From: Zac Moore (ZDMoore@maxwell.syr.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 24 2002 - 23:46:10 EDT
HEY YOU!!!
Want to help stop a landmark case of environmental racism and corporate
greed? Want to stay in solidarity with community struggles for racial
and environmental justice? Join the Midland Solidarity listserv by
sending a blank email to the following address:
midland-solidarity-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Breaking News!!!!!!
1. Activists Force County Legislators to Temporarily Freeze over $5
million of Consulting Fees for County's Corporate Engineers until the
Community Says What Will Be Built!
2. Gov. Pataki's Environment Commissioner, Erin Crotty, responds to a
damaging finding by 30 scientists from Cornell, Syracuse, SUNY-ESF, and
the Upstate Freshwater Institute that the DEC's science is flawed and
may result in a "dirty lake" that no one can swim in after spending over
$380 million to clean up the Ammonia and Phosphorus.
1. "County postpones designing facility: Legislators say too little is
certain about sewage facility planned near Armory Square."
October 19, 2002
By Teri Weaver, Staff writer, Syracuse Post Standard
http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1035013
04460180.xml
After residents put pressure on County Legislators with calls,
canvassing in Water Environment Protection Committee Chair, Terry
Pickard's, district for weeks and two dramatic protests at County
executive Pirro's office and home, the County Legislature tabled a
proposal to move forward allocating Environmental Engineering Associates
(EEA) a $5.5 million contract to design a second chlorine, RTF plant
downtown. At the Committee meeting, Legislator Pickard asked Michael
Cunningham of the County if the design fees would be bid out or if EEA
was "ordained". Cunningham's answer was that he seriously doubted that
any firm would be "qualified" to take the job. Pickard responded by
suggesting that surely someone would be interested in bidding on a $5
million contract!
Activists hail the tabling of this contract as a temporary victory
to hault the corporate welfare driving the County's flawed plans, and
call for a moratorium on corporate giveaways until the community agrees
what should be built with their tax dollars. Activists are also calling
for an investigation into the County's bid-restriction procedures that
are impeding fair government.
2. "Don't abandon lake cleanup plan that's already working"
October 24, 2002
Syracuse Post Standard--Opinion
By Erin M. Crotty, Commissioner, NY State DEC
http://www.syracuse.com/opinion/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/1
035448579287350.xml
Gov. Pataki's Commissioner of the Department of Environment Conservation
(DEC), Erin Crotty, responds in an opinion piece in the Post Standard to
the Sept 22nd full-page article in the Post, "After Cleanup Will Lake
Still Be Dirty?" where over 30 scientists from Cornell University,
Syracuse University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
and the Upstate Freshwater Institute challenged the DEC's analysis for
the lake cleanup as a "guarantee for nothing" after spending over $160
million in state money and $380 million total.
Please help us! Join the Midland Solidarity List and pump this up!
They can't do this to us if the whole world's watching!
In solidarity,
Zac Moore
SUN
315-476-7475
sun@dreamscape.com
1540 S. Salina Street
Syracuse, NY 13205
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
For Immediate Release:
October 21st, 2002
Contact: Zac Moore, Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN)
315-476-7475/sun@dreamscape.com
Scientists Call for Federal Review of Most Polluted Lake in United
States,
Challenge Effectiveness of Pataki's Cleanup Effort of $160 Million in
NYS Taxdollars
Related Articles:
http://ithaca.indymedia.org/media/00/00/02/9B/
http://ithaca.indymedia.org/media/00/00/02/99/
Key Facts Regarding the Midland Sewage Struggle and the Onondaga Lake
Cleanup
* Onondaga Lake is often called the most polluted lake in North
America. Raw sewage from combined sewage overflow into Onondaga Lake's
tributaries, including Onondaga Creek. An environmentally sound
solution is required.
* The CNY aquatic scientific community says that poor and
inadequate science is being implemented in an unaccountable process.
Over thirty respected scientists from Cornell University, Sryacuse
University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF),
and the Upstate Freshwater Institute have signed a formal petition to
Congress asking that the National Research Council review the science on
the Onondaga Lake Cleanup projects. Presently, only the engineering
corporations contracted to build these projects are responsible for
monitoring themselves. (See www.upstatefreshwater.org for a petition and
research findings). (See Syracuse Post 9.22.02 article, "After Cleanup
Will Lake Still Be Dirty?" by Mark Weiner)
* Over $380 million in Federal, State and County tax dollars are
at stake. Over $100 Million of Federal tax dollars and over $160 million
of New York State tax dollars ($75 million from the NYS Environmental
Bond Act and $85 million from Annual Appropriations). The total amount
of the Cleanup effort now exceeds $380 million in tax dollars from
annual appropriations and bonds.
* The Onondaga Lake Cleanup is controlled and driven by a
consortium of firms called Envirnonmental Engineering Associates (EEA)
and Moffa and Associates. County projects worth tens of millions of
dollars are not being bid-out to firms with the best solution or lowest
cost. Instead, County projects (employing millions of NYState and
Federal tax dollars) are limited and confined to EEA and other
participating firms in the consortium, namely O'Brien and Gere (OBG),
Blasland, Bouck and Lee (BBL) and Sterns and Wheeler. OBG and BBL are
ranked in the top 100 largest engineering firms in the United States and
are major campaign contributors to both Onondaga County Executive Nick
Pirro and New York Governor, George Pataki. Recently, Senior Vice
President of OBG, Terry Madden, appeared in a recent Pataki campaign ad
promoting job growth in Central New York.
* Onondaga County's plan to build a chlorine plant in the middle
of an African-American majority residential neighborhood raises serious
moral, health, environmental, and engineering concerns by the Central
New York community. The City of Syracuse has proposed that an
underground storage option be built to more successfully eliminate
overflows, avoid using dangerous chemicals and preserve both the
integrity of Onondaga Creek and the residential neighborhood.
* The City of Syracuse was excluded from the decision making
process of finding a solution to sewage overflows, despite the fact that
the location of proposed sites involved City-owned land. In 2001, the
Syracuse Common Council voted unanimously to refuse to cooperate with
the County's plans and refused to sell the land needed to build the
County's proposed chlorine plant at Midland Avenue. The County has
since filed suit against the City in Federal District Court in an
attempt to override the will of the City and the NY State eminent domain
laws, thereby attempting to take the land through the fiat of the court.
To date, no ruling has been issued by Federal Judge McAvoy on the case.
* The National NAACP is preparing an environmental racism
complaint to be filed in Federal Court demonstrating prejudicial
processes in the Onondaga Lake Cleanup effort, namely those surrounding
the County's decision making to locate a chlorine plant at Midland
Avenue, an African American neighborhood, while empolying less invasive
technology and a more open process for projects at other locales within
the County. As a result of community organizing, 77 residents living
within blocks of the proposed site signed affidavit declarations in
support of the NAACP suit.
For Additional Information, Please Contact:
Zac Moore
315-476-7475
315-476-4523 (fax)
Syracuse United Neighbors (SUN)
1540 S. Salina Street
Syracuse, NY 13205
sun@dreamscape.com
For information updates, please join the following listserv
by sending a blank email to the following address:
midland-solidarity-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
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