No CPV

| 02 Nov 2017 | 02:19

To the Editor:
My interest in the CPV issue was accidental. As a resident of Orange County, I live 10 miles from the plant. It was off of my radar. It wasn't until a close friend, an avid outdoor enthusiast who lives in Westtown, started complaining about health issues he and his wife were experiencing. They live within a half mile of a gas compressor station that he said occasionally emitted noxious gas. He explained that this gas line would subsequently feed the large electric generating plant being built in Waywayanda.
As an environmental activist, a member of Sustainable Warwick, a few years ago through educational outreach by that organization, I learned that fracked gas, the fossil fuel which will power that plant, in its extraction process poses a number of serious health risks. Indeed, our state of New York determined that fracking posed harm to its citizens. A moratorium was instituted statewide, supported by the governor. But the irony: Our state has issued permits for this plant to operate using fracked gas from Pennsylvania. Question: Are the health and safety of Pennsylvania's citizens any less valuable than our health and safety here in New York?
I am heartened to see that in many places here on our home turf in Orange County we have made positive inroads in sustainability. Witness the huge solar farm on county property outside the emergency response center in Goshen; the large solar farm on the grounds of Sandfordville School in Warwick; the consideration of many local communities like Chester to permit solar farms on large plots of land; the instillation of solar panels on many Orange County homes. None of these installations spew by-products of toxic fumes and residue inherent to the CPV and its tall smoke stacks, not to speak of leaks similar to what we witness in Westtown and innumerable catastrophic events caused by ruptured infrastructure fossil fuel lines nationwide.
Over the years, our governor has had serious concerns with Indian Point. Indian Point is almost in his Mt. Kisco backyard. He has been pushing to have it shut down — -and it will be shut down shortly. Gov. Cuomo, it is now time for you to help us shut down CPV. As per your own concerns for the health and safety of your fellow citizens of Westchester, we do not want CPV in our back yard jeopardizing our health and safety here in bucolic Orange County.
Russ Layne
Chester