Village shares Clearwater’s concerns about federal cuts

The Village Board has voiced its support to the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater’s plan to bring concerns about proposed environmental protection cuts to Washington, D.C.

Board member Jeannine Mayer said the planned June 28-30 visit to the nation’s capital is aimed at raising awareness about problems that need to be addressed in the nation’s waterways, including the Hudson River, which Saugerties borders.

“The village ... [has] deep concerns over current rollbacks and threats to federal clean water protections and affirms the need for sound, science-based water policy and for adequate regulation enforcement and funding as pressure on water quality and safety continue to mount,” Mayer said.

Proposed cuts that worry the village and Clearwater include a 31 percent reduction of funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a 45 percent cut in categorical grants to states for water protection programs. Also on the chopping block are $427 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and a $1 billion for the Office of Water Programs.

Clearwater Acting Executive Director Dave Conover said the trip actually will begin June 19 as the 106foot sloop set out down the Hudson River and along the Atlantic seaboard to Delaware Bay. It then will enter Chesapeake Bay by way of a canal.

“On the way back, we’re going to be connecting with some other maritime and educational organizations to share some best practices and coordinate some programs with group down there,” Conover said.

“These issues are all connected,” he said, “and I think one of the reasons that Pete (Clearwater founder Pete Seeger) went down in 1970, when the boat wasn’t even a year old, was I think he understood that clean water issues require a federal response.

“Of course, that federal response ultimately became the Clean Water Act,” Conover said. “So we’re reminding people that responsibility is still in play and that these environmental protections are core American values and they impact a lot of people in a lot of different ways, espe-

cially the most vulnerable communities are impacted by pollution.”

Conover is realistic, though, about the impact that can be made on a presidential administration that seems determined to cut environmental protection programs.

“I think we have no illusions that our trip is going to create an epiphany for many people in the administration about these environmental issues, whether it’s clean water protection or climate change,” he said. “We understand that, so part of the reason for the trip is to reaffirm to the Hudson Valley that these issues matter and that the Hudson Valley was arguably the birthplace of the modern environmental movement.”