Economic and environmental clash at mushroom hearing

By DAVID HULSE

WURTSBORO, NY — Despite its ponderous four-hour length, the lines of contention were evident as spokesmen for environment and cultural resource managers debated economic development proponents at the August 31 planning board hearing on the draft environmental impact statement for a planned Yukiguni Maitake mushroom growing facility.

More than 30 people testified for and against the project and no one was undecided about it.

“It’s about the ugliest structure that man ever created,” self-described Shawangunk Mountains defender Thomas Gale said of Yukiguni’s proposed four-story windowless 550,000 square-foot main building. “[Trading land on the cheap for jobs is not a good swap,” he added.

All the buildings in the complex combine to 825,000 square feet, covering 27 percent of the 48-acre lot, 45 percent when unbuildable wetlands are removed from the formula.

On the other hand, a Sullivan County Partnership Board member said opponents were testifying the same kind of misinformation that met the Kohl’s warehouse project in a county where 16 percent of the population lives in poverty. “What’s more important, jobs for our kids or birds in the swamp?” he asked.

Another speaker, a third generation farmer, said residents need to embrace the gift of Yukiguni. “I love trees, but the two year-old who needs a heart transplant, whose parents don’t have a job with benefits…I love him more.”

Several people voiced concerns about air quality and fog emitted by the plant cooling towers.

Dee Wurtz said the smell emitted by a mushroom farm is “the most horrible thing you can smell…Wurtsboro will become a ghost town,” she warned.

Neighbor Trish Moore said she was unimpressed by the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) position that any odor the plant would emit would make the air smell like chocolate liqueur. “I want it to smell like clean fresh air,” she said to audience applause.

But Partnership for Economic Development President Marc Baez said the plant will have no cooling towers or “plumes of smoke coming out.”

Baez said many people have the impression that businesses are lined up waiting to get into Sullivan County. “Not so…. This is competitive. Others are watching Mamakating and Sullivan County. Are we going to send a message that we’re not open for business?” he asked.

Maryallison Farley of the Basha Kill Area Association noted that the building height is almost twice the town’s allowable height for the Light Industry-Office Zone. Farley said the limitation should apply. “Yukiguni’s business plan is not the town’s concern,” she said.

She also addressed concerns about disposal of solid waste, fermented sawdust; and said “there is no analysis to back up the company’s water withdrawal claims.

A consulting geologist also spoke to the association’s position on the plant’s water use which proponents said was 425,000 gallons daily and opponents pegged at 600,000 gallons daily.

Claiming there were procedural errors in two prior pumping tests, the consultant called for them to be done over.

Former partnership president Mike Sullivan said the aquifer below the plant carries 39 million gallons of water per day. “Every acre of forested land has depletion of 1,600 gallons of water a day. There’s 100 million gallons of water evaporating from the trees in Mamakating every day,” he argued.

Robert Powell of the D&H Transportation Heritage Council spoke for historic preservation of the neighboring linear canal park. He said the cultural heritage section of the DEIS was “woefully inadequate,” adding, “Nothing, now or in the future, must be allowed to violate the D&H corridor.”

Sandra Schultz, speaking on behalf of the National Park Service, supported Powell, noting that the canal is recognized by inclusion on the federal register of historic places.

Sullivan responded that if the New York State Thruway or the D&H Canal were proposed today, environmental opposition would defeat them and “they wouldn’t be done.”

The length of last Tuesday’s DEIS forced planners to postpone a second planned hearing on the Yukinguni site-development plan. Chairman John Piazza said a new hearing date would be announced. Written public comment on the Yukiguni DEIS will be accepted through September 27.