Take Action: Williams Lake
Save the Lakes is spearheading opposition to a huge development project proposed in Rosendale, New York at the northern terminus of the Shawangunk Mountains. The Hudson River Valley Resort Development would sport 59 detached family homes, 101 attached family homes, and an exclusive luxury resort with 94 hotel rooms, 22 lake front suites, 14 hotel cabins, a waste water treatment facility, a spa, recreational and yoga meditation centers, up to 20,000 sq. ft retail facilities and other amenities around and between Williams and Fourth lakes. This large-scale housing and resort project is planned as a gated community that would forever remove public access from a rail and other trails that have historically provided recreational opportunities and access to unique geologic and cement industry features, including expansive mines.
As proposed, the project is vastly oversized and will adversely impact the environment. Save the Lakes is actively researching and conducting geologic and hydrologic assessments of the project. Come to the April presentation where Save the Lakes will share with you many of the projects’ fatal flaws. High quality GIS maps and photographs produced by HydroQuest will be used to illustrate how the large project size will almost certainly result in “mining” of the planned Williams Lake water source. Learn how project waste water may turn pristine wetlands and the Fourth Binnewater Lake into unhealthy, nutrient-rich, eutrophic water bodies. Learn how project storm water contaminants will rapidly infiltrate into and pollute a karst aquifer, the preservation of which may be important in Rosendale’s future. See how Save the Lakes’ field mapping has documented numerous planned home sites directly over mines and deep chasms, some of which show evidence of structural collapse. Learn of the project’s proximity to habitat of threatened and endangered species, including the Northern Cricket Frog, Indiana Bat, and possibly the Timber Rattlesnake.
The environmental and cultural aspects of the property make it a regional and state-wide treasure worthy of protection. Learn of Save the Lakes’ vision for protection of the Williams and Fourth lake property area. Join them in their effort to preserve unfragmented habitat, historic early industrial features including vast mines and kilns, lake access, recreational opportunities on undeveloped portions of the property and the very character of Rosendale.
The Rosendale-based group fighting to preserve Williams Lake has been working to educate the public about the impacts of the proposed Canopy development there. A Jan. 8 meeting drew over 300 people to hear David Porter and Paul Rubin give a detailed analysis of the possible negative impacts of this proposal on the social, economic, and natural resources of the area, particularly its wetlands and aquifers. One fortunate result is that the State DEC has moved to replace the town as lead agency in the upcoming SEQRA process. The group has a very informative website: www.savethelakes.us; and members are scheduled to give us a brief overview of these issues at our April program meeting.
This group is badly in need of support, and the Sierra Club is looking for a local member(s) to help us become more effective participants in this process. If you can help, please contact Marie Caruso at (845) 452-9086 or mariehv@verizon.net.
