The New York state Legislative Session came to a close Wednesday without addressing several key Adirondack Park issues including a conservation subdivision design bill, according to a leading environmental advocacy organization.
Ausable River dam’s fish passage postponed again
By Michael Virtanen Federal authorities have granted the utility operating a power dam on the Ausable River near Lake Champlain another year’s postponement on its requirement to install a fish passage system. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision on June 7 gives New York State Electric and Gas its sixth one-year extension. According to FERC, the utility’s renewed license for its nearly three-megawatt-capacity hydroelectric station at Rainbow Falls requires the fish passage. Monitoring now will be required next May, with reports due at the end of 2019 following consultations with New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Fish >>More
Lake George Watershed Coalition ex-manager faces more charges
The former project manager of the Lake George Watershed Coalition has been indicted on 22 charges, accused of bilking more than $400,000 over several years from the consortium established to protect the lake’s health and beauty.
Study finds high salt in well water as state plans to test less road salting
A new study shows runoff from decades of road salting in the Adirondacks polluted more of half of the wells tested downslope from state roads and highways.
Explorer hires Brandon Loomis as new editor
Brandon Loomis, a senior environmental reporter at the Arizona Republic since 2012, has been named editor of the Adirondack Explorer. He will start in July, succeeding Editor Phil Brown, who announced his retirement earlier this year.
ATV ruling against street use
A state judge has ruled that a village near the Adirondack Park improperly allowed all-terrain vehicles to operate on two of its streets without first justifying that a new ATV trail couldn’t othewise be connected to the Lewis County trail system. Acting State Supreme Court Justice Peter Schwerzmann, in a decision handed down Monday, concluded Constableville’s local law adopted in June 2017 first requires a documented finding that it is “otherwise impossible” to connect the new trail for off-road motorized vehicles. The Village Board’s statement that this is the case and the street access wass the only way to connect >>More
North Creek rail equipment and tankers leaving
The North Creek railway has been removing the equipment for its tourist trains and the remaining tankers stored on the tracks farther north
Court rejects challenges to snowmobile routes
A midlevel state court has rejected challenges by environmentalists to the Adirondack Park Agency’s 2016 decision to allow a new snowmobile trail in the Essex Chain Lakes region. Protect the Adirondacks and Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve sued in State Supreme Court in Albany contending that the management plan violates the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan, the state Wild, Scenic, and Recreational Rivers System Act, and state snowmobile-trail policy. Named as defendants are the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which drafted the management plan, and the APA, which approved it. The Appellate Division justices, upholding the lower >>More
Professor cites salt accumulating in Adirondack waters
By Michael Virtanen LAKE GEORGE _ Public works trucks now dump almost 193,000 tons of salt on highways and local roads annually in the Adirondacks, which eventually join runoff into the region’s waterways, according to the Paul Smith’s College professor who’s researching it. Daniel Kelting, also executive director of the Adirondack Watershed Institute, said the total is almost seven million tons of sodium chloride since the practice began around the 1980 Winter Olympics, raising the salt levels in most Adirondack waterways, which were historically low. “This widespread use of road salt has resulted in regional salinization of our surface waters, >>More
Tahawus mining reclamation permit approved
By Michael Virtanen State environmental officials have approved a mining reclamation permit for a Tupper Lake company to resume crushing and removing stone from the former titanium mine near the headwaters of the Hudson River in Newcomb. The Department of Environmental Conservation approved the permit for Mitchell Stone Products on May 3, DEC environmental analyst Sarah Davies said. Paul Mitchell, owner of the company, bought the former titanium mine from NL Industries this year. For a decade prior, he had been trucking stone from the site under a contract with NL, which stopped mining at Tahawus in 1989. Mitchell said >>More