Progressive Wednesday

Clergyman Charlie: On protecting the Great Lakes

April 24th, 2007 by Charles Lamb

Major efforts were made last year by the Sierra Club, Residents for Responsible Government, the Niagara County Legislature, and many other groups to protect the Great Lakes from toxic pollution. A bill was passed unanimously in the State Senate and with only one negative vote in the State Assembly that stated that no permits could be granted for commercial toxic landfills that had the potential to leak into the Great Lakes. Newspapers all across the state, including the Albany Times Union and Buffalo News, endorsed the law. The Niagara County Farm Bureau and Business First supported it. But to our dismay, Governor Pataki vetoed it.

Efforts to get the veto overridden were not successful. Legislators were busy campaigning and not interested enough in returning to Albany for this purpose. So our next hope was to get the bill reintroduced quickly in the next session.

Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte did as she promised, reintroducing the same bill quickly in the Assembly. It has already passed through committee and is headed toward a vote.

State Senator Maziarz, however, to our surprise, introduced an entirely different bill. Unlike the U.S. Congress, if two different bills pass in New York State in the Assembly and Senate, there is no joint committee to work out a compromise wording for a second vote. The effort simply fails.

The Sierra Club attorney, Richard Lippes, who is also the attorney for Riverkeeper and for Residents for Responsible Government, has analyzed the bill submitted by Senator Maziarz and has concluded that it is not as strong a bill as the one presented last year. It is much longer and vaguer. Senator Maziarz and his aide, Sue Senecah, say that they are open to amendments to it at this stage. However, we continue to feel that the original bill needs to be presented in the Senate as he promised.

The Niagara Group and the Atlantic Chapter have both called upon the Senator to do so. Riverkeeper is urging him to withdraw his new bill and push again for the original bill.

This effort is important for the whole state, not just for his constituency in western New York. The Great Lakes contain 20% of the liquid fresh water of the globe. It is absurd to allow them to become polluted.

Citizens need to band together and insist that this great asset to our world, our area, and all people is protected.