Western New York, Niagara Group, Sierra Club

Activism
1/9/04 - Lancaster residents petition NYS Department of Conservation (NYSDEC) to act accordingly to protect resident and environment best interests...
Read full article on speakupwny.com

7/30/03 - The New York Power Authority gave a tour of the Niagara River to the stakeholders participating in the Alternative Licensing Process for the Niagara Power Project. They didn't expect to see this...

By Jim Hufnagel

I was so captivated by the idea of a jetboat full of dignitaries jetting down the Niagara Gorge, disturbing the tranquility of this marvelously beautiful place, rousting the many water fowl of this Audubon designated Globally Significant Important Bird Area and stirring up wakes that washed several feet up the banks of the Niagara River, that I created a 30-foot long banner that proclaimed, "Jetboats SUCK!" in 4-foot high letters.

Diane and I started hiking down Devil's Hole at 8:30 AM to wait for the bright red jetboat loaded with squealing stakeholders. We had photographers on both sides of the Gorge to record the event for the newspapers and internet, so you will be hearing more about this issue soon.

The boat was 45 minutes late, and as I observed to Diane, a dedicated wildlife biologist, it must be as easy to herd politicians onto a boat as it is to herd cats.

Finally the boat arrived, and despite Bush's recent terrorist alerts, and the intense scrutiny of the Gorge and Niagara River to catch Osama before he can kayak across, I think the demon boat and its occupants were totally surprised at the banner that was confronting them from the river bank. We could hear the narrator's voice through the bullhorn as they approached, like you hear most days when you hike down into the Gorge to experience nature, suddenly fall silent as they passed us. He made some lame remark like, "There's some people who don't like us", and I swear I saw several jaws drop.

The boat did several "donuts" at the Whirlpool and then headed back. More photo ops for us. This time they had recovered their composure and were waving and whistling. Holding my end of the banner, I screamed, "Fuuuun? Woooow!" at the top of my lungs. I don't know if my Fantasy Island allusion was lost on them, but it probably was.

I don't realistically think we'll bring the jetboat stupidity to a conclusion anytime soon, but maybe for a moment we are helping Western New Yorkers think of this incredible wonder of Natural History, the Niagara Gorge, as more than a vulgar amusement park ride.

Several members of the Niagara Group participated in the Earth Day 2003 protest at Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo against gas and oil drilling in Allegheny National Forest and Allegany State Park.

The Allegheny National Forest...
    has 20,000 acres logged annually,
    is crisscrossed by 3,000 miles of roads,
    has more oil/gas wells than all other National Forests combined.
Check out www.alleghenydefense.org for more information.

Year 2001 Issues Arranged Alphabetically by Locality
Year 2001 Issues Arranged Alphabetically by Topic
Year 2000 Issues

Year 2001 Issues Arranged Alphabetically by Locality

Lancaster

As has been reported previously, property 177 owned by the NYSTA is being considered for development. Last year, Bella Vista Development, was working with the NYSTA in trying to develop the land. After considerable activity, the NYSTA Deputy Director, John Brizzell, P.E. has decided that they are no longer involved with Bella Vista. They, the NYSTA, are proposing a project directly off of the thruway exit, which would not disturb the wetlands present on the site. Further by building the project it would impede any other development from the site.

In Lancaster, there are a myriad of projects in the works.

1. In the southern part of the town, there is a subdivision known as Windsor Ridge. There have been several phases to the project, but the current one involves, allowing the developer to build a bridge across Slate Bottom Creek. The permits issued by the ACoE in 1993+/- have expired, and need to be reissued for the bridge to be built. The developer hopes to build several hundred homes on the south side of Slate Bottom Creek, and tie into a dead end street known as Hall Road. Hall Road is a tiny road, which would allow the new homes egress to Bowen Road. Unfortunately, the townÕs attorney seems intent of seizing the land from the homeowners, using but not limited to imminent domain. Oh by the way, the land in question is a federal wetland.

2. On the western edge of Lancaster, at William Street and Transit Road, Bella Vista Development successfully persuaded the town board to grant a zoning variance so that he could build a Super Wal-Mart . Although the local residents all cried foul and asked the town board not to go along with the change, it was granted. Bella Vista persuaded a town board member, who had previously voted against the project, to vote for it. In her vote she pointed out that the people who were against it were mean to her, and had put flyers on cars at her work. Further that they had called her home, and were bad people. It is ironic, because this same group paid for an ad in the local paper in her last election, and made Òget out the voteÓ phone calls for her. Funny how politicians can change their mind.

3. Further north on Transit in the Village of Depew, a special permit was issued by the NYSDEC that allowed the Village of Depew to dump wastewater into Cayuga Creek, if the need arose. It was explained that in times of flooding that the village might need this feature. Since there is no building going on in Depew, except for commercial development with no detention ponds, we wondered why this was necessary. It should be noted that the president of a local developer is the community development director of Depew, and that the mayorÕs father is the head of public relations for that same firm

4. Further north on Transit in Bowmansville, Bella Vista Development, was recently awarded a special use permit to erect a cell tower on their land. It is important to note that the land that this installed on was probably a wetland, but that it had been filled with 10 feet of fill. All of which was dumped, in the presidents own words, illegally, but the town is unwilling to pursue any action to make them remove it. Also on the same property, there has been approval to install warehouses. It is interesting to note that the cell tower, which is about 100Õ tall, will be sitting 20 feet from the new warehouses. Bella Vista was granted variance to build this close, by the zoning board of appeals. The town noted that although their own codes state that all structures must be built outside of the Òfall zoneÓ, that the town liability is nil because a P.E. stamped the drawings.

5. East of the Bowmansville area is a new development proposed by M&T Bank. It calls for the construction of 1600+ new dwellings, on a piece of land that was originally bought for the Buffalo Bills Òdomed stadiumÓ. The 200+ acres has old growth forest, an old cemetery, over 25 acres of wetlands, sink holes, a distinct sulfur smell, and sits about a mile from a long house, but we are told by the townÕs attorney that there are no SEQRA issues. Funny but the SEQRA issues have been fought about on other projects and the discussion clearly amounts to a rubber stamp by the town board of issues never discussed by anyone except the developer. In short, unless the developer wants to bring up problems the issues are never addressed. But they have a SEQRA review?

6. East of the M&T project are two business parks. The Uniland project is designed to top out at 3,000 new automobiles. The other, Cross Creek, is designed for about 700 cars. The intent is that both parks will be white-collar office parks. Unfortunately, one flows into a creek that already overflows during the spring thaw, and the other leads into a creek which floods its residents year round. But again there are no SEQRA issues.

7. South of these projects and east of the Super Wal-Mart projects are 2,000 new homes proposed. These new homes will of course produce new traffic problems, more flooding, crime, and the myriad of other problems associated with Urban Sprawl.

Town Of Porter

On June 2001, the group adopted a resolution opposing the re-zoning and expansion of the CWM hazardous waste landfill in the Town of Porter. Niagara Group member Charles Lamb offered the resolution. Copies of the resolution and a letter were sent to the Town of Porter Board. On July 11th, a public hearing was held at Lew-Port High School. Many Sierrans were in attendance and spoke at the hearing, Jim Bunn and Charles Lamb chief among them. Jim Hufnagel created quite a stir and got front page newspaper exposure with his costume of a walking toxic waste barrel and skull mask. He carried a sign saying "No more toxic wastes."

See the Groups's Resolution and Letter.

Year 2001 Issues Arranged Alphabetically by Topic

Farm Bill

Russ Luke attended a meeting held at Monroe Community College, hosted by a group known as Environmental Defense. The main purpose of the meeting aside from a basic introduction to their causes was a discussion of farm issues. Frankly, the real point to the meeting was that since it is believed that the federal government is going to have to help the small farmers in the near future, that certain steps must be taken to insure that those monies are spent with some environmental thought. There are many dead zones now in our lakes and at the months of rivers due in large part to the over fertilizing of land with nitrogen for higher output. Unfortunately, when it rains some of the excess nutrients go into the streambeds as runoff, and eventually disturbs the delicate ecosystems through over production of vegetation in ponds and lakes. This over production of vegetation kills off some aquatic life forms and may create havoc.

As the meeting started out they showed a nice presentation, but the real star of the evening was the supervisor of Pittsford, NY. He pointed out that over the past decade he has worked in Pittsford to buy the development rights from the farmers, at a fair price. Pittsford is a small agrarian community, where most of the farms are truck farms owned for generations, by the same families. It was determined that if the town could buy the development rights from the farmers at a reduced price, from that of a developer, that the farmer could continue to own the land but that there would never be the concern that developers would buy the land and turn it into another development. When we asked him about the schools in his town, he revealed that when you build new homes in a community that children have to go to school somewhere. Since they are going to end up in school, taxes will go up to build new schools, and hence the argument justifying new homes as increasing the tax base is valid, but inaccurate. What really happens is that more schools are built for these new children, and hence taxes go up. By buying the development rights from the farmer, he gets to farm, he locks in a certain profit, and the town isn't burdened with new schools from an older populace.

Toxic Wastes

On June 2001, the group adopted a resolution opposing the re-zoning and expansion of the CWM hazardous waste landfill in the Town of Porter. Niagara Group member Charles Lamb offered the resolution. Copies of the resolution and a letter were sent to the Town of Porter Board. On July 11th, a public hearing was held at Lew-Port High School. Many Sierrans were in attendance and spoke at the hearing, Jim Bunn and Charles Lamb chief among them. Jim Hufnagel created quite a stir and got front page newspaper exposure with his costume of a walking toxic waste barrel and skull mask. He carried a sign saying "No more toxic wastes."

See the Groups's Resolution and Letter.