Youngstown Yacht Club Against Proposed WInd Turbines in Lake Ontario

Please help us by contacting the Niagara County, New York Legislators to voice your opposition against NYPA's Offshore Wind Turbine project and vote on the Niagara Gazette survey, links attached!

Please help us prior to the July 27th meeting of the Legislature.
Thanks for your help,
The Youngstown Yacht Club Board of Directors

The YYC Board is embroiled in a very significant effort to organize YYC Members and others in our community aligned in opposition to the New York Power Authority (NYPA's) Great Lakes Offshore Wind  (GLOW) project.

This project  is opposed by Fort Niagara, the Youngstown Village Council as well as towns or villages of Sardinia, Porter, Oswego, Greece, Hamburg and Cattaraugus County to name a few. The Niagara County Legislature initially supported this project but they are now having second thoughts. They will review this topic again at their July 27th meeting. We would like to have you help our cause by contacting the Niagara County Legislators on the list below and by emailing them to state your opposition to this project.

As mentioneded in [the YYC newsletter], Ripple's, NYPA's stated objective is to facilitate the installation of a wind turbine farm about 2 miles off the shore of Fort Niagara, from the mouth of the river to Wilson. The areas contiguous to this farm and radiating out 1/2 mile in all directions would likely be closed to recreational navigation. This would result in the loss of our Olympic Circle and the site of the Level Regatta. Theses functions cannot be moved further out as the depth of the lake is too great to set the race marks.

This problem goes far beyond the loss of a magnificent scenic vista and natural resource. The electrical power that would be produced by this farm of 450 foot tall turbines is unneeded in WNY so it will be  diverted downstate, as our excess power currently is. As this sporadically produced electrical power becomes available (wind turbines produce at capacity about 30% of the time) the most logical place to reduce output to maintain the needed balance in the grid would most likely be the Robert Moses generation facility in Lewiston (a very green facility).

Nuclear facilities don't spool up and down very efficiently and coal burning facilities like Somerset would have to be operating on standby mode in case the wind  is too strong or too light which happens frequently. The financial incentive to build these wind turbine farms go to the developers who will be chosen by NYPA and will receive long term Power Purchase Agreements  (PPA's) from NYPA guaranteeing the developers a much higher than the market price for electricity. This cost is then born by the rate payers. Tax credits from governments are also part of the incentive to entice developers to build these projects.

Remember the ethanol craze of a few years ago,  again transactions that made no economic sense without massive subsidies. The potential winners here are the wind turbine manufacturers, none of which are in the US. NYPA has spoken of thousands of jobs being created, but they will not be from the manufacture of the turbines. The installation of massive pedestals in the lake bed will require specialists in marine construction this will produce few if any jobs. The staging  port for such a project would have to be Rochester since no port in Niagara County can accommodate vessels of the size required to build out this project.

Here is how you can help.

1) Here is a link to the Niagara Gazette website, at the bottom of the home page is the spot to vote in their poll against the wind turbine project off the Niagara shore.

2) Below are a list of names of the Niagara County Legislators with hyperlinks to create emails directly to the members. Please click on each and state your opposition to the GLOW project. If you know how to copy and paste you can use the same text to each legislator and not have to retype them.

Thanks for your help.
John Reinhold,
Commodore YYC

Niagara County Legislature
Richard A Marasco
809 Vanderbilt Ave
Niagara Falls, NY 14305
285-8897
Richard.Marasco@niagaracounty.com

Renee Kimble
3302 Hyde Park Blvd
Niagara Falls, NY 14305
282-1618
Renae.Kimble@niagaracounty.com

Jason J Cafarella
2259 Forest Ave
Niagara Falls, NY 14301
285-8132
Jason.Cafarella@niagaracounty.com

Dennis F. Virtuoso
2703 Independence Ave
Niagara Falls, NY 14301
284-1582
Dennis.Virtuoso@niagaracounty.com

Vincent M Sandonato
824 91st Street
Niagara Falls, NY 14304
940-2033
Vincent.Sandonato@niagaracounty.com
Danny W Sklarski
2119 Tuscarora Rd
Niagara Falls, NY14304
297-7982
Danny.Sklarski@niagaracounty.com

Gerald K Farnham
5460 Hinman Road
Lockport, NY 14094
433-0703
gerald.farnham@niagaracounty.com

William L Ross
6761 Walmore Rd
Niagara Falls, NY 14304
731-5949
William.Ross@niagaracounty.com

Philip "Russ" Rizzo
590 William St
North Tonawanda, NY 14120
693-9128
Russ.Rizzo@niagaracounty.com

Peter E Smolinski
449 Robert Dr
N. Tonawanda, NY 14120
695-1873
Peter.Smolinski@niagaracounty.com

Paul B Wojtaszek
30 Sherwood Ct.
N. Tonawanda, NY 14120
695-7134
Paul.Wojtaszek@niagaracounty.com

John D Ceretto
685 Cayuga Dr.
Lewiston, NY 14092
754-7066
John.Ceretto@niagaracounty.com

Clyde L Burmaster
2515 Parker Rd
Ransomville, NY 14131
791-3111
Clyde.Burmaster@niagaracounty.com

David E Godfrey
4821 Lake Rd
Burt, NY 14028
751-9606
David.Godfrey@niagaracounty.com

Anthony J Nemi
87 S New York St
Lockport, NY 14094
434-0133
Anthony.Nemi@niagaracounty.com

Wm Keith McNall
739 Willow St
Lockport, NY 14094
434-8070
keith.mcnall@niagaracounty.com

Richard E Updegrove
4688 Day Rd
Lockport, NY 14094
434-2140
Richard.Updegrove@niagaracounty.com

John Syracuse
6091 Condron Rd
Newfane, NY 14108
778-5064
John.Syracuse@niagaracounty.com

Michael A Hill
3464 Stone Rd
Middleport, NY 14105
735-3259
Michael.Hill@niagaracounty.com

Rare Bird Alert from Dial-a-Bird

Image via Wikipedia

Thursday, January 28, 2010

 Dial-a-Bird is a service provided by your Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Ornithological Society. Press (2) to leave a message, (3) for updates, meeting and field trip information and (4) for instructions on how to report sightings. To contact the Science Museum, call 896-5200.

 Highlights of reports received January 21 through January 28 from the Niagara Frontier Region include KING EIDER, RED-THROATED LOON, RED-NECKED GREBE and SNOWY OWL.

 From Buffalo, January 23, beyond abundant waterfowl on the Niagara River between the ice boom and Peace Bridge. Two KING EIDERS, a female and first winter male, were picked out of an an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 waterfowl, dominated by SCAUP, COMMON GOLDENEYE, COMMON MERGANSER, BUFFLEHEAD, CANVASBACK and REDHEAD. The eiders were seen from the tower at the Erie Basin Marina. A RUDDY DUCK was also found at the marina, and 2 adult BALD EAGLES on the ice boom. BONAPARTE'S GULLS at the Peace Bridge have ranged from abundant to absent during January.

 January 23 on Lake Ontario at Golden Hill State Park in Somerset, highlights were several rare in winter RED- THROATED LOONS and RED-NECKED GREBES, plus 26 HORNED GREBES. On the 24th, on the lake off Wilson and Porter, 11 RED-
 THROATED LOONS and 2 RED-NECKED GREBES. Also in Porter at Fort Niagara State Park, GLAUCOUS GULL and SURF SCOTER, plus numerous WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS and LONG-TAILED DUCKS.

 Still on the 23d, in the Lake Ontario Plains, the SNOWY OWL continues at Sawyer Cemetery on Route 18 in Somerset. Two NORTHERN SHRIKES in Yates and Somerset. It was noted that ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS are missing from traditional winter locations in the plains.

 Other reports this week - on the upper Niagara River at Beaver Island State Park, Motor Island and Strawberry Island, 87 GREAT BLUE HERONS, 212 TUNDRA SWANS, BALD EAGLE and impressive numbers of mixed waterfowl. On the lower river, 2 LITTLE GULLS at Lewiston. At Tifft Nature Preserve in Buffalo, up to 60 AMERICAN ROBINS, 10 AMER. TREE SPARROWS and a WHITE-THR. SPARROW. Six EASTERN BLUEBIRDS in the Town of Wilson, and a single EASTERN BLUEBIRD on the West River Parkway on Grand Island.

Nuclear plant spills tritium into lake - thestar.com

Found this Lake Ontario article on the Rochester Environment website:Nuclear plant spills tritium into lake - thestar.com

Red-breasted mergansers on Lake Ontario

from New York Outdoors Blog by newyorkoutdoors

By ELIZABETH KELLOGG, Northunberlandtoday.com, link to original post
On and on they came, flying low over the water. One thousand, two thousand, three thousand -until 15,000 had passed the observer on the west beach in Port Hope. This week, red-breasted mergansers have arrived in large numbers on Lake Ontario.

Red-breasted mergansers are a fish-eating duck. They dive to catch their prey. When they surface, the opportunistic gulls will swoop in and try to steal a fish.

Often, large flocks of red-breasted mergansers can be found because of the gulls swirling around above them. Most of the thieves are herring gulls, although today, there were a number of great-blacked gulls in the flocks.

All mergansers have a bill with a serrated edge. The serrations point backwards to help them hold onto their slippery prey.

The red-breasted merganser male has a green head with a pronounced crest which gives it the look of a punk hairdo. It has a white collar and reddish brown breast. White wing linings and speculum with dark primaries make it easy to identify in flight and even at a distance. The female has a brown head and whitish throat, grey body and white belly. The female has a similar pattern of white and dark on the wing as the male. Young birds and males in eclipse plumage have similar plumage to the females.

The red-breasted merganser breeds throughout the northern hemisphere, in Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and Russia as well as northern Canada and Alaska.

The species is widely distributed in Ontario Canada, breeding mostly in Northern Ontario, although there were many records in the Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario 2001-2005 from around Georgian Bay and Lake Huron.

In southern Ontario, most records were from Prince Edward County and the Thousand Islands.

They typically nest close to water along lakeshores and forested riverbanks. They also like inland and coastal islands. The nests are built in a depression on the ground and are usually sheltered by trees, stumps, driftwood or shrubs.

Most of the red-breasted mergansers which are being seen on Lake Ontario now are passing through en route to wintering grounds on the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico. Populations from further west winter on the Pacific coast.Along with the thousands of red-breasted mergansers are other diving ducks — a few common mergansers, scoters (black, surf and white-winged).

As the seasons passes, the mergansers will be replaced with scaup, long-tailed ducks, common goldeneye and bufflehead. These species are all fish eaters, although some also eat invertebrates such as zebra mussels.

Also in the mix are many common loons, often a few red-throated loons and grebes, most commonly red-necked and horned grebes. Like the mergansers, these species have just begun to arrive in numbers. Cormorants in the flocks will soon be departing for the Gulf of Mexico.

If you want to see the passage of the mergansers, you should be at the shore fairly early in the morning. By mid-morning, there are many fewer birds to be seen. Two years ago, several northern gannets, a bird of the Atlantic Ocean, turned up on Lake Ontario in these swirling masses of diving du

Evidence of Human Activity Found Beneath Lake Huron

Image via Wikipedia

If they found this evidence beneath Lake Huron, could it also be found beneath Lake Ontario?

"Scientifically, it's important because the entire ancient landscape has been preserved and has not been modified by farming, or modern development. That has implications for ecology, archaeology and environmental modeling."

Read the entire article here.

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