To the Editor:
As she seeks election to a full term this year while promoting a $4 billion environmental bond act, Governor Kathy Hochul and her commissioners face important environmental health issues in eastern New York.

Will her administration grant a license renewal to Waste Connections for its seven-year-old Dunn construction and demolition debris and who-knows-what-else dump next to the Rensselaer public school campus? The Rensselaer County Legislature, Rensselaer City Council, and East Greenbush Town Board have all unanimously enacted resolutions calling for the closure of the dump. The dump is a considerable health and quality-of-life hazard.

Will the state government allow Norlite to continue burning hazardous waste in Cohoes? Norlite has polluted and poisoned a Cohoes neighborhood and residents for decades while the state health and environmental conservation commissioners pretend the air emissions are of little consequence. Adults and children are ill, especially in the immediate neighborhood of the industrial-waste burner.

Will the state allow the shallow burial of two Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) electricity cables under and along the bottom of 100 miles of the Hudson River south of Albany? Hydro Quebec’s New York partners (Blackstone/TDI) hope to dredge 200,000 cubic yards of river sediment installing the power lines. Since 2013, the state Public Service Commission, and more recently, the Energy Research and Development Authority, and the new governor, have endorsed this unnecessary river intrusion that would pollute drinking water and poison fish.

Much of the CHPE electricity would come from power stations and enormous “reservoirs” on destroyed rivers in Quebec and Labrador that inflict massive ecological and cultural damages on land, water, wildlife, and people in eastern Canada, while contributing to climate change.

New York’s constitution now guarantees each person a right to clean air and water and a healthy environment. With climate change and species extinctions intensifying, and continuing frequent poor air quality, we need a real commitment from the governor, executive agencies, and state legislature to environmental and health protection.

Tom Ellis

Albany

Editor’s note: In a 4-to-1 vote, the Guilderland Town Board on Aug. 4, 2020 passed a resolution that will let the Champlain Hudson Power Express Inc. run underground lines through the town to bring electric power from Canada to the New York City area.