Monday news roundup: NYS wine, 911, PCBs

Happy Monday! Sure, it’s cold and grey (at least here in Canton), but perhaps a lovely glass of North Country wine would help? David Sommerstein reports today on the growing industry (hearty grapes, people!), centered in Clinton County.

We went to John Brown day this weekend and asked people there what freedom means to them.

And in the Adirondack Park, the APA has voted to host a series of public meetings on what to do with the former Finch, Pruyn, and Co. timberlands the state’s acquired. That could range from mostly wilderness (no motorized vehicles) to wild forest, which is more accessible for people and recreation.

Up in Massena, the Watertown Daily Times is reporting that Alcoa is planning on storing 109,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment at a landfill on the Alcoa West plant site. That’s the sediment it’s dredging from the banks of the Grasse River as part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved plan to clean up the Grasse River Superfund Site.

Some, in particular residents of the very nearby Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Territory, have expressed concerns that storing the contaminated sediment so close by could compromise the effectiveness of the cleanup — the paper reported they raised the former GM site (also a Superfund site) as an example of what can happen when contaminated materials are disposed of “carelessly” in an area that’s already suffered from PCB exposure as have both of those. But tribal environmental division Director Ken Jock said this facility is much safer, and is “basically the state-of-the-art, best way of dealing with PCBs at the moment.” He said there’s a big difference between the two sites. So we’ll see what happens there.

And on a less sediment-y note, the WDT is also reporting today that Jefferson and Lewis Counties will get a combined $1.1 million to cover costs associated with emergency call centers (that’s 911 to you and me.) Jefferson County’s getting $295,523; Lewis, $808,615. The grants, which come through the state Division of Homeland Security (huh!), is part of a plan to improve the state’s emergency communication network, and help local governments work together on said communications.

 

 

Tags: 911, apa, emergency services, finch pruyn, Jefferson county, john brown, lewis county, massena, outdoor recreation, thousand islands, wine