Raising Funds to Stop Cement Plant
by Janice Holzman
Scenic Hudson this winter held a series of events to raise funds and friends for the Hudson Valley Preservation Coalition. The organization was founded by Scenic Hudson and other local groups to oppose St. Lawrence Cement Co.'s mammoth plant proposed for the Town of Greenport and City of Hudson in Columbia County.
Speakers at these gatherings included Dr. Mitch Gaynor, director of the Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at Cornell University; Dr. George Thurston, associate professor of environmental medicine at the School of Medicine at New York University; Kate Kerin, executive director of Hudson River Heritage; Sam Pratt, executive director of Friends of Hudson; Alix Gerosa, director of Scenic Hudson's Environmental Quality program; and Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson.
The speakers contrasted the region's poetic landscape with the sprawling, pollution-spewing industrial compound and detailed the public health risks of cement plants.
Event sponsors Steve and Linda Levine in the Village of Tivoli in Dutchess County, Alexandra and Jock Spivy in the Village of Kinderhook in Columbia County, Hugh and Tiziana Hardy in Greenwich Village in New York City and Elyse and John Harney in Litchfield County, Conn., graciously opened their homes in support of the coalition. We also would like to thank Oscar Anderson, Max Goodwin and Tim Bontecou for hosting an event at the Tamarack Preserve in the Village of Millbrook in Dutchess County.
Dan Baxter generously provided artwork for the invitations, which explicitly juxtaposed the proposed facility's 400-foot smokestack and toxic plumes with the area's historic beauty.
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| TIP: For more information on how you can help, print, complete and send the coalition's donation form with your contribution to Scenic Hudson. Please do your part to help stop the SLC threat. |
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Mobilizing Against Goliath
The events were successful, but the coalition's needs are acute and ongoing in the face of SLC's well-funded spin machine.
The company has launched an advertising campaign that deliberately attempts to delude listeners into believing that leading environmental organizations, including Scenic Hudson, endorse the proposed complex. We demanded an end to the misinformation campaign and took to the airwaves and editorial pages to rebut.
The coalition is making headway, however, as the Greenport Town Board voted in April to cancel an agreement made last September with SLC, a move spurred in part by a legal challenge from Scenic Hudson, Friends of Hudson and 12 Greenport residents.
Grass-roots support also is critical to the coalition's efforts, and the fund-raising events inspired many to write their federal and state representatives. Visit Stop the Cement Plant, for news about our campaign, letter-writing tips and policy-maker contacts, or contact our Environmental Quality program at (845) 473-4440 or environqual@scenichudson.org. |
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View full size image. |
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| The proposed St. Lawrence Cement plant would
feature a 40-story smokestack, nearly three times the size of the Statue of Liberty. Select image to view a comparison. |
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