Greenidge will have court hearing

YATES COUNTY- The Supreme Court of Yates County will hear arguments concerning the Greenidge Article 78 filing next week.
Ontario County Judge William Kocher will hear the arguments Jan. 24 at 1:30 p.m. regarding the Dresden power plant.
The Article 78 proceeding, which is a challenge to the determinations of administrative agencies, public bodies or officers, was filed this past fall by the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes (CPFL) and the Coalition to Protect New York (CPNY), challenges the environmental review conducted by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, stating the DEC conducted an inadequate review that did not comply with the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).
The Greenidge power plant originally opened in 1937 but has not been in operation since 2011. In August 2015, Greenidge Generation LLC announced plans to convert the Dresden facility from coal-fired to natural gas, using biomass and fuel oil only as intermediary fuels.
Dundee resident Jack Ossont, member of CPNY, stated that local residents and the environment could be impacted by the building of a 4.6 mile gas pipeline that would run through Yates County, to connect the power plant to the Empire Connector gas pipeline, which is why the two groups felt compelled to file the Article 78 proceeding.
"The continuation of wanting to reopen the plant could contribute to issues of blue green algae, a decline of wildlife and other problems," stated Ossont. "The problems that we are currently dealing with and how operations of the plant in the past are attributable, we believe have not been studied enough and the DEC rendering a negative declaration that there are no adverse environmental impacts do not address any of the current or potential issues."
The Greenidge plant operated previously with coal boilers, and is in the process of conversion to utilizing natural gas for their turbines which would reduce emissions by 60 percent.
"This is still considerable pollution," said Ossont. "Much of gas is produced by fracking in other states, and if we allow this plant to reopen, it will provide more political justification to why New York would benefit from the use of fossil fuel production."
"The water pollution and affect on the lake, has not been adequately addressed and those living in the area of Arrowhead Beach and surrounding areas will have the continuing the impact."
Ossont went on to explain that the ash dump is considered a class C hazardous waste site, and there is a suspected continued plan that affluent ash will continue to be released from the chimney towers with no pollution control or adequate testing.
The groups are represented by attorneys Richard Lippes from Buffalo and Rachel Treichler from Hammondsport.
Copies of the petitions filed with the Yates County Supreme Court and the PSC are posted at http://treichlerlawoffice.com/water/greenidge/index.html.