| Watershed Post

Blustery day

Snow currently falling on the Mohawk Valley and northern Catskills is expected to impact driving visibility on the roads until around 11am, says NY-Alert:

A Band Of Lake Effect Snow Impacting Parts Of The Mohawk Valley And The Northern Catskills Until 11 AM... A Narrow Band Of Lake Effect Snow Will Impact Locations From Interstate 90 In Montgomery And Western Schenectady Counties South To The Interstate 88 Corridor In Northern Schoharie And Northwestern Albany Counties Between 9 AM And 11 AM. Visibilities Will Lower Under A Half Mile In The Snow. Accumulations Will Range From A Quarter Inch To An Inch And Half. There Will Be Blowing And Drifting Snow With The Northwest Winds Of 15 To 30 Mph With Some Gusts In The 40 To 50 Mph Range.

High wind warning in Delaware County this morning.

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Route 17 cleared

Earlier today, several accidents on an icy stretch of Route 17 in Roscoe shut down the road in both directions. NY-Alert is now reporting that the road has been cleared.

WBNG reported about an hour ago that about 40 vehicles were involved in crashes on the iced-over road, but that there were no major injuries. Their news account has several pictures from the incidents.

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It's official: Cuomo wants ORDA to run Belleayre Mountain next year

In his proposal for the 2012 - 2013 New York State budget, released today, Governor Andrew Cuomo made it clear that he would like to transfer the management of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center to the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) at the close of the current ski season.

This is a preliminary budget proposal, so the transfer will not happen until the budget is finalized. But it's a big indication that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's days in the ski business may be numbered.

For a rundown of the pros and cons of a Belleayre DEC-to-ORDA transfer, see our story from last June.

Here's the news, announced on pages 14 and 32 of the budget briefing book issued today:

p. 14: • Transfer the management of Belleayre Ski Center from the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA). Given ORDA’s expertise managing other ski centers (Gore and Whiteface) Belleayre will see improved operations.

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Embattled New York Power Authority to hold meeting on Irene response

The New York Power Authority, which owns and operates the dam at the Blenheim-GIlboa Hydroelectric Power Station just downstream from New York City's Gilboa Dam, will hold a public meeting on Thursday to discuss the power authority's actions during the massive Irene floods.

The meeting will be held at the Schoharie Hotel and Suites (formerly the Holiday Inn), 160 Holiday Way, Schoharie at 5pm, Thursday, January 19.

Local officials have accused the NYPA of releasing a massive surge of water during the August 28 floods, and thereby exacerbating the flooding downstream. The power authority may soon be the target of a lawsuit brought by Schoharie County for its actions during the flood.

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Route 17 closed near Roscoe after accidents

UPDATE: The road has now been cleared.

Route 17 is currently closed in both directions near Exit 92 on Route 17, due to multiple road accidents.

From NY-Alert:

State Highway 17 is closed in both directions (East & West bound) in the area of the Horton Exit #92. There are multiple accidents in this area. Roadways are experiencing severe icing conditions at this time.

WBNG reports that the road is closed from Roscoe to Hancock.

We will post more information as we find out more.

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Shandaken board passes Pine Hill sewer extension law

Image: The Pine Hill Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Sewer Collection System Sevice Area along Route 28. An extension to 20 additional properties, which was voted into law by the Shandaken town board last week, is indicated in orange on the map.

The Town Board of the Town of Shandaken voted unanimously to adopt a New Sewer Use Law at a special hearing and board meeting last Thursday, January 12, 2012. There were a bipartisan group of 14 residents of the town present at the hearing, most of them residents of Pine Hill (out of approximately 175 households in the hamlet).

The new sewer use law calls for an extension of the Pine Hill Sewer District to include about 20 properties that are not currently hooked up to the hamlet's wastewater treatment system.

Background on Sewer Use Law

Residents of Pine Hill pay no user fees for use of the sewage system in the hamlet due to historical circumstances shared by only a few other communities in the Catskills. All of the costs of the Pine Hill wastewater treatment plant are covered by New York City.

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Rip Van Winkle bridge jumper identified

The Daily Mail reports that a man who jumped from the Rip Van Winkle Bridge last Wednesday, and whose body was recovered from the Hudson River the next day, has been identified as a Greene County resident.

State police said Aleksandr M. Tchernikov, 45, lived in Cornwallville, a hamlet south of the town of Durham.

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Army Corps of Engineers puts boots on the ground in Prattsville

Above: A photo set posted recently on Flickr by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has sent a team to Prattsville to help prepare a site for temporary housing under the guidance of FEMA.

Photos taken on site in Prattsville on January 10, 2012. For captions, click on the individual photos in the slideshow above.

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Wintry mix warning for the western Catskills tonight

Be careful on the roads tonight, Delaware and Sullivan County. The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for south-central New York and northern Pennsylvania through tomorrow morning.

From NY-Alert:

Light Wintry Mix With Ice Tonight Into Early Tuesday Morning... ...Winter Weather Advisory Remains In Effect From 9 PM This Evening To 10 AM EST Tuesday...

* Locations...Oneida...Madison...Chenango...Otsego...Broome... Delaware... Sullivan...Susquehanna...Wayne...Lackawanna...And Pike Counties.

* Hazards...Light Wintry Mix Including Freezing Rain.

* Accumulations...Up To A Tenth Of An Inch Of Ice...And Generally Less Than An Inch Of Snow And Sleet. The Most Ice Accumulation Will Occur In The Western Catskills And Oneida County. Over Northern Oneida County Snow Accumulation Of 1 To 3 Inches Is Likely.

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Ommegang's fracking concerns gain national stage

The Ommegang Brewery has been at its Cooperstown location since 1997. Photo by Flickr user Jim Kelly. Used under Creative Commons license.

Jerry Bennett, Ommegang Brewery's P.R. and creative services manager, told the Washington Post today that, should Middlefield's ban on hydrofracking be struck down in the courts, the 15-year-old brewery which provides work for 80 people in the Cooperstown area may be forced to move its operations. The leadership at Ommegang, which pumps about 3 million gallons of water annually from three wells on its property, is looking ahead to the ruling and beginning to plan.

While the brewery can treat water to remove sediment and adjust the pH, Ommegang doesn’t have the resources to filter out the chemicals, asserts Bennett.

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