rabbitpatch
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Public Hearing in Watertown 6/3 ... did anyone attend?
If so, how did it go?
If so, how did it go?
Not a single person spoke against OWB's at the hearing. There was a decent crowd but it was disappointing not to see the auditorium full. About 40 people spoke and DEC let everyone have an opportunity. The hearing actually went over the time limit.
For a week or more we had been told that no one from Albany was coming. However, Mr. Barnes himself showed up. He couldn't answer our questions about the stack height requirements even though he supposedly wrote the regulations. The Powerpoint presentation during the information session misquoted the regulations as printed! We finally got the presentor to bring the slide back up and confirm this. Don't blame the local DEC employees - this is being rammed down their throats by Albany. It will be interesting to see if this "mistake" is really corrected before the next hearing.
Senator Aubertine has introduced legislation to try and help us continue using our OWB's. What is important at this time is for EVERYONE to voice their opinions. Don't sit back and think this will go away. Use the online petition and the Farm Bureau E-Lobby Letters to let Albany know how strongly we feel on this issue.
Don't blame the local DEC employees - this is being rammed down their throats by Albany. It will be interesting to see if this "mistake" is really corrected before the next hearing.
The scattered reports we have been hearing is that downstate hearings were sparsely attended. Overall it appears that very few people are speaking out in favor of the regulations anywhere.
Time is getting short to submit comments to DEC. Instead of just criticizing DEC let's make some constructive comments concerning setback requirements, stack height issues, and the whole economic impact of the regulations. Maybe there should be a unified effort to get DEC to drop the regulations as proposed, give municipalities a reasonable amount of time to get regulations in place, and after that time DEC should only act as a final step in the complaint process if all other avenues have been exhausted.
I can not agree more I believe there should be some regulations on them I see some people that park them so close to a neighbor it smokes out their house. That is not fair to the persons house that gets smoked out. If you have a enough land and your smoke does not effect your neighbors quality of life than go for it. Maybe they should be evaluated on a case by case basis.
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