Important Meeting on Thursday: An Invitation from the Town of Stony Point Supervisor to all residents

BY GEOFF FINN

On behalf of the Stony Point Town Board and Planning Board, I strongly encourage all members of the public to attend this Thursday night’s public informational meeting about New Planet Sustainable Fuels’ proposed waste to renewable biofuel facility. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. In order to accommodate the large crowds, the meeting is being held at the James A. Farley Elementary School located at 140 Route 210, Stony Point, New York.

The meeting will provide additional information to the public about New Planet’s proposal. New Planet will conduct a lengthy presentation that describes their facility and introduces the public to their waste to renewable biofuel process. This is one of the first of many meetings about this proposal. Public hearings and a full environmental and land use review process will follow. The town is closely coordinating its review with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (the “DEC”) since the project also requires extensive review by the DEC.

In short, this proposal involves the re-development of an existing industrial site located at the end of Holt Drive. The site has historically been used for industrial purposes and most of the site is already zoned for industrial uses. In fact, there are many existing long term light and heavy industrial uses in the surrounding area, located both within and outside the Town of Stony Point. This proposed green industrial use has the potential to increase rateables for county, town and school district, provide jobs, and support local ancillary businesses in the community, while transforming materials (that would otherwise be shipped to landfills) into energy.

Irrespective of the economic benefits, from the outset the town planned to have the applicant prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The town agrees that potential impacts on traffic, noise, visuals, air, wetlands and significant habitats, solid waste management, and environmental justice areas, etc. must be properly addressed in the EIS. Since most of these potential impacts would affect the Town of Stony Point, as much as any other community, town officials are just as concerned as others about these potential environmental impacts.

There has been a lot of misinformation spread by opponents of the project. We hope that this public informational meeting will assist everybody in better understanding New Planet’s proposal. All members of the public should keep an open mind as this project is reviewed and reserve final judgment until the full environmental analysis is complete. At that point, one can then properly balance the social, economic and environmental impacts of the project and reach a conclusion.

The town looks forward to an open and cooperative review process and hopes to see you at the public informational meeting this Thursday night.