Greenidge Action Alert

Greenidge Action Alert
Please use the talking points below to submit a comment to the DEC regarding its revised draft air permit and its amended negative declaration determining that re-opening the Greenidge Power Plant on the West Side of Seneca Lake in Dresden, NY will have no significant adverse impacts on the environment. DEC is proposing to allow the plant to be re-opened and run on natural gas and wood biomass instead of coal.

The major talking point is that DEC needs to prepare a full environmental impact statement to address the areas of environmental concerns it failed to identify and consider in the amended negative declaration. Among the areas of environmental concerns DEC failed to consider are:

• Climate change impacts from the life-cycle emissions of the natural gas used to operate the facility,
• Water quality impacts and aquatic habitat impacts from thermally contaminated discharges of up to 190,000,000 gallons per day into the Keuka Outlet where it joins Seneca Lake,
• Fish entrainment and impingement impacts from withdrawing up 159,897,000 gallons of water per day from Seneca Lake to operate the plant’s once-through cooling system,
• Solid waste impacts from the production of 6,500 tones of fly ash each year,
• Health impacts of increased toxic air emissions, increased solid waste, damaged water quality and climate-change, and
• Land degradation and aesthetic impacts from the construction of a 4.6 mile gas pipeline near the Keuka Outlet
In addition to objecting to DEC’s failure to consider these areas of environmental concern, please ask for.
• A 60 day extension of time for comments
• Public statement hearings for the public to share their concerns

The deadline for comments is tomorrow, Friday, August 5 at 5:00 pm. If you don’t make the deadline, still file your comments because DEC often takes late comments.
The ENB notice, http://www.dec.ny.gov/enb/20160629_reg8.html#857360000400017 specifies comments should be submitted by mail or email to:
Scott Sheeley
NYSDEC Region 8 Headquarters
6274 E Avon-Lima Rd
Avon, NY 14414
(585)226-2466
DEP.R8@dec.ny.gov