(UPDATED at 12:45 p.m. Feb. 19 with letter from Schuyler County’s state Legislators demanding a 90-day extension of the DEC’s Feb. 28 deadline for public comment on the proposed Padua Ridge gravel mine expansion.)
The state’s tight deadline for public comment on a plan to quintuple the size of the Padua Ridge gravel mine on a hill above the village of Watkins Glen short-circuits public efforts at routine due diligence, state and local officials say.
Furthermore, the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s refusal to budge from its Feb. 28 cutoff for comments fits a 16-year pattern of restricting public participation in stark violation of the agency’s mission statement, local residents add.
That mission calls for the DEC to promote “the empowerment of individuals to participate in environmental decisions that affect their lives.”
Instead, the DEC has taken a firm stand on the Feb. 28 deadline in the face of widespread calls for an extension, doubling down on its years-long practice of restricting public participation.
For example, the Schuyler County Legislature voted 5-0 this month on a resolution requesting an extension. The mayor of Watkins Glen, the regional parks director and others have also pleaded in vain for more time.
The gravel mine abuts the Watkins Glen State Park, one of the state’s leading tourist attractions. It drew roughly 1.3 million visitors last year.
Fred Bonn, Finger Lakes regional director of the state Department of Parks and Recreation, said the DEC’s tight deadline cuts off his chance to comment on a report it has requested from the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report USGS is preparing would inform Bonn on “potential adverse impacts from the proposed expanded areas of mining to the hydrology, natural resources and biodiversity of the gorge,” he wrote in Feb. 12 letter to the DEC.
The Feb. 28 deadline also allows the DEC to sidestep any potential public comments on a pending Freedom of Information Law…
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