CHENANGO COUNTY – As a community goes, so goes its environment, says a member of the county’s Environmental Management Council.
That’s why the EMC has gone online with a new website, www.ccemc.org, to give members of the community and their elected officials an outlet to examine local environmental issues and a resource to better understand them.
“Our goals is to help educate the community and advise county government on current and future environmental issues and problems,” said EMC chair and Evening Sun Outdoors Columnist Bob McNitt.
From burning garbage and litter, to wood boilers and land management, McNitt say he’d like to see community members and government officials get more involved in facing the issues that face Chenango County.
“The county is changing,” he said, pointing to the economy, demographics, and the landscape itself. “There’s more open spaces and vacant properties now, combined with the ongoing problems of pollution and land misuse. And I think there is a fear of taking measures to advance or improve on the conditions here. But the same ideas we’ve always had on the environment locally are not going to work anymore. We can’t push these problems aside.”
Through the website, the EMC wants to connect the public with their leaders, so both sides can get a handle on the concerns and solutions that are out there. The website offers local and national articles, environmental studies, interactive blogs, questionnaires and forums and for the public to voice their concerns.
At the forefront, McNitt says garbage burning and junk piles are two major problems in the county that don’t get a fair examination.
“It’s important that people see how these practices affect their health and their neighbor’s health,” he said, pointing specifically to dioxin, a harmful chemical released when garbage is burned that McNitt said makes its way into the air we breath as well as farm crops and cow’s milk.
According to Green Media Tool Shed, an independent group that studies environmental pollution, Chenango County ranked 32 of the 56 worst polluting counties in the state, releasing over 97,000 pounds of toxic chemicals between 1988 and 2002.
With the amount of public and undeveloped land the county has, that should not be the case, McNitt said.
“We have an abundance of public land here that other parts of the state and country could only wish to have,” he said. “We don’t appreciate it like we should.”
According to the state EMC website, the council is made up of local citizens and “strives to affect environmental improvement” by acting as a conduit between the government and the public. “EMC projects often take the form of studies that provide recommended courses of action for decision-makers,” the state says.
Annually, the Chenango EMC oversees numerous clean-up efforts and offers public education opportunities.