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Letter to Residents from Supervisor Puglisi re: Railroad Pond
Release Date: July 16, 2010
July 15, 2010
Dear Resident,
I wanted to make you aware of an ongoing situation with the Railroad Pond/Furnace Dock Lake in your neighborhood. Con Edison has indicated they are planning to drain the lake/pond. The Town Board has passed a resolution opposing the draining of this important pond/lake that dates back to the late 1800's and currently is owned by Con Edison.
Also, I wrote a petition opposing their proposal, which is being distributed throughout the community. The New York State DEC dam safety division issued violations to Con Edison to repair the dam/spillway. At first Con Ed agreed to repair the dam but only recently reversed that decision. My opinion is that it is less expensive for them to drain the pond than it is to repair the dam and that is why they did the reversal.
I have retained a biodiversity consultant to give us an inventory on flora, fauna, bio-diversity and habitat issues to assist us with our arguments. I have been talking to DEC officials to further understand these issues. As we speak, there is no consent order nor permit issued from the DEC to Con Edison. They need a plan from Con Ed to remedy the hazardous state of the dam. They are not mandating the draining of the pond, they just require a remediation plan for the dam and spillway. My position with Con Edison is repair the dam, not drain the pond!
The Town Board and I will do everything we can (including litigation) to stop Con Edison. This will be a battle and you may recall myself and others closed two mines and successfully stopped the millennium pipeline proposal from devastating our community over past years.
Con Edison officials are scheduled to attend the Town Board meeting of July 20, 2010 at 7:30 pm at the Cortlandt Town Hall to hear our concerns.
Please visit our website, (www.townofcortlandt.com) for any further information. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Linda Puglisi
Supervisor