To the Editor,
Residents of the Hudson River Valley got some very good news last week. Namely that the US Coast Guard decided to suspend its consideration of the Maritime Industry’s proposal to add 10 anchorage sites for 43 barges to the lower Hudson River from Yonkers to Kingston. No doubt, receiving over 10,000 comments, which reportedly were most negative, helped them reach this decision. A letter from the Village of Croton-on-Hudson objecting to the anchorage proposal was among those, along with many from local residents.
More good news on the same issue was the subject of a Gazette letter I submitted last week. It spoke of the passage in the NYS Legislature of bills in the Senate and the Assembly of a bill to allow the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation to establish “tanker avoidance zones” in the Hudson River.
However, while both are good news, the fight to save the Hudson River from additional barges is not over. In the case of the Coast Guard’s suspension of the proposal, they will now undertake a study of the Hudson River. A spokesperson was quoted as saying “…we found there is a lot we didn’t know about the Hudson.” In the case of the overwhelmingly successful passage of the “tanker avoidance law” by the NYS Legislature, it still has not been signed by Governor Cuomo.
While vigilance and speaking out got us this far, we cannot declare victory yet.

Ann Gallelli