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Safe Pill Drop, Free Shredding Event is Saturday

April 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Town of Lincoln, NY – April 2012) Flushing old prescription and over-the-counter drugs down the drain is no longer a good idea as these medications are ending up in the surface water and are polluting the environment.

It is also important to know that old and unused prescription drugs may also be stolen and abused if they linger in a medicine cabinet. There is a nation-wide trend of abuse of prescription drugs, and a huge black market for recreational use that results in many tragedies and addictions.

To combat these two issues surrounding prescription drugs, Madison County’s sixth Safe Pill Drop Off will be held on Saturday April 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Madison County Landfill.

The Landfill is located at 6663 Buyea Road in the Town of Lincoln.  The landfill is 3 miles south from the Wampsville traffic light on Route 5.

The safe pill drop off event will be an opportunity for Madison County residents to dispose of their old and expired medications.  Residents can also bring vitamins, veterinary medicines, over the counter medications, and sharps for disposal.  Sharps must be in a red bio hazard container available for free at any Madison County pharmacy.

Residents are asked to whenever possible bring their medications in the original containers.  Original bottles help the pharmacists on site identify the medication that is being dropped off. Please black out any personal information on the pharmacy labels.

This event will also have shredding available, so please bring any documents you need shredded along with your unused medications.

The Safe Prescription Pill Drop Off is co-sponsored by The Madison County Department of Solid Waste and Sanitation, RSVP Volunteers for Madison County, Madison County’s Promise- The Alliance For Youth, Madison County Sheriff’s Department, Madison County STOP DWI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

For more information on the upcoming Safe Pill Drop Off, please contact BRiDGES at 697-3947 orSharon Driscollat 361-8409.

 

 

Filed Under: Calendar of Events, Environment and Nature, Health & Medicine, Lincoln, Madison County Agencies and Organizations, Top Stories

Against Drilling

April 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

To the Editor:

Madison County Supervisors recently urged people to seek legal advice before selling energy rights; a warning too late for many. Land agencies have been using deceptive tactics on unsuspecting landowners for years; signing people up for as little as $2 an acre in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Land agents who show up at people’s homes with mineral rights contracts in hand have attempted to get people to sign leases giving up all their mineral rights vs. gas drilling rights, they have not honored their verbal promises, and in some cases “…companies try to record improper documents all the time, including adding five-year extensions to leases that explicitly rule them out” (Cortland County Clerk).

In 2011, a gas industry memo was made publicly known in which land agents were instructed on how to talk to homeowners: “don’t mention groundwater contamination or lost property values; downplay natural gas drilling is believed to be a greater threat then oil drilling; and describe hydraulic fracturing drilling process as ‘radioactive free,’” even though the memo concedes that is not accurate.

Two recent state Supreme Court rulings affirm communities have the right to ban drilling in its jurisdiction. Our townships should now have the courage to pass appropriate zoning ordinances; however, town boards in Madison County have failed to even enact moratoriums to protect us from these unethical and borderline illegal activities by land agents.

Call and ask your town supervisor why.

Gas exploration is risky; your property, your rights and your future property values are at risk. Neighboring communities will be affected, as well.

Selling or leasing of mineral rights is a critical decision; landowners could inadvertently lose control of their property. As drilling permits can be issued at any time upon the lifting of the state moratorium, wouldn’t it be wise for our townships to put a hold on hydrofracking and protect us?

Linda Steffen, Canastota

Editor’s note: Madison County Board of Supervisors Chairman John M. Becker has issued numerous public warnings to seek legal counsel specializing in mineral rights issues before signing anything regarding property rights; the recent advisory relates to sale of mineral rights, as opposed to lease of mineral rights, which has been typical until recently. Land agents frequently are independent operators who sell the leases they collect to the highest ‘bidder,’ and are not affiliated with any particular gas exploration company. Hydraulic fracturing is one type of drilling method to extract natural gas and does not cover all facets of natural gas exploration or production.

Filed Under: Canastota, Environment and Nature, Government & Politics, Madison County Agencies and Organizations, Opinion-Editorial

Great Swamp Announces Programs

April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Town of Lenox, NY – April 2012) On April 22, the Great Swamp Conservancy, Inc., will host an Earth Day tree-planting celebration at 1 p.m.

On May 5 and 6, the Great Swamp will host its 11th annual Spring Migration Festival and Nature Art Exhibit from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will feature wildlife artists, crafters, Talons Birds of Prey, environmental displays, music, children’s activities, guided bird walks, food and more.

This is a nature- and family-oriented event. Suggested donation is $3 per adult and $1 per child under 12; GSC members $2.

For more information, call (315) 697-2950 or visit gscincny.org.

Filed Under: Calendar of Events, Canastota, Environment and Nature, Lenox Tagged With: , ,

Wind Energy: What’s it All About?

April 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Hamilton, Madison, NY – April 2012) Madison Matters will host a presentation by Jonathan P. Knauth, P.E., at the Masonic Lodge, Route 12B in Hamilton Tuesday, April 24, at 7 p.m.

Knauth, a scientist and a professional engineer, will provide an overview of the economic and technical effectiveness of industrial wind power, as well as its impacts on the natural and human environments.

His presentation is designed to assist communities in making informed judgments regarding the scope and siting of wind energy projects. This is an opportunity hear an expert explain complicated scientific and engineering concepts in language that we can understand.

 

Filed Under: Calendar of Events, Environment and Nature, Hamilton, Madison Tagged With: ,

Woodcock Watch Planned at the GSC

April 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Town of Lenox, NY – April 2012) April 21, the public is invited to the Great Swamp Conservancy at 6:30 p.m. for an American woodcock program and walk. The PowerPoint presentation begins at 6:30 with the walk following. The long bill of this upland shorebird is sensitive and flexible, allowing it to feel for worms in deep soil.

Woodcocks are rarely seen during the day unless flushed. Woodcock have a chunky, short neck and are short-legged. Its plumage matches the dead leaves of the forest floor and old fields where it roosts by day.

Space is limited, so reservations are strongly recommended; for more information, call the Great Swamp at (315) 697-2950 or email gscincny@centralny.twcbc.com.

Filed Under: Calendar of Events, Canastota, Environment and Nature, Lenox

Madison County Joins the Central New York Energy Challenge

April 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Wampsville, NY – April 2012) Madison County has become a participating community in the Central New York Energy Challenge. The Challenge was launched in 2011 by the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board (CNY RPDB), in partnership with NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) and features an innovative, team-based, approach to assisting homeowners throughout Central New York to conserve energy, make energy upgrades, and implement renewable energy projects.

The team-based approach, called “Energy Challenge Teams,” consists of  five to eight households that work together following a workbook that consists of a  five-unit, 12-week curriculum to learn about how to track energy usage and take energy saving actions within the home. Teams meet bi-weekly for about one hour. Each group is led by a facilitator. Madison County is currently seeking motivated individuals to serve as Energy Challenge Team Facilitators.

The Energy Challenge Team Facilitator’s role is to recruit team members, organize and conduct meetings following a facilitator guidebook, and to schedule a comprehensive home energy assessment. Facilitators must also participate in a preliminary training session where they will be introduced to the Facilitator Guidebook, Participant Workbook, and receive other materials and information to support their role. The actions covered can help homeowners to maintain the value of their homes, improve comfort, and lead to energy savings of up to 30 percent.

A facilitator training session will be held Saturday May 5 at the Morrisville Public Library 83 East Main St., Morrisville from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Jennifer Tabanico, President of Action Research, consultant for the project, will be on-hand to conduct the training session. Facilitators may either live or work within Madison County and MUST own their own home. To become a challenge team facilitator, contact Samuel Gordon, Challenge Coordinator,  at (315) 422-8276 ext. 204 or visit cnyenergychallenge.org and follow the link “Join a Challenge Team Today!”

The Energy Challenge Team program was developed in partnership with NYSERDA’s Behavior Research Program. The goal of the program is to determine how effective team-based approaches are for achieving lasting energy savings. Participants’ energy consumption will be tracked over a period of 18 months to measure program outcomes.

“The Challenge will assist residents in Central New York with examining their energy usage through an innovative approach which can help them not only save energy but save money,” said Francis J. Murray Jr., President and CEO of NYSERDA. “NYSERDA is pleased to invest in this community-based program, which will bring awareness and motivation to reduce consumption.”

The program was developed based on several findings released in the US Department of Energy’s Driving Demand for Home Energy Improvements report, which established that simply providing information and financing is not enough to encourage positive energy behaviors. Instead, individuals need to develop an understanding of appropriate energy behaviors, make a public commitment to change, and be provided with feedback on their efforts. The Energy Challenge Team program will encourage peer-to-peer conversations and lead participants through a series of fun and easy exercises to take control of their household energy use.

“Many of us simply don’t make the link between our actions and our energy use. The bill comes once a month, and we often forget the specific actions that resulted in our usage,” said Professor Wesley Schultz, scientific advisor to Action Research, a consulting team working with the project, and co-author of Social Marketing to Protect the Environment: What Works. “By working together, groups of friends, neighbors, or co-workers can really see a difference and help make saving energy easy, fun, interesting, and engaging, ”

“This program presents an opportunity for citizens in our community to learn about energy conservation measures, to save money and to take steps to lower their environmental impact in a way that builds community and sets an example for their neighbors,” said Scott Ingmire, Director of Planning for Madison County.  “I thank the CNY Regional Planning & Development Board and NYSERDA for their partnership, and look forward to working with members of the community in strengthening the County’s environmental stewardship.”

 

Filed Under: Announcements, Economics, Environment and Nature, Madison County Agencies and Organizations, Morrisville, Top Stories, Wampsville

Energy Industrialization – Impacts on a Residential Community

April 15, 2012 By 1 Comment

To the Editor:

I write as a resident of the Town of Madison who lives close to the boundaries of the proposed Rolling Upland Wind Farm project. Along with dozens of other residents, I am contributing my own time, money, and energy to the effort to help get the word out about the impacts that an industrial wind energy facility of the proposed scale may have for our entire area.  Anyone who attends meetings of the Madison Planning Board or the Madison Town Board, or any of the other gatherings around this issue will see how many concerned local residents there are.

Apprehensions about the negative consequences of mega-scale industrial wind installations near residential communities are not based on frivolous “opinion.”  There is substantial and growing literature on the impacts that industrial wind facilities have on physical and mental health, property value, and the social fabric of communities. A clear trend in expert literature (by government, scientific, and conservation organizations alike) suggests that big wind projects should not be intermingled with homes. Appropriate siting of renewable production facilities is key to their success, and must, of course, be matched by significant, even radical energy conservation measures in every realm of consumption.

If there is a movement away from aggressive siting of wind projects in residential areas, it comes as a result of community opposition. That opposition is global, sizeable, and strong. It is not a superficial “NIMBY” response as the wind companies assert. Community-based movements emerge as attempts to prevent catastrophic property value loss and quality-of-life destruction due to inappropriate placement of gigantic wind facilities. Neither the wind industry nor its critics dispute the fact that large-scale industrial wind installations change the character and natural resources of an installation area in profound and permanent ways.  Energy developers can and do site these industrial projects more carefully, when forced to mitigate impacts and plan with residents’ concerns, community interests, and environmental contexts in mind.

The specific question of industrial wind turbine placement and residential setbacks is absolutely critical for THIS proposed project. If constructed, Rolling Uplands Wind Farm will cover 7000 acres – nearly one third of the entire area of the Town of Madison (as acknowledged by Planning Board chair Roger Williams at the meeting on April 4, 2012) and it will impact an area perhaps twice that size. The project zone encompasses more than one hundred homes, of which only a small number belong to leaseholders.  According to the Madison County property tax office, there are 768 property parcels within 5000 feet of the project zone (80 in Brookfield, 146 in Hamilton, and 542 in Madison). There are also many just on the other side of the project boundary in Oneida County. Many of these parcels are agricultural, wooded, wetlands, or not yet developed, but there are many hundreds of homes within a mile of the zone and many hundreds more – including all of those on Lake Moraine – within the likely impact area. The DGEIS completely ignores these residential communities, indeed in both maps and text the DGEIS mischaracterizes the larger impact zone, cutting off maps so as not to include the lake on one side and the major wetlands on the other.

Expert opinion differs on how large the setbacks should be from non-participant properties, but many recent sources suggest that 2000-3000 feet may be the minimum setback (as opposed to the 1000-foot setbacks proposed for RUWF), and some suggest that 5000-foot or even larger setbacks may be necessary to protect peoples’ health and property values. Town, state, and national governments all over the world are setting larger setbacks, in response to the legal challenges, political opposition, and medical complaints of affected residents in rural areas everywhere. The bottom line: turbines should not be sited so close to so many homes.

Area residents should be VERY concerned, as well, to know whether our elected and appointed officials are capable of negotiating in ways that will protect our communities and our properties. Do they have sufficient expertise to guide their communities through industrial and financial processes of monumental technical, legal, and financial complexity? From the limited information I have been able to get from our Town Supervisor and Planning Board Chair, it is not clear that the Town of Madison has the capacity to negotiate well with a big international energy firm that brings every form of expertise to bear on getting a permitting decision and a low PILOT payment.  If our properties are going to be altered, and our community permanently changed into an industrial site, there should at least be recompense of an appropriate scale for those who will bear the costs of this. Let us all put get some numbers on the table and get the Town to show that it is taking our property values and our community worries seriously. The Town should negotiate Property Value Guarantees (PVGs) to compensate or buy out owners whose properties are negatively or severely impacted by this process. If the company is unwilling to commit to PVGs, our Town officials should demand to know why.

Elected and appointed officials must take a hard look at the significant and long-term impacts that the proposed industrial wind project may have on our tax base and on future, sustainable economic and social development potential. Area political leaders and school district officials should also be concerned to understand the multiple long-term impacts this project could have for their tax base – as well as the lives of hundreds of their neighbors. It would be appropriate for leaseholders and Town officials not to dismiss the substantive and serious concerns raised by many residents without understanding that we are trying to protect our community from an irreparable harm. If Madison builds this project, it should at least figure out how to compensate the Town and individual non-participating residents for potential damage to individual property and to the whole area in which we live.

Nancy Ries, Hamilton

 

Filed Under: Environment and Nature, Government & Politics, Madison, Opinion-Editorial

Wants No Drilling

April 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment

To the Editor:

(Canastota, NY – April 2012) In the recent Cazenovia presentation, Mike Lovegreen, Bradford County Conservation District Manager, talked about the impacts of shale gas drilling by high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) – “Speaker Tells Cazenovia Audience He’s Seen Impacts from Drilling, but not Hydraulic Fracturing.”

This sounds like hydraulic fracturing is not a problem; however, there wouldn’t be any drilling into the Marcellus if not for the new horizontal drilling/fracturing combo known as hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

Hydrofracking is defined as “the very precise moment in the development of the well when fluids are injected under high pressure to break the bedrock.” Therefore, a well casing failure that sends natural gas into a drinking water well and contaminates it is not a hydraulic fracturing accident. It’s a drilling accident.

The industry insists hydraulic fracturing presents no risk because it asserts it is impossible for chemicals, water, gas or anything else to move from thousands of feet below into shallow aquifers; however, research done by scientists at Duke University shows methane has migrated directly through underground faults.

This indicates other substances can migrate into groundwater sources and affect water wells. University at Buffalo researchers found hydrofracking causes uranium, a toxic, deadly metal that is naturally trapped in the shale to be released.

Why do we need to be aware of this? It shows gas wells can bring underground radioactive materials to the surface in the cuttings, flowback fluid and production brine. Treatment plants cannot safely treat radioactive wastewater (the by-product of shale gas extraction). So how will we dispose of the millions and millions of gallons of radioactive waste which will be brought to the surface each day?

Hazardous radioactive radium, contained in the shale, will dissolve in the water used for hydrofracking. Due to decaying radium, radon will be formed. Radon will be released in the homes, schools and businesses using this shale gas. As the radon decays, lead will be formed in the pipes in locations which use shale gas. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer and lead is dangerous and poisonous; it damages the nervous system and causes brain disorders.

Due to the overwhelming risks to our health from hydrofracking, town boards have only one just option, to ban shale gas development. Town boards have the authority to do so. Please contact your town supervisor today.

Cheryl Cary, Canastota

Filed Under: Canastota, Cazenovia, Environment and Nature, Opinion-Editorial

Clean Up at Chittenango Creek is April 14

April 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

(Cazenovia, NY – April 14) Cazenovia College’s Environmental Club is sponsoring its annual Chittenango Creek Clean-Up day on Saturday, April 14. The group will meet at 10 a.m. in the parking lot of Buyea’s Hardware Store, and community members are welcome to join them.

Thad Yorks, assistant professor of environmental studies at Cazenovia College, organizes the event each spring.

“The amount of actual clean-up is determined entirely by how many people help, so we’d love to see anyone interested in a cleaner Chittenango Creek join us that morning,” Yorks said.

Trash bags and doughnuts will be provided. Workers must provide their own work gloves. The clean-up will end at about noon.

Members of the Madison County Trout Unlimited Chapter 680, students from Morrisville State College, Cazenovia’s Boy Scout Troop 18, Cazenovia College’s Visual Rebellion Club and Cazenovia Preservation Foundation will be part of the group doing clean-up.

Filed Under: Calendar of Events, Cazenovia, Environment and Nature, Morrisville Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Fears Drilling

April 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment

To the Editor:

(Canastota, NY) Water is all connected; what we pour on the ground or spew into the sky ends up in our water. Groundwater wells are susceptible to being polluted by chemicals and methane by natural gas drilling operations.

The gas companies we are being asked to trust with our fresh water supplies are above the law – the Energy Policy Act of 2005 exempts them from the Clean Air and Water acts, which had protected our environment for decades. This sweetheart deal does not exist anywhere else in the construction industry.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation [hydraulic fracturing] study does not include an assessment of health risks, and there is no real solution to dispose of the millions of gallons of contaminated flowback that will be produced each day. Billions and billions of gallons of water extracted from lakes and rivers will be chemically contaminated in the process; lost forever. Noise from compressors operating all day and night will be inescapable.

Without health, fresh air, pure drinking water or even being able to hear the birds sing; we will have lost our way of life. Contaminated aquifers, illnesses, sick animals, polluted air and leases on American soil by foreign corporations – imagine what life will be like.

Town boards have the power to stop this by enacting a moratorium to halt drilling operations.

If they don’t, God help us.

Judith McConnell Steffen, Canastota

Filed Under: Canastota, Environment and Nature, Opinion-Editorial

Argues Case for Wind Power

April 4, 2012 By 2 Comments

To the Editor:

A recent op-ed on wind power unfortunately contained considerable misinformation. With a little research, anyone can find numerous peer-reviewed studies and strong evidence to show that wind power is a clean, safe and homegrown source of electricity and American jobs. Consider these facts:

The argument that wind drives up electricity costs is just plain wrong. According to the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) who operates New York’s transmission system and competitive electricity markets, wind generation actually saves consumers money. In testimony filed with the NYS Assembly Energy Committee in 2009, CEO Stephen Whitley testified, “Our studies show that for every 1,000 MW of wind added to the system, wholesale energy costs are reduced by $300 million dollars.”

As for how the power grid actually operates, the bulk transmission system backs up all power sources. On a daily basis, system operators must deal with large factory equipment coming on and offline, millions of people turning air conditioners and other appliances on and off, loss of transmission lines, and fossil and nuclear power plants suffering unplanned outages.  Changes in the output of wind farms are relatively easy for system operators to integrate, because they occur slowly and can be forecast 4-24 hours in advance.

It would be far more appropriate to talk about the need to back up large fossil and nuclear power plants, which experience large, instantaneous, and unexpected outages, requiring grid operators to keep over 1000+ MW (enough to power a small city) of fast-acting, expensive standby generation ready 24/7/365 in case one of those plants goes down.

While wind turbines do require land for siting, it’s instructive to compare them with coal mining, which every year disturbs several times the total amount of land used by wind farms. Then, an equal amount of new land must be consumed every year to obtain new coal. Only 2-5 percent of the land area of a typical wind plant is actually physically occupied by wind turbines and other equipment, while the remaining 95-98 percent can continue to be used for farming, ranching, timber, or whatever its prior use was.

Wind power is far less harmful to birds than the fossil fuels it displaces. Incidental losses of individual birds at turbine sites will never be more than an extremely small fraction of bird deaths caused by human activities. Conservation programs by wind developers save habitat and help protect birds. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) acknowledges that wind energy is not even close to being a leading cause of mortality with respect to birds.

Claims about wind turbines’ effects on health are unfounded. A 2012 study from the Massachusetts Departments of Environmental Protection and Public Health stated, “the strongest epidemiological study suggests that there is not an association between noise from wind turbines and measures of psychological distress or mental health problems.” As an energy source that produces no air or water pollution, wind power is essential to reducing the public health impacts of U.S. energy production.

As for federal energy subsidies, fossil fuels and nuclear energy have received subsidies for many decades and continue to do so at a far greater rate than renewables. According to a recent study by the Environmental Law Institute (a nonpartisan research and policy organization) over a 7-year period from 2002-08, fossil fuels received substantially larger energy subsidies than renewables. Subsidies to fossil fuels totaled $72.5 billion versus $29 billion for renewables. Of the $29 billion, the bulk of the subsidies, $16.8 billion, went to corn ethanol.

Wind’s primary incentive, the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), is an effective tool to allow developers to raise private capital in the marketplace and bring renewable energy projects to completion, and has helped leverage $75 billion in private investment since 2005. The PTC applies only to actual electricity produced from utility-scale wind turbines. With the PTC as its engine, the wind industry has experienced an average annual growth rate of 35 percent over the past four years and currently supports over 400 manufacturing facilities across 43 states, all supplying true blue American manufacturing jobs.

With stable tax policy the wind industry can grow to nearly 100,000 American jobs in the next four years, including growing the wind-manufacturing sector by one-third to 46,000 American manufacturing jobs. The Department of Energy during the George W. Bush Administration estimated the wind industry would support 500,000 jobs by 2030 when wind would also provide 20 percent of our electricity, if the right federal policies remain in place.

Unfortunately, this enormous progress is threatened today, with the PTC expiring at the end of 2012. As families across our country struggle with unemployment, and as businesses are cutting back just to survive, it’s past time for Congress to focus its ideas and efforts on proposals that will create jobs and get our economy moving again.

Wind energy is clean, abundant, and homegrown, and its cost is dropping.  American wind energy is not only a manufacturing market that America can compete in; it’s a market that we are winning.

Let wind finish the job.

Carol E. Murphy, Executive Director

Alliance for Clean Energy New York 

Filed Under: Environment and Nature, Government & Politics, Opinion-Editorial

Public Notice and Open Invitation to Madison Town Council and Planning Board

April 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

To the Editor:

(Madison, NY – April 2012) Attend a free showing of “Windfall” Tuesday, April 10, at 7 p.m., at the Hamilton Movie Theater or Monday, April 16, at Madison Central School at 7 p.m.

“Windfall” is a balanced and disturbing documentary about the effects of a proposed wind farm on the people of the town of Meredith. Before you vote on the Rolling Upland Hills Wind Farm project, it is incumbent upon all of you to educate yourselves about the potential consequences of your actions.

Accompany us on a free bus tour of Hardscrabble Wind Farm Sunday, April 15. The bus will leave from the parking lot of Madison Central School at 12:15 p.m. Before you vote, you must see for yourselves what a 37-turbine wind farm really looks and sounds like and talk to town officials and residents of the town of Fairfield who have been affected.

Stacey Coleman, Madison Matters

Filed Under: Announcements, Calendar of Events, Environment and Nature, Government & Politics, Hamilton, Madison, Opinion-Editorial Tagged With: , , , ,
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