Similar to the awakening, which took place globally over decades, to the threat of climate change caused by humans, we need an awakening to the threat caused by now-accepted chemicals.

Jeffrey Moller, Altamont’s Superintendent of Public Works, said the need to use chemicals to kill weeds along parts of Main Street and Maple Avenue was necessary because milder options had failed. 

The state says there is a “significant threat to public health or the environment” from chemicals in the soil and groundwater. 

Data will then be used to calculate the cumulative impact on traffic patterns and sewer infrastructure.

The land bank wants to know how much it would cost to have the building demolished, to make the site more attractive to developers.

Communities can act when the feds fail.

The Berne supervisor said his vote against the moratorium was symbolic to say that the town needs to move forward on enacting a law to allow for industrial solar arrays, while a councilwoman writing such a law said it needs time and consideration.

In towns like Knox and Guilderland, fees for hauling away electronic waste have risen, which recyclers say is because manufacturers are not taking their fair share of the e-waste.

For the past 10 years, a group of volunteers have protected from peril the paths that frogs and salamanders use to migrate to return to the place where they can breed.

Officials are not sure of the extent of contamination, or if the streams behind the property run to the Watervliet Reservoir, but they are proceeding as if the streams do enter the reservoir, said Rick Georgeson, spokesman for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 4.