Environmental groups oppose casinos in Tuxedo and Woodbury
By Nathan Mayberg
ALBANY — Orange Environment, the influential Orange County-based environmental group which has remained largely silent on proposed casinos in the county, has written a letter to the New York Gaming Facility Location Board objecting to proposed casino plans.
The group's president, Michael Edelstein, had led opposition to casino plans in Sullivan County in the past over traffic and air pollution concerns.
His recent letter was joined by a mountain of regional environmental groups who wrote a letter of their own to the facility location board in opposition to casinos proposed in Woodbury and Tuxedo.
The letter was signed by 28 regional environmental and citizen action groups and expressed concern for the Ramapo River, a major source of drinking water, and Sterling Forest State Park, which surrounds the proposed casino in Tuxedo, and how they would be impacted by the casino proposals.
'Main Street of Orange County'
In his letter, Edelstein wrote that traffic impacts are among its top concerns, arguing that the casino proposals will create traffic gridlock and congest Route 84 and Route 17.
Edelstein described Route 17 as "the Main Street of Orange County," connected by the New York State Thruway. He stated that the casino projects would take existing high congestion and "compound already intractable transit problems at nodal intersections between major highway arteries."
He said traffic concerns have been ignored in environmental studies. "In search of “economic development” the overall quality of life, commerce mobility and environment is placed at risk," Edelstein wrote.
"Sullivan County sites, eager for casinos, have declared that environmental reviews are already completed even though complete applications have not been submitted. Orange County communities, prodded by the casino process’ demand for community support, have made substantial commitments to casino projects even though no critical reviews under SEQR or codes have been completed. Various tax breaks and other privileges have been granted. In this way, the process has corrupted the chances for a hard look analysis."
In his letter, Edelstein notes the opposition Orange Environment continues to have to a thruway exit in Tuxedo, which has been proposed for a casino there.
"New York State should put its resources behind the kind of sustainable development opportunities that will make New York a desirable place to live, work and visit," Edelstein wrote.
"Highway gridlock will undermine the local and regional attributes that have made the Lower Hudson so attractive. Use of mass transit is the only way to achieve substantial event or vacation population influx in the region."
'Disaster for Ramapo watershed'
Rodger Friedman, co-chair of the Sterling Forest Partnership, stated that “Safe, clean water is what Sterling Forest State Park was created to protect.”
The proposal by Genting for a casino surrounded by the forest "may seriously compromise that mission with its proposed casino," Friedman stated.
“Either alone or as a deadly one/two punch, the massive Tuxedo Resorts and Caesar Woodbury casino proposals will be an unmitigated disaster for the Ramapo watershed and a river system depended on by more than 3,000,000 people in northern New Jersey for some or all of their water,” stated Julia Somers, Executive Director of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition. Signers Among the 28 groups who signed Orange Environment's letter to the New York Gaming Facility Location Board objecting to proposed casino plans were: The Northern Tuxedo Residents Association Orangetown Environmental Committee Protect Harriman, Monroe, and Woodbury Ramapo River Committee Ramapo-Catskills Group of the Sierra Club Raritan Headwaters Association Rockland Residents against Flooding Tomorrow Rockland Group Sierra Club Sterling Forest Highlands Committee Sparkill Creek Watershed Alliance Sterling Forest Partnership Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment, Inc.