Grand View of The Hudson

The ABC’S of Health

By Dr. Jo Gjelsten

“A Grand View” of Our Environment!

So I’m standing on the side of the beautifully restored Piermont Train Station, reading about its history,  and am I surprised to see that she had “sister stations”, Grand View, West Nyack, and Nyack!  I knew about the Nyacks, but South Nyack and Grand View?  It turns out after much curiosity on my part, or some would say obsession, there WAS a Grand View Station, which stood until it blew down in a storm in the ‘70’s, on the riverside of the rail trail, but called the “tracks” if you’re a local, Sally.  Station Lane, still there off of Rt. 9W AND River Road, served as its access road(s), which most who live around there already know, and now you and I do too.  

Frickin’ ‘n Frackin’, Keep The Core From Crackin’Sarah!”  Back then the environment was just becoming an issue. No one was really interested, and some continued to swim in the river, eat the fish; glow in the dark. Now however, many are still not interested, continue to eat the fish, glow in the dark..really go out on the Piermont pier and look at all of those who fish there, except perhaps the folks who once worked for GE. That of course brings me to the “Grand View” we all have of the River. My “view” of our River is that it is precious to us all, even those who don’t live directly on it. And it also matters to those living in it too, and since they can’t speak for themselves, Dr. Jo will talk for them in my best fishy voice.000oooitsnotgluggluggood! Indian Point is killing a billion fish per year, according to the DEC, because it sucks in 2.5 billion gallons of water/day, and flushes out the water, now hot from cooling down all that heat in the reactors, into the river, and the fish are not happy about that.  Entergy pays for studies that show “minimal impact” on aquatic life, whatever that means. It means to me that Indian Point, which “earns about a million a day for Entergy”, (O,..M,.…G!) is worth keeping to some, who probably don’t eat the fish.  Riverkeeper, among many others, including the fish, would like to see Indian Point close down. So what’s my point? There are those who say it is safe, especially those who would like their jobs to be safe. How about we ask those who own that plant if they’d swim in that water, or even drink that water it’s so safe? How about letting their kids swim in it, or drink it? Maybe those folks would enjoy a Hudson River Fish Fry, local catch! Do they live next to the plant? Do their kids live there? Horrible as all that is, that’s not our biggest problem with Indian Point, as Japan showed us only too vividly?  What about the radiation risks of a plant where, I quote "Reactors two and three were built in the 1970s and were slated for a 40-year-life. As in the rest of the country, plant operators are hoping to get an additional 20 years of productivity [out of] their reactors."? Time’s up. Now. Right now, I say. So do they have an effective plan to evacuate those within a 50 mile radius of that plant, or will the only evacuation, when the ground begins to shake, be of their bowels?  Can we prevent the devastating consequences of an earthquake cracking the core of Indian Point, which is only 34 miles from NYC? While we may not get a Tsunami, would anyone knowingly now build a nuclear atomic reactor on a fault line, or two? How stupid would that be, now that we’ve seen what can happen when an earthquake, which no one can guarantee won’t happen, happens, Harry?  If you wouldn’t build it now, near a city and countryside of how many millions, WHY would you allow it to be there for another five minutes!  See, http://www.riverkeeper.org/word/. Yes the Hudson IS cleaner, thanks to Riverkeeper et al, but I still wouldn’t swim in it, or swallow the water or live next to Indian Point at this point. Now where did I put that evacuation plan we got in the mail, oh so many years ago?   

On that cheery note, as I schvitz and plotz, we move from OUR river water to OUR drinking water.  Remember that OUR bodies are 70% water, so you’d think it would be high on the priority list, like not having rotten wood to build a house. So let’s not potentially screw that up too by allowing hydraulic fracturing in N.Y., “fracking” for short, (fracturing of the Marcellus Shale, a rock loaded with natural gas) using water, many toxic chemicals not regulated by the Clean Water Act, thanks Dick, and I mean Dick, and some unknowns thrown in so, as has happened, gas escapes and comes out of the water tap, causing drinking water to be contaminated in too sickening to describe here, ways.  The drilling folks wouldn’t touch the stuff. Hmm. Go to, http://www.riverkeeper.org/tag/fracking/. So why would we allow this? PLEASE SEE “Gasland”!  The DVD is widely available and is often shown publicly. Try your library. Let’s keep the moratorium on the frickin’ frackin’ in New York;  “In the final hours of a special budget session on August 3, 2010, the Senate passed a moratorium bill to delay new permits for any hydraulic fracturing in the state until May 15, 2011” .   Please go to this link, Art.   http://cleanwaternotdirtydrilling.org/, or yell at somebody, whatever floats your dirty little dinghy, Doodad.  A man once said, and he was right for a change, “We don’t know what we don’t know”, and there was much he didn’t know, and didn’t know he didn’t know it, but found out later, when it was too late, and said he didn’t know. Sorry, he didn’t say.  (I have to stop watching TV).  But, ‘ya know, I have to agree with, what was that? Step away slowly from the water Dr. Jo. We can find clean energy somewhere else.  In fact, I’ll bet you and I know where a lot of natural home grown gas may already be coming from, especially after a meal of garlic and onions. We just have to figure out how to package it! Wasn’t that fun?

Back to something cheery. Ok, how about “Steps To A Healthier Rockland”. You may remember from last month I mentioned in passing that I’ll be a docent for them, because I forgot already.  So on May 7^th I’ll be bringing up the (everyone’s) rear as a “sweep” for the Iona Island Walk. Those of you in the front will have to tell me what was said.  This is a really good program so let’s get our big butts in gear and Walk Already, maybe past the site of the old Grandview Station!  Copyright 4/12/11.©  

West Nyack Train Station 

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