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* Doctors: The Medical Staff of Columbia Memorial Hospital voted 35-1 that the SLC Greenport proposal would pose "a serious risk to the health of the community." The CMH doctors said that increased heart, lung and other life-threatening illnesses could be expected to increase as a result of the plant.
* Increased Pollution: Using the latest figures available from St. Lawrence Cement itself, the new plant (including fugitive dust emissions from the Waterfront) would be permitted to emit as much as 43% more regulated pollutants (just under 20 million pounds per year) than the existing Catskill plant (which emits just under 14 million pounds per year).
* Open Piles: Stockpiling of open piles of coal, slag, and other materials immediately next to the Hudson Waterfront park is unacceptable, and would impair residents' ability to enjoy the State and City's investment there.
* HudsonMax Vessels: SLC proposes to use ships and barges as long as 754-foot long by 80 foot-wide.
* Public Park: The St. Lawrence dock operation would permanently and irreversibly blight its immediate neighbor to the north, the Hudson Waterfront Park. It would destroy the Park's potential for picnicking, recreation, cultural activities, and especially watersports such as kayaking and canoeing.
* Land Title: There is substantial evidence that SLC does not hold title to as many as 7 acres along the Hudson River where it intends to build its dock facility. The Corps must investigate these complaints fully, as it cannot continue review of any project which is proposed for land which the applicant does not have a right to develop.
* Contamination: There is a Superfund site and also an Inactive Hazardous waste site adjacent to the proposed St. Lawrence Cement operations on the waterfront; and the Hudson River is well known to be contaminated with PCBs.
* Estuary Plan: New York State's Hudson River Estuary Management Action Plan places top priority on increasing public access to the Hudson River. The City of Hudson's waterfront park is just beginning to restore much-needed access for Columbia County residents, but SLC's plans would render the Park virtually unusable.
* Dock: SLC's sprawling industrial structures at the Waterfront, along with its enormous stockpiles and Titanic-sized barges would create an unacceptable visual impact, especially from the River and the Village of Athens waterfront.
* Plant: The cumulative impact of this waterfront blight with the massive industrial structures atop Becraft Mountain (including a 406-foot stack, and over a dozen other major buildings) is unacceptable.
* Inadequate Mitigations: St. Lawrence Cement's proposed "mitigations" to these visual impairments hardly offset the new impacts of its sprawling proposal. Many of the structures SLC offers as mitigation have been out of service for 25 years or more, and should have been taken down long ago. By accepting these as "mitigations," the Corps runs the risk of actually encouraging companies to leave unused blight in place until such time as they can be used as bargaining chips.
* Bad Track Record: The claims and promises of SLC and its Swiss owners (Holcim) cannot be trusted due to their very poor record of compliance over the past 10 years.
* Economic Harm: Our region is enjoying an economic revitalization based on a mix of clean, sustainable industries such as agriculture, high-tech, home improvement, light manufacturing, real estate, retail, and tourism. The project does not fit into and would harm this healthy, balanced growth trend.
* Lack of Public Need or Benefit: There is not a lack of supply of cement in the United States. SLC's goal is to build a huge, cheap plant which would allow the company to corner the Northeast cement market. SLC's ongoing history of anti-competitive behavior (price-fixing) is just one of many ways this project could harm the public welfare. The project would only create one, permanent new job due to the transfer of an existing SLC workforce that is already in the region.
* Economic Harm: Finally, the blight and environmental harm done by this project would depress the clean and sustainable economy that is growing in the mid-Hudson Valley -- based on a healthy balance of agriculture, high-tech, home-based businesses, light manufacturing, real estate, retail, tourism, and other safe, mutually-beneficial industries among which SLC does not belong.
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