Asphalt plant in New Windsor (photo: Jim Lennon)
BROOKLYN – The Stewart Park and Reserve Coalition (SPARC) will
have the opportunity next Monday to argue an appeal of the decision of
State Supreme Court in Goshen that effectively took the watchdog group
out of a challenge to a blacktop batch plant in New Windsor that was used
to repave the two runways at Stewart Airport.
The paperwork was filed in October 2014, but SPARC President Sandra Kissam
said their reasons for their action “are as important as ever.”
She said the plant is still sited adjacent to a stream that flows into
Stewart State Forest wetlands, threatening their quality.
“New Windsor’s claim that they can cite a private, for-profit,
industry on town-owned land without planning board review, as well as
environmental review in this instance is wrong,” Kissam said. She
said the decision by Orange County Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bartlett
that denied SPARC “standing” to sue was unjustified and must
be overturned.”
Kissam said plants are “significant air polluters.” There
are 270 condominiums in “The Grove,” the US Army Reserve’s
99th RSC, as well as Marine Corps barracks, she said. “They have
been exposed to the plant’s emissions that include sulfur dioxide,
nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, arsenic,
benzene, and formaldehyde, among others,” Kissam said.
