Friday, March 18, 2022

A LETTER FROM 3/17 EDITION OF THE GAZETTE AND GUY PARDEE--REGARDING THAT SOLAR ARRAY AND SO MUCH MORE

Welcome to Everything Croton, a collection of all things Croton--our history, our homes, our issues, our businesses, our schools, our houses of worship---in short, EVERYTHING CROTON.Dear Croton,

A LETTER FROM 3/17 EDITION OF THE GAZETTE AND GUY PARDEE
 
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LETTER IS POSTED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.  IT INCLUDES A FINAL PARAGRAPH THAT WAS MISSING FROM THE GAZETTE VERSION.
 
To the editor:

On 3/11/22, I was included in an email to Croton's Mayor Pugh,Village Manager Bryan Healy and Village Engineer Dan O'Connor, from Bethanu Ganfu, an officer with the NY Dept of Environmental Conservation. The communication was in regards to an inquiry I had made to the stability of a stormwater impoundment dam and retention pond at HNGC. 
 
The storm storm water retention dam to which I refer to is at the top of Prickley Pear Hill Rd and is to be included in the overall stormwater management plan for the proposed HNGC solar array. I drew my inquiry from the drawings posted on the villages project website and satellite imagery, which the later indicated that the dam was no longer functioning in its intended use. The report I received was enlightening to say the least. 
 
It indicated that the DEC inspected all three retention dams on the HNGC property. The findings included that in some instances that maintenance was so poor that the inspector could not properly inspect the dams. Structural flaws such as severe cracking and failing spillways, the appearance of undermining seepage through the dam and, my favorite, movement and misalignment. Also found was plant overgrowth with one example of a tree perhaps 14" in diameter cracking the spillway walls. One of these impoundments, the one intended to manage the storm water from the solar array, no longer holds water.

Some may ask, what does all this have to do with a solar array?  Well as stated above the retention pond designated to manage the storm water from the solar array no longer holds water. Translated, if the impoundment were to receive a 3" rainfall from just half the proposed 6.5 acre site, that would be approximately 270,000 gallons of water that would not be properly managed. If you are a believer in global warming, those events are to increase in both frequency and volume. In fact, on Sept 2, 2021 tropical storm Ida's rainfall reached nine inches in some local Westchester communities. Could you imagine approximately 810,000 gallons of water rolling down through neighborhood swales and storm drains uncontrolled?

However, that is only a portion of the concerns that I will direct your attention to. How after some 25 years in operation has the golf course seen it fitting to neglect its own infrastructure?  That it takes the efforts of a private citizen, and the NYDEC, to interfere with such neglect of the infrastructure that was designed and intended to protect the environment and residents of this community. How can we allow the course to move forward on their environmentally devastating proposed solar array, when they have proven, under governmental oversight, that they have failed to manage basic engineering and environmental safety. What examples have they presented us with that they even care?
 
GUY PARDEE
CROTON-ON-HUDSON

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