President’s Message

by Oreon Sandler

Spring has finally arrived after a tough winter. Signs of renewed life are showing up everywhere — both in nature and in the efforts of both FCWC and its member organizations to improve our environment. Here are a few highlights.

• The County and the Westchester Land Trust have announced the preservation of some 1,100 acres of open space. If only we could soon add Davids Island. We are very much involved in the efforts.
• A court decision has ordered Yonkers to stop polluting the Bronx River, and the State has demanded a reduction of nitrogen loading of Long Island Sound from five sewage treatment plants, as well as of excess ammonia and sewage flow into the Croton watershed. On the other hand, we are still waiting for a comprehensive sewage management plan. And while many towns are preparing to spend their limited East of Hudson funds on their most serious stormwater problems, stormwater runoff continues to plague our lakes and reservoirs.
• We are making progress on the air pollution front, and the student activists of our WESC program are focusing on bus emissions at their own schools. It is exciting to see our younger environmentalists leading the community. Maybe we can soon shed the non-attainment designation of Westchester air so that all our residents can breathe easier.

That’s just a sampling of the good and not-so-good news reported in this issue. For even further information, please visit our website at www.FCWC.org. And do join us for our 40th birthday party on June 9 at Teatown Reservation.
See you there!

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Annual Meeting to Celebrate FCWC’s 40th Birthday

By Carolyn Cunningham

FCWC members and friends are invited to attend FCWC’s 40th birthday party at the Annual Meeting on June 9th at Teatown Lake Reservation. Teatown is a long-time member organization of FCWC’s coalition of environmental organizations. It is located at 1600 Spring Valley Road in Ossining.

The theme of the Annual Meeting will be the recognition and warm appreciation of FCWC’s organization and individual members over our 40 years. There will be special recognition of former executive directors, officers and board members - in fact, everyone who has contributed to FCWC’s four decades of success. Individual invitations will go to all for whom we have current addresses, but if you don’t receive one, please call our program manager,
Adiel Gavish, at 422-4053. And feel free to invite past members and friends who may no longer be on our list.

Taking a breath of country air, hiking on Teatown’s “back forty”’on our 40th, or visiting its delightful Wildflower Island will all be possible activities before the light dinner, brief business meeting featuring election of Board members and officers, and recognition of those honored.

Board members up for re-election in 2005 include:

Lisa Copeland, Carolyn Cunningham, Robert Funicello, Anne Gold, Cesare Manfredi, Maureen Morgan, Jim Nordgren, Nortrud Spero, and Robert Tritsch.

All FCWC members are eligible to vote at the meeting. If you wish to nominate a new member of the board, including yourself, to let the nominating committee know, to get directions or if you have other questions, please call the office, 422-4053, or email us at fcwc@fcwc.org.

Carolyn Cunningham is an FCWC board member

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FCWC’s Organizations Meet to Shape Common Agendas

Staff Report

Convening three regional meetings of its member organizations, FCWC threw out a challenge: how can the environmental community become more effective through coordinated action? And to start us off, what issues have top priority?

Attracting representatives from 28 of its member groups, meetings were held in on April 4, 5, and 7 at the nature centers of Rye and Greenburgh, and at Van Cortlandt Manor. At all three sessions the consensus was overwhelmingly in favor of greater coordination, and strong support for having FCWC take the lead in making it possible.

Some of the activities that found favor are already in process, such as the posting of a monthly calendar on the internet and the publication of this newspaper. Other frequently mentioned suggestions included planning conferences to adopt common positions. While some felt these should be quarterly, the consensus was in favor of semi-annual meetings, with the possibility that the FCWC annual meeting be one of the two, and the other be regional. Another idea brought up several times was that FCWC should distribute issue updates or action alerts by e-mail, giving member organizations the opportunity to endorse them or sign on to common statements.

There was also general agreement that such communications should not be overdone. “We’re all swamped both by mail and e-mail,” was a frequent comment, but in general, e-mail (if brief) was the preferred method for communicating.

The suggestions for issues to be acted on were too numerous to list, but the ones that came up at two or three of the meetings or were particularly novel included:

• Follow-up on municipalities’ stormwater controls as they file their Phase II reports, including the possibility of publishing “scorecards” regarding progress on implementing the plans.
• Speaking of scorecards, how about rating developers according to their environmental records.
• Watershed protection, with emphasis on sewage problems, including the pros and cons of diversion.
• Management of invasive species, both flora and fauna - i.e., avoiding or removing non-native vegetation and culling of deer.
• Monitoring of County and local government actions, especially maintenance of parks, septic permits, abiding by the SEQR process, and their use of landscape chemicals and road salt.

Lynn Oliva, FCWC board member and former County planning commissioner, who organized the meetings, concluded that they were more productive than anyone imagined, and got us measurably closer to the FCWC objectives of establishing an environmental ethic for Westchester County and emphasizing FCWC’s major objective of serving as an umbrella organization for the pro-environment constituency.

FCWC board members, Carolyn Cunningham, Lynn Oliva, Roberta Wiernik, and Program Manager, Adiel Gavish contributed to this article.

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Campaign for Cleaner Air Gathers Momentum

by Warren Ross

Starting with its first air quality conference in April 2004, Federated Conservationists of Westchester has taken the lead in efforts to clean up the county’s heavily polluted air. How heavily polluted? According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, Westchester has the fourth worst record for dangerous levels of particulate matter and is seventh worst for smog-producing ozone in the entire country.

The FCWC program has now culminated in the adoption of a four-point ” Healthy Air Action Plan” by the Healthy Air Task Force of the County Board of Legislators. In addition, FCWC’s program was joined by a new clean air initiative of the Westchester Student Environmental Council (WESC), the FCWC student program. A partnership is also being explored with Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Center for Health and the Environment and the Grassroots Environmental Education group that would further address children’s health issues.

These were the major steps leading up to these developments:

• County Legislator Tom Abinanti, chair of the Environmental Committee, was inspired by FCWC’s 2004 conference to set up the Healthy Air Task Force and charging it with drafting an action plan.
• FCWC board member Cesare Manfredi was named to chair the task force, which also included representatives from the American Lung Association, the American Cancer Society, Environmental Defense, the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Action for Tomorrow’s Environment.
• A second air quality conference focused on transportation - a major source of Westchester’s air pollution.
• WESC launched an effort to clean up the air on school grounds, and adopted a four-point agenda to be submitted to all school districts.

The Healthy Air Action Plan points out that air pollution poses serious health threats, cites the causes, and makes the following specific proposals for correcting them.

1. The sulfur levels in home heating oil should be capped at the level recommended by the US EPA.
2. Only fuels with low or ultra-low levels of sulfur should be used in County buildings, and should be required by County contractors.
3. Government agencies should purchase only vehicles that meet the cleanest possible standards for their class.
4. The current anti-idling laws should be strengthened and enforced.
5. Meanwhile, New York State should be urged to ensure that school buses have the latest technology to reduce harmful emissions.

Commenting on the task force recommendations, Peter Iwanowicz, director of environmental health for the American Lung Association of New York, said: “It is clear that air pollution makes people sick and cuts short lives. In the absence of sustained action at the state and federal levels, we need local officials to take steps to reduce air pollution.” The recommendations, he concluded, present a roadmap to achieve these objectives.

Warren Ross is a board member of FCWC.

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WESC Student Advocates Meet Their Representatives in Albany

By Alex Gertner

High school students involved in FCWC’s Westchester Environment Student Council (WESC) traveled to Albany on Tuesday April 12 to discuss with their representatives environmental issues important to them. This is an annual trip WESC takes for Earth Day Lobby Day. The event offers students a unique opportunity to affect broad change, and its occurrence marks the culmination of WESC efforts to promote policy change in New York State. Fifty-five students participated this year, representing Hastings, White Plains, Scarsdale, Katonah-Lewisboro, Chappaqua, Shrub Oak and Mamaroneck school districts.

Departing from the Westchester County Center by bus early Tuesday morning, students were briefed on environmental issues and bills while on the way to Albany. Once there, WESC students joined other New York state high school students in listening to veteran environmental activists from Environmental Advocates, the Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, and Attorney General Elliot Spitzer’s office speak about various bills pending in the legislature. During their talks, speakers stressed the importance of student activism and of young voices being heard amid government squabble. Students also received tips on making effective presentations, breaking into small groups according to their school districts. They worked with professional advocates to harness their skills and build their abilities before meeting with their representatives.

After a quick outdoor lunch, WESC students moved into the New York Legislative Office Building to find their representatives’ offices. Though meetings were short and representative attendance was not perfect, the students spoke eloquently about the bills, providing factual support for their proposals and stressing the importance of each bill to their respective communities. Each group of students had the opportunity to meet with two or three members of the New York State Assembly and Senate. The bills discussed included the Bigger Better Bottle Bill, Ban on Open Burning, Carbon Cap, Community Preservation Act, Wetland Protection and in addition, a proposed bill that would set a cap on sulfur in home heating oil. The last bill was chosen especially by the WESC student officers, as it is in line with their own clean air initiative to use ultra low sulfur diesel fuel in school buses.

Once the meetings were concluded, WESC participants were led on tours of the Capitol Building. They were taken into both legislative chambers, where they received lessons on the legislative process, as well as on the construction, maintenance, and historical value of the rooms. Returning by bus to the Westchester County Center, students indicated in an anonymous survey that they took away a greater knowledge of environmental issues from the event and gained significant experience in the democratic process.

Alex Gertner is president of WESC.

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By Katie Walter and staff

Westchester Environmental Student Council (WESC) students from across Westchester County are pressing for the reduction of air pollution in their region starting at the most natural place for high school students, their schools. WESC’s clean air initiative, announced at a press conference on March 2nd, focuses on ending the unnecessary idling of all school buses, delivery trucks and passenger vehicles on school grounds, the use of cleaner burning ultra low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD), as well as working towards the retirement of older school buses (model year 1995 and before) and the retrofitting of those built between 1996 and 2004 with advanced filter technology. Finally, the students propose that the school districts’ contracts with bus companies require compliance with these new policies.

The WESC campaign is beginning in at least six Westchester school districts (Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, Katonah-Lewisboro, Hastings-on-Hudson and Harrison). Students will organize meetings with school officials to advocate for these policies to clean the air on school grounds. One meeting has already been held in Lewisboro.

The students hope that the campaign will spread to other school districts in Westchester, and on to other school districts in the state. Air pollution is a problem with known sources. Community support and continued press attention will speed the process towards reduction of particulate matter and improvement in the health of Westchester’s children.

According to Lewisboro Supervisor Jim Nordgren, FCWC Project Manager Adiel Gavish and WESC officer Katie Walters, helped convince Lewisboro officials to switch to ULSD fuel for their school buses at a meeting on March 28. At a presentation of the school boards’ Alternative Fuel Committee, Katie and Adiel presented findings about the health benefits to students of switching to ULSD and retrofitting the buses. The board also agreed to add to the school budget a request for two particulate trap filters. The combination of filters and ULSD fuel potentially reduces particulate matter pollution by more than 90%. According to Town Board member and senior scientist at Natural Resource Defense Council Allen Hershkowitz, it’s one of the single most important things the school district could do to minimize respiratory and carcinogenic risk to residents, this is a winner.

Everyone has a vague sense of the environmental and health risks which accompany air pollution, but recently, studies from the American Academy of Pediatrics as well as from Columbia University have confirmed the link between air pollution and children’s health. WESC students hope to confront this issue by informing their school communities of the potential risks which children, who are so vulnerable to air pollution, are being exposed to on their journey to and from school each day.

Katie Walter is a WESC officer.

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FCWC: 40 years of Working for a Better Environment

Staff Report

Federated Conservationists of Westchester County Inc. was founded in 1965 as a not-for-profit umbrella coalition of dozens of local environmental groups and individuals whose purpose was, and still is, to form a strong, unified voice for combating pollution, preserving Westchester’s natural resources and important open space, and making sure environmental concerns are included in local land use decisions.

FCWC has educated its members, government officials and the public on a wide range of environmental issues using its newspaper, Westchester Environment, frequent conferences, roundtables and testimony before governmental bodies and agencies. Throughout these years, FCWC has been the leading voice for adequate funding for county parks maintenance and for purchasing additions to the park system.

As the premier environmental watchdog in Westchester, the organization’s advocacy efforts have influenced local, county and state governments on many issues, including the following highlights.

Between 1965 and 1970, FCWC worked to increase local and county recycling, and to close the Croton Point landfill, located on Hudson River in a wetlands. We also opposed channelizing Westchester’s rivers and to prevent flooding.

In the 1970s FCWC broadened its focus to include: issues as diverse as storage of nuclear power plant waste and Indian Point evacuation policies, protection of wetlands and the water quality of the Hudson River, Long Island Sound and other water bodies. We promoted environmental review of developments and worked to get the Tidal and Freshwater Wetlands Acts and State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) enacted into state law .

In the 1980s FCWC spurred the environmental review of the Peekskill Resource Recovery plant and worked for passage of the New York State Bottle Bill. We promoted energy and water conservation, worked on issues of pesticide safety, and were the prime mover in getting the county to set aside the 170 acre Edith Read Natural Park and Wildlife Sanctuary at Playland Park in Rye. We also played a key role in presenting to the Westchester County Board of Legislators the need for a local law to Designate Critical Environmental Areas.

In the 1990s FCWC, working with local partners, succeeded in having the Jay Property preserved as a historic resource, acted to defeat massive development plans for David’s Island in Long Island Sound and supported the Long Island Sound Task Force’s Citizen Water Monitoring Project. We helped to implement the Habitat Protection for Biodiversity in Westchester County Project along with the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Wildlife Conservation Society and spearheaded efforts to identify habitats and species in county parks, resulting in the designation of biodiversity preserves in Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. FCWC was a leader in supporting and urging the development of mass transit alternatives to reduce traffic, air pollution, and sprawl and in limiting Westchester County Airport impacts.

In the 21st century to date FCWC has continued many of these efforts:

in particular, leading the effort to acquire Davids Island for parkland, promoting energy conservation, efficiency and green buildings. We helped to pass the Pesticide Neighbor Notification law in Westchester, and focused attention on urban environmental issues including brownfields. We have worked to protect the quality of the drinking water in the Croton Watershed and began a new clean air initiative in Westchester, spurring creation of and chairing County Healthy Air Task Force. Our representatives served on the Advisory Board of the Westchester Open Space Alliance and the Steering Committee of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition. We founded a new Westchester Environmental Student Council (WESC), worked for remediation of Hudson River PCB’s, and were instrumental in keeping the cap on the number of Westchester County Airport commercial flights.

In 2004 FCWC engaged in a strategic planning process to meet future challenges. Our revisited vision and mission statement follow:

FCWC envisions a county in which an environmental ethic defines and shapes all public and private decisions affecting natural resources. The mission of FCWC is to provide leadership that educates people about environmental issues, problems, and solutions, advocates sound decision making and works with groups and individuals to protect Westchester’s natural resources.

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A Liquefied Gas Terminal in LI Sound?: An Update

Staff Report

At its March 24 meeting, the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study adopted a resolution opposing Congressional action that would let the federal government preempt state and local jurisdiction over the proposed liquefied natural gas facility in Long Island Sound.

With the two FCWC representatives (board members Cesare Manfredi and Warren Ross) in attendance, the committee first heard presentations by representatives of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Coast Guard, the two US agencies with primary responsibility for reviewing the safety, environmental, and navigation issues of the
proposal by Broadwater Energy to build a plant where tankers would offload liquefied natural gas. The LNG would then be reconverted to heating gas, to be sent by underwater pipelines to Long Island and the mainland.

Speaking for FERC, James Martin, an environmental scientist, assured committee members that the opinions of state and local environmental agencies, as well as those of private citizens, would be carefully considered. However, according to the Associated Press, legislation drafted by House Republicans would give Federal regulators “clearer authority to override state and local opposition in approving import terminals.” The AP story then quotes Rep. Joe Barton, chair of the
Energy and Commerce Committee, as saying that while states have “a very legitimate role” on safety issues, “ultimately it is a federal issue” and “we can’t sit on our hands,” and since then his committee has included FERC authorization in the bill it drafted and which has since been adopted by the full House.

A critic of the proposal, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., countered that the provision “tramples states’ rights on behalf of the gas industry,” and ” undermines the ability of state and local officials to play their proper role in ensuring that any new LNG facility is not sited in an area where it could pose a danger to the surrounding community.”

The proposed Broadwater facility would be located near the eastern end of Long Island Sound. About the size of the Queen Mary II, it would be the largest such facility in the US, with a capacity of some 92.5 million gallons of LNG.

FCWC will continue to monitor these developments.

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