Comments of Georgianna Grant, Trustee and Deputy Mayor of the Village of Croton on Hudson.
Good morning. My name is Georgianna Grant and I am a Trustee and Deputy Mayor of the Village of Croton on Hudson. I have served on the Board for 12 years and it was my pleasure to be one of the elected officials in the village to have voted for approval of our unique and comprehensive Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) in 1992. As you are aware, it implements the New York State Waterfront Revitalization of Coastal and Inland Waterways Act passed by the New York State Legislature in conformity with the federal Coastal Zone Management Act. At that time, the "Coastal Zone" was defined by the State to include the area within Croton-on-Hudson, in its entirety.
Work on Croton’s LWRP began in 1987 with the aid of a State grant providing funding for a consultant and for research necessary to implement and develop the policies covered in the plan. Our small village spent close to $100,000 of our very limited funds to develop this plan because we believed so strongly in its principles. The consultant with whom we worked was Matthew D. Rubikoff Associates, Inc. A committee of concerned citizens was appointed by the Mayor to work with the consultant. Together, they worked for over 4 years to achieve the final adoption of this very important plan. It was with a great deal of enthusiasm and excitement that the plan was adopted by a unanimous vote of the Village Board on March 16, 1992. The
Village's Program was approved by the New York Secretary of State, Gail Shaffer on June 15, 1992 and by your own Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management on August 17, 1992.
The Village's LWRP encompasses the 44 coastal policies defined by New York State as essential to protection of our Coastal Zone and Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat areas. In addition, and as a result of the adoption of this Program, the Village of Croton has passed numerous laws designed to implement the LWRP and protect the natural environment and coastal resources of the Village. Just a few of the specific local laws are:
- Erosion and Sediment Control Law
- Steep Slope Law
- Water Supply Protection Rules and Regulations, and
- Protection of Wetlands, Waterbodies and Watercourses Law.
The water supply and wetlands protection laws are particularly relevant to this proceeding, as it was the Village's finding, as well as that of the New York Department of State, that the proposed pipeline would directly violate the express requirements of these two laws.
I hope that this short history lesson demonstrates to you that the Village has been committed to the principles of good coastal zone management and the requirements of your Department's own regulatory program for many, many years. Due to the Village's unique coastal location -- surrounded on two sides by Significant Coastal Fish and Wildlife Habitat zones -- coastal management principles have come to serve, in effect, as the fundamental underpinnings of the Village's entire approach to land use planning and environmental protection. The LWRP guides both the local and State governments in evaluating what new developments should and should not be allowed in the Village's Coastal Zone.
A thorough and comprehensive review of all the evidence has demonstrated that the construction of the Millennium pipeline across Haverstraw Bay and through the Village of Croton is Òconsistently inconsistentÓ with the fully approved Coastal Zone Management Programs of the Village of Croton-on-Hudson and New York State. Allowing construction of the pipeline in spite of all these carefully designed protections would render the entire CZMA planning process a mere exercise in futility, and would be an insult to your agency, to the State of New York and to the Village of Croton-on-Hudson.
We ask you to honor the reasoned decision made by New York State with respect to the protection of its own coastal lands, and concur with our position that the construction of the Millennium pipeline, as currently proposed, should be denied.
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