Getting Their Drift

Activists and homeowners along the Hudson River, near Albany, N.Y., have been fighting against the construction of a cement plant there for several years as their neighbors, eager for the jobs the plant offers, have rallied in favor. Outwardly, it has been a battle of yard signs (“Stop the Plant” vs. “Support the Plant” or “Planet,” as one type of sign says), while that state’s thorough regulatory system examines the details of the proposal. Fairly typical, and no reason for Maine to be especially concerned with the issue, except for a comment now getting prominent play here, courtesy of the plant’s opponents.

St. Lawrence Cement wants a new plant, considerably larger than its current plant in Catskill, to be built on a 300-foot hill, with a 400-foot smokestack. This is a smokestack only a local could love, because when pressed about the additional emissions, an expert in support of the plant commented, “The higher stack will disperse the effluents over a wider area. On most days, within six hours, the air mass has gone to Maine.”

Of most concern to Maine in that air mass are nitrogen oxides, which, along with volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight create ground-level ozone – part of smog – that irritates the eyes, nose and throat, causing inflammation of bronchial tubes and tissues in the lungs. Asthma sufferers feel it worst, but anyone on a summer day can be affected, and in rare cases it can be fatal. The total nitrogen oxides production from the proposed plant is roughly equivalent to 200,000 cars, according to the environmental group Scenic Hudson, which is opposing the plant.

How much of that would actually reach Maine is unclear, but the state easily has enough problems with this pollutant so that any substantial increase would be unwelcome.

Locally, the plant would be an eyesore; it reportedly would increase traffic, noise and the amount of mining done in a region that has qualified as a National Heritage Area and that is rebounding through cultural tourism and small manufacturing. A plant such as the one proposed, while bringing jobs, could also drive away other type of work. Those are debates for the potential plant’s neighbors to discuss. For Maine, the added nitrogen oxides are additional threats to health. The Baldacci administration is wondering whether to become an official intervenor in the project, an unusual but probably necessary step to ensure that Maine’s interests are considered. It is clear that so far they have not been.

“On most days, within six hours, the air mass has gone to Maine.” All these years of being friendly to New Yorkers who come here for vacation and in exchange Maine is sent a lot of gaseous air laden with pollution. Not neighborly; not at all.