Shut facilities without active air permits

It was an honor joining hundreds at the Norlite Rally on April 30 (“Rally protests Norlite plant,” May 1). Norlite must be shut down and the Title V air permit denied by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

DEC has so far been allowing the waste-burning plant to continue operations while awaiting its updated application since its permit expired in late 2020.

Meanwhile, DEC allows the Greenidge Bitcoin gas-powered plant on Seneca Lake to continue operating without a Title V air permit since its own expired last year. There have been multiple extensions so that DEC can consider nearly 4,000 comments regarding a renewal. Cornell people reviewing the comments quantitatively have found that at least 98 percent are opposed to granting the permit.

Meanwhile, in Orange County, a Title V draft permit from 2019 for the CPV power plant is still awaiting approval while it continues to operate.

If the DEC’S mission is to protect the environment and people of the state, should industries’ profit-making potential poisoning be allowed to continue as the permit processes drag on?

People chanted “DEC means ‘Doesn’t Even Care’” at the Norlite rally; people in Seneca Lake, Orange County and elsewhere might concur. Mary T. Finneran

Cairo