{"id":4771,"date":"2011-09-08T09:22:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T13:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=4771"},"modified":"2011-09-08T09:39:35","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T13:39:35","slug":"will-the-post-irene-clean-up-do-more-damage-to-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2011\/09\/08\/will-the-post-irene-clean-up-do-more-damage-to-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the post Irene clean-up do more damage to the environment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Governor Andrew Cuomo moved quickly after tropical storm Irene blew through Upstate New York, using his executive authority<\/a> to suspend a wide range of environmental laws — from the state wetlands act to all Adirondack Park Agency regulations.<\/p>\n

The last week or so, I’ve seen things I never thought I would see in the Adirondacks.\u00a0 Massive backhoes rumbling through riverbeds.\u00a0 Road crews dumping gravel and other fill next to trout streams without setting up silt barriers.<\/p>\n

The reasons for this haste are obvious:\u00a0 People’s lives are in disarray.\u00a0 Winter is coming.\u00a0 We have to move fast to rebuild communities and businesses and vital highways before the snow flies.<\/p>\n

We also know that it is often possible to move quickly without doing undue harm to the environment.<\/p>\n

New York’s Transportation department accelerated the Champlain bridge project, bringing it close to completion in a fraction of the time originally predicted — without doing any significant damage to the lake’s ecosystems or habitats.<\/p>\n

But it’s only reasonable to ask what price we may be paying for the speed of the post-Irene clean-up effort.<\/p>\n

What happens, for example, if a landowner on one section of a river or brook uses a bulldozer to channelizes a stream or river in a certain way — without coordinating with neighbors downstream?<\/p>\n

Are there crucial populations of trout and other wildlife in sections of these rivers that warrant special care and attention?<\/p>\n

Are we missing opportunities to rebuild in better and smarter ways, moving septic systems further away from riverbanks, for example, or leaving in place more oxbows and gravel bars that might slow future flood surges?<\/p>\n

Are we rebuilding roads and highways in the right places, or are we setting ourselves up for future wash-outs?<\/p>\n

I know it’s difficult to think broadly about these questions at a moment like this, but Irene triggered the second major flood in a handful of months.<\/p>\n

Some scientists and government officials think in the era of climate change, more storms like Irene are likely.<\/p>\n

When I interviewed state Senator Betty Little this week, she firmly supported suspending environmental rules in the flood-stricken areas, calling it a “great decision.”<\/p>\n

But she also told NCPR that it is time to think bigger and deeper.<\/p>\n

“One of the things we have to start thinking about though is how we prevent this?\u00a0 We have too many floods.\u00a0 The rivers aren’t as deep as they used to be.\u00a0 And I don’t think anyone is even looking at that.\u00a0 I think we need to have the Corps of Engineers and the Soil and Water and everyone else [look for solutions].\u00a0 The amount of stones and siltand leaves that has accumulated in these rivers, the water has nowhere to go.\u00a0 We have to do something to prevent this from happening.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So what do you think?\u00a0 As the clean-up continues in your community, can we start taking steps toward a better, more sustainable relationship to these streams and rivers?<\/p>\n

Or is it too soon still to do anything more than bail out our basements?\u00a0 As always, your comments welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Governor Andrew Cuomo moved quickly after tropical storm Irene blew through Upstate New York, using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[22,884,6523],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4773,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4771\/revisions\/4773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}