PEEKSKILL – State Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg, both Westchester Democrats, have joined the chorus of officials opposed to a US Coast Guard policy change that will allow barges and large vessels to park along the Hudson River.
They were banned from long-term parking from the Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge north a year ago, but that policy has changed.
In a letter to the Coast Guard, the lawmakers said the decision to go ahead with the anchoring plan without public comment of environmental review is “entirely undemocratic and bad public policy.”
“Having just worked with governmental partners and environmental advocates to enact the Save the Hudson Act to stop radioactive wastewater from being dumped into the river – I am aghast the Coast Guard is, again, proposing to use the river as a parking lot for large vessels, some of which will be filled to the brim with home heating oi,” said Harckham. “This ridiculous idea needs to be stopped once and for all, and I will do everything I can to make sure it does not come to pass.”
“Our local economies, the ecology of the Hudson River and our health – particularly the health of those who get their drinking water from the Hudson River – would be severely threatened by the return of dangerous barges to this area,” said Levenberg.
