Ethanol in the Finger Lakes?

Is it good for the environment? Is it good for the economy? Is it good for the residents of Seneca County? Give us an Environmental Impact Statement, and we'll give you our answer!!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Our letter to the Editor

This letter from the FLFA was published in the Finger Lakes Times on 7 September 2007:

To the Editor:

As has been reported in this paper and elsewhere, our legal challenge regarding the proposed ethanol plant in Romulus received a setback recently when Judge Bender granted a motion to dismiss the case. We have every intention of appealing his decision and continuing the fight.

The first thing that the public should understand is that the ruling was based on narrow legal technicalities. It did not in any way challenge our position that the project would have major environmental impacts that should have triggered an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and that the Seneca County IDA was remiss in not requiring one.

We have been called "NIMBY's", but ironically the Judge ruled that we did not have legal "standing" to sue because the named petitioners would not be impacted more than the general public. While we continue to dispute this narrow point, we do concede one thing: there will be enormous environmental impacts to the public in the entire region, and the developers and their enablers have done their best to conceal them. In an ideal world we would not be arguing about who is harmed most. Rather, we would be asking: How it is possible that a project of this scale and potential for environmental disaster has been given a free pass?

There is no question that there will be major impacts to air and water quality, public safety, wildlife, and traffic on our roadways and railroads. The only question is: How severe will they be? Without an EIS, we won't know until it's too late. That's why we have been joined by the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, and other environmental groups and sportsmen's associations in insisting on an EIS.

This project affects more than Romulus, and more than Seneca County. Sadly, it is no secret that public officials in our area do not always act in the best interests of the larger public when influential private interests are at stake. Whatever the outcome of our appeal, in the end it will come down to the voices of the people who have chosen to live in the Finger Lakes area. If you agree that our lakes are worth protecting, call or write your elected officials and tell them so.

We need an Environmental Impact Statement.

Posted by Finger Lakes Future Alliance

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Sign our Petition for an EIS

October 22, 2007

Our position from the beginning has been that the ethanol plant project in Seneca County needs an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The more we learn about this project, the more we realize just how essential this is.

The Seneca County Industrial Development Agency (SCIDA) sees its main role as promoting industrial development---especially industrial development that benefits members of the SCIDA themselves, their family members, and their friends and business associates. However, when the SCIDA saw to it they they were named "lead agency" under SEQRA, New York's environmental review law, they took on a legal obligation to defend the public by making sure any negative environmental impacts were identified and studied.

They have shown little interest in doing that. Despite overwhelming evidence that there would be huge environmental impacts, they issued a "negative declaration", and refused to require an EIS. In effect, they gave a free pass to a huge project with enormous giveaways of public lands and taxpayer funds. It would destroy a sensitive ecosystem and degrade air and water quality. There is little evidence that this project would benefit the public in any way. But there is overwhelming evidence that there would be serious negative consequences to the public.

But it's not too late.

Under the SEQRA law, the lead agency is not just permitted, but OBLIGATED, to rescind a negative declaration when it becomes clear that the scope of the project has changed, or new information has come to light. Both of those conditions clearly apply. The project as it is now discussed is different in many respects from the preliminary documents presented by the developers, which were used as a basis for the negative declaration. These documents were full of omissions and misrepresentations.

Will the IDA do its duty and rescind the negative declaration, and now require an EIS?

Maybe---but only if we hold their feet to the fire, and hold our public officials accountable.

That's where the petitions come in. Let it be known that we demand that the IDA do its duty and RESCIND THE NEGDEC!! We need an EIS for this project!

SIGN OUR PETITION:

There are two ways to express your support for Finger Lakes Future, and demand that the IDA do the right thing and REQUIRE AN EIS :

1) Click here to sign our petition on the Care2 website.

or

2) Email us at fingerlakesfuture@gmail.com and we'll add your name to our petition. Or, if you prefer, we'll send you a pdf of our petition, suitable for gathering written signatures.