“The original study that was being contemplated was a full health impact study,” District One Legislator Scott Samuelson said in a recent interview. When the legislature put the RFP out ...that came to a quarter of a million dollars and nobody wanted to vote to spend that. So that got scratched.“ “The County was a reluctant follower in the entire discussion about the Millennium issue,” says Maya K. van Rossum, executive director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “It only sought to mollify and quiet public opposition rather than do their duty of representing the public and the community that are their constituents.” She told The Sullivan Times that she was disappointed that the County did not even try to match the $67,000 that Millennium agreed to pay for the study.
SCOTT SAMUELSON: District One Legislator and new COO of The Eldred Preserve Project (Official Photo)
“Had there been an effort to secure additional resources, I was prepared to put up a sum of money and at the time I was thinking $10,000 based on what was available in our budget,” van Rossum said. “But it quickly became clear that the County wasn’t interested in other funding.” Van Rossum also confronted Millennium officials at a public forum about the compressor station in Rock Hill on March 31, 2016. Last week, she described that 2016 event as full of “lies and fabrications” being promoted by the company. At press time, County spokesperson Dan Hust said that Millennium has not yet paid for the study but added that was not unusual since the study had not yet been completed. KC Engineering, the firm hired by the County after a third round of RFPs, declined comment and referred all questions about its study back to the County. “They (Millennium) certainly were not going to pay to have the air monitored out of Minisink,” said George Billard, an Eldred resident who leads Sullivan County Residents Against Millennium (SCRAM).
