Pataki's disappointing record on environmental issues; Could cost him some votes in WNY
By Paul MacClennan
Copyright 1998 Buffalo News
September 3, 1998
Gov. Pataki will go into the November election with the endorsement of the
League of Conservation Voters, but not with the overwhelming support of the
environmental community of Western New York -- and for a dozen good reasons.
To be fair, one must give the Pataki administration credit for seeking to
reverse its bleak start in the first two years by proposing and gaining passage of the Clean
Water/ Clean Air Act.
But other than the series of photo opportunities and ribbon cuttings around the
state, citizens have few facts on how and where and for what purpose the money
has been spent. Most of the early funding
expenditures were at the governor's discretion, making them a real re-election
and patronage machine. Nor do citizens get an annual accounting of the
thousands spent from the Environmental Fund and the Return a Gift to Wildlife
Fund.
Pataki's first and worst mistake was appointing Michael D. Zagata as state
environmental commissioner, an after-the-fact appointment he left dangling
until well into his first months in office. The commissioner quickly became an
embarrassment, but before he dumped Zagata, many say his slash-and-burn tactics destroyed the Department of Environmental Conservation's
institutional memory.
Although the governor talks a Great Lakes game, the failure to make
appointments to the Great Lakes Advisory Commission has left that important
group in limbo.
Environmentalists say appointments to the Adirondack Park Agency belie the
governor's
purported dedication to the Forest Preserve. And he removed a key member from
Western New York on the state's Superfund Mangement Board, leaving the area
underrepresented despite the fact that this region has the highest percentage
of toxic-waste dumps in the state.
Despite repeated warnings from the Superfund Board during his
tenure, the governor stalled on coming up with a plan for paying cleanup costs
for some 200 toxic-dump sites for which there is no funding. Pataki has also
consistently turned aside requests to include some 200 additional hazardous
substance sites as part of the overall
state Superfund plan routinely covered in the federal program.
Facing re-election pressure and bypassing the Superfund Board, he finally named
a group of 15 to look into the matter, but strangely excluded any
representatives of the environmental activist community or grass-roots
representatives who live
on the front lines of the toxic-dump war.
These are the ones who have campaigned on the issue proposing specific plans
for refunding the Superfund and expanding it to include hazardous substance
sites, many of which are in Western New York.
The governor's appointments again largely ignore Western New
York. The group is asked to report comfortably after the election on Jan. 1.
Critics charge that the Pataki administration, particularly under Zagata's
"business friendly" approach, has been lax on enforcement. Like past administrations, it has done
little to rid the Hudson of PCBs dumped by General
Electric. Nor has it endeared itself to Rochester area environmental groups
that find little comfort in the DEC's lackluster efforts at curbing pollution
at Kodak. Both companies are among the biggest polluters in New York.
Although there is a moratorium on logging in Allegany
State Park, the governor's parks commissioner and chief logging proponent,
Bernadette Castro, is now touting Pataki's environmental record of
accomplishment. Neither he, nor she, is saying much about banning logging in
all state parks.
And there is Beaver Island State Park, where fire destroyed a marvelous
building that
looked majestically out over the divide of the Niagara River into its east and
west branches. Albany assured residents it would be rebuilt. Now Castro will
lease the site out to the highest bidder, allowing privatization and diminution
of a once proud public facility.
Pataki, who espouses concerns
about acid rain, has ignored calls for an environmentally sound
energy-deregulation program that would also encourage a start on efforts to
curb
global warming through sound energy conservation and reduction in consumption.
One finds it odd that Pataki ignores the fact that one of the
last Republican governors, Nelson Rockefeller, really ushered into law the
modern-day environmental record with the nation's first Pure Waters Bond Act
and the creation of the DEC -- certainly a model for all succeeding governors.
Rockefeller's legacy was far-reaching, yet ignored by this governor.
Troubling also is the
league's rush to judgment, acting on an endorsement of Pataki before the
primary to select a Democratic challenger and ignoring altogether the state's
Green Party candidate. For a New York City-based group, it doesn't auger well
as they seek to establish a beachhead
in Western New York.
Strange things happen. First the greening of Pataki and now the greening of his
mentor, Al D'Amato, who has also discovered that environmentalism is just as
much a re-election kick-start as filling potholes. PAUL MACCLENNAN is the
former environmental reporter for The News.
For
writer guidelines for columns appearing in this space, send a self-addressed,
stamped envelope to Opinion Pages Guidelines, The Buffalo News, P.O. Box 100,
Buffalo, N.Y. 14240.
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