The NYC, DEP, spends hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase Watershed Lands, to ensure that they never become a source for any potential polluting use. Local residents know that the DEP uses its resources, making sure nearby septic systems are up to snuff. There are DEP police, patrolling Reservoir lands, and, if you are found there without a permit and a fishing rod, you may well end up in jail.
Wherever these new “tar and chip” roads have been built, we find angry articles and on-line responses in local newspapers, written from other places in the U.S.
In a newspaper column, “The Morning Call” from a Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, newspaper, a local citizen writes in saying: “Travelers in the Jacobsburg area may have noticed road crews spreading hundreds of tons of loose gravel on the road surface, which brings up the question: to what end? If the goal is converting the roadway into a death trap for two wheeled travelers, clogging rivers and creeks, then mission accomplished! So why not skip the road repair charade, and dump the gravel directly into the stream.”
An older gentleman, a driver for Enterprise Car Rentals, giving me a ride home recently commented, “Oh yeah, I know these roads. My Dad was a trucker. He would bring the material to the road crews, and most of the material would end up on the sides of the road, and folks would drive in the middle.”
These are the roads around, and next to, the Ashokan Reservoir. When the Ashokan has releases, or overflows, this material flows into the Esopus stream, and the Hudson River. Thousands of upstate residents drink this water, and millions of NYC residents drink this water.
Impact on Air Quality
During my initial phone call with the DEP road official, I asked about the dust, and was told, that once it rained, the dust would end. It did rain a few days later, and the dust did seem to end.
However, in mid-October we had a long stretch of sunny, blue sky, days, and no rain. It was, in fact, a drought. In the drought, the dust re-appeared. When driving on the new “tar and chip” section of 28A we began to notice we were driving in dust again. It was in our car, and in our lungs. We even began to see it on our windshield. The dust eventually entered, and became part of, the air circulation system in the car; belching out at us when we turned the car on in the morning.
As a friend pointed out to me, this was not really dust. Dust is what you have, when soil dries out. What is now getting into the air, when we are experiencing drought type conditions, is the very same toxic Bitumen petroleum materials, we have been describing as a potential toxic hazard for our water; now become airborne.
Droughts are a normal and regular part of our climate cycle. Do we really want, or expect folks living near Reservoir Lands, to be breathing this so called “dust “?
Win-Win Solution
Many environmental problems are caught in either-or struggle. One side wins, the other loses. Fortunately there is way to move through the above dilemma, with all parties emerging as winners. We can achieve both environmental sustainability, and economic sustainability.
There are several ways to seal the toxic Bitumen, in the roadbed. An environmentally conscious Canadian road company, Duncor Enterprises, recommended a “surrey seal.” Perhaps the most exciting prospect is a new, state of the art, technology for building roads around environmentally sensitive areas, particularly reservoirs. Developed in Germany in 1998, then copied, and improved by U.S. road engineers, it is known as “Warm Mix Asphalt” Roads. These roads create a permanent seal, so that there is no leaching of any material into waterways. This new road technology is being used in Oregon and Washington state, to keep their fish hatchery waters pristine. “Warm Mix Asphalt” roads, along with preventing the leaching of material, have lower greenhouse gas emissions, use only recycled products, create a smooth and quiet road surface, provide good traction, allow cars to improve their gas mileage, and have other green, environmental, benefits.
“Warm Mix Asphalt “roads have a potential life expectancy of 15-20 years. “Tar and Chip” roads have a life expectancy of just three years, and are expensive to maintain. In the long term, “Warm Mix Asphalt” is a more economical road solution. Most importantly, they are the best way to keep our waterways and drinking water and air, clean and toxin free. The DEP can choose both long term economic savings, and clean water! It’s a Win-Win for the DEP and environmentalists.
We would like to see a meeting with high level DEP Officials (who have decision making ability), local environmental groups, and town, county and state representatives.
Let’s turn a potential Win-Win situation, into an actual into a Win-Win reality.
We are not so naive as to think there will not be some to push-back to the ideas put forward here. We have already seen the N.Y.C. DEP prevail on the construction company that is being paid to build the road, to send a letter to the N.Y. State DOT stating that their “tar and chip” road, is an acceptable road. This tactic is similar to having a cigarette company ask one of its main tobacco growers, to write a letter to the FDA, stating that their tobacco doesn’t have ingredients hazardous to human health. Who would believe that?
This is change, we can, and should create together.
To join the effort contact: Save the Ashokan Waters and Roads Alliance (SAWRA). Send your e-mail thoughts, and ideas, to SAWRA at [email protected].
Great article. What an outrage for them to show such disregard for the environment, for health and safety of people, and for the purity of the very water supply they’re supposed to be protecting.
Glad you uncovered it.
Some one should stand up to the people who are doing this.