii in efforts to insure their survival.
Justin Grimm-Greenblatt has done that through a Brown University
Environmental Leadership Lab under the direction of the
Marine Turtle Research program for the National Marine Fisheries
Service. He thinks and he acts to protect the environment
for living things.
While crewing on a Cape Cod vessel, Justin helped Audubon
Society audiences to be aware of the environmental factors
affecting the lives of fish, turtles, and mollusks. His
Marine Fisheries experience directed his attention to ways
to stabilize fish populations including native-built fish
ponds along ocean fronts. Justin wonders, "Maybe Rockland
County could use a similar method for improving fish population
and even utilize it for low population species like sturgeon
in the Hudson."
Participating in endangered koa tree revival in the rain
forest set Justin to questioning why more people in Rockland
do not plant trees. "They not only improve air quality but
also aid in filtering impurities from runoff and prevent
erosion."
Justin used a Riverkeeper internship to monitor the city
of Newburgh's adherence to the Clean Water Act, reporting
his personal observation of questionable discharges into
the Hudson River to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
Presently, under St. Thomas Aquinas College's Dr. John Rosko,
he is monitoring the effect of copper sulfate on the opercular
rate, gill movement, of the mosquito fish in Sparkill Creek
with the goal of seeing if there is a need for change in
copper concentrations entering the creek.
Justin is to be congratulated on the specificity and level
of activity with which he approaches the big environmental
concerns while giving attention to local conservation needs
as well.
In keeping with his interest in water-related science,
he will attend SUNY Stony Brook on Long Island in September.
-Jeanne Nelson, RCCA Board of Directors
Co-Chair, RCCA Award
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Good News
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County to Purchase 235 Acres
of Open Space in Ramapo
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County
Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef has announced that Rockland County
has reached an agreement to purchase the last, large, undeveloped
mountainous area in Rockland and to forever preserve it as parkland.
The 235.5 acres are
located of Johnsontown Road in Sloatsburg, between the Harriman
State Park and the Rockland County Dater Mountain Park. The
property, which sits in the New York/New Jersey Highlands, is
heavily wooded, with steep inclines and rocky slopes. It contains
eight federally designated wetlands and provides habitat for
two New York State Endangered Species (the Northern Cricket
Frog and the Allegheny Woodrat) and one Threatened Species (the
Timber Rattlesnake). There are also 41 species of birds that
inhabit the property.
The property scored
very high under the County's Open Space Criteria because of
its unique natural resources and interesting history. The Munsee
Indians once inhabited the area. Later, settlers extracted iron
ore and produced charcoal on the land to fuel the ironworks
mills located along the Ramapo River. The property has also
been extensively logged since the 1800s.
"We will be constructing
a network of trails through the property to link Harriman State
Park to the existing Rockland County Dater Mountain Park," said
Mr. Vanderhoef. "We also plan to build a parking lot area to
make the property more easily accessible for our residents.
" In 1991, the Village
of Sloatsburg reviewed a proposal to subdivide the property
into 71 single family lots. The current owners have indicated
that if the property was not purchased by the County, they would
propose a similar subdivision.
Rockland County has
agreed to purchase the property for $4.9 million. The County
received a $350,000 grant from the State of New York to assist
in the acquisition of the property.
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Nuclear
Power
Today, the safety of nuclear
power is being seriously undermined by two very significant problems.
New rules that essentially eliminate any meaningful public participation
from the process of licensing plants. And the re-licensing of aging
plants - many 40 years old - without requiring them to meet modern
safety standards.
Public participation has long
played an important role in the process for licensing or re-licensing
nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission itself documented
that this public participation greatly enhanced safety levels. However,
bowing to industry pressure, the NRC recently revised these rules
to drastically curtail public participation, eliminating public viewing
of internal plant documents and cross-examination of plant managers.
Even more alarming is the
plan for the re-licensing of nuclear power plants across the U.S.
These plants - originally licensed for 40-year terms - are now up
for 20-year license renewals.
The nuclear industry learned
many painful lessons in the course of building the 104 nuclear plants
operating today. Countless new regulations were adopted to prevent
problems that were uncovered and accidents that occurred. New nuclear
plants are required to meet all those new regulations. However, a
plant re-licensed after 40 years doesn't have to!
Even though nuclear power
plants are potentially dangerous and the risk of failure increases
as plants age, a nuclear plant only has to meet the standards in place
when it was originally licensed. The NRC's license renewal process
assumes that plants are currently complying with safety regulations
and have effective aging management programs in place - a potentially
disastrous assumption.
- Union of
Concerned Scientists
Two Brattle Square
Cambridge, MA 02238-9105
(800) 666-8276
ucs@ucsusa.org
RCCA Newsletter - Betty Hedges - bhbettyhedges@aol.com
Many thanks to Helen
Hannigan, Faith Leigh, Eloise Litman, Dorice Madronero, Jeanne Nelson,
Ira Hedges and Robert Nelson for their help in mailing and distributing
the RCCA Newsletter throughout the year.
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