News stories tagged with "black-river"

(08/23/11) The state Department of Environmental Conservation is joining the Federal Environmental Protection Agency in the effort to clean up a heavily polluted half-mile section of the Black River.

Paper mills and other industry along the river near the villages of Carthage and West Carthage, left it heavily polluted. The area was declared an EPA Superfund site last year. But it's still heavily used for fishing, rafting and kayaking, and there are several homes along the polluted stretch. more

(08/24/10) The head of one of the most embattled state organizations in the North Country has stepped down. Glenn LaFave, who ran the Hudson River Black River Regulating District, left the organization last Wednesday after four years on the job.

As Brian Mann reports, he departs as the District's future is in doubt because of a debt crisis and a series of court challenges.

(03/17/08) A deadly bat disease known as "white nose syndrome" has been confirmed in the eastern Adirondacks and in a cave in the Black River valley near Watertown. Martha Foley has more.

(10/09/06) The growth of Fort Drum since the 1980s has had a profound cultural effect on the Watertown area. You can see it in the restaurants scattered outside the base. Thai food, Korean food, dixieland BBQ all serve their constituents. A new restaurant outside Fort Drum serves both African-American soul food and Puerto Rican Hispanic fare. As David Sommerstein reports, its owners also dish up a helping of food for the spirit. Willie Mae's Soul Food and Hispanic restaurant is on 30092 Rt.3 in Black River, near Watertown. Call for hours and more information: (315)286-2146.

(10/05/06) In the 1890s the town of Forestport in the southern Adirondacks was a rowdy logging town. The joke was there were more saloons than people. And no saloon had more of a reputation than the Hotel Doyle. When the paper mills started to shut down, it was at the Hotel Doyle that the townspeople hatched a plan to sabotage one of the levees on the Black River Canal. Three times they succeeded, each time bringing repair crews - and economic life - back to the region. Today the Hotel Doyle still stands. It's a biker bar called Scooter's. Gregory Warner went there last month for a poker run - kind of like bar hopping for charity on motorcycles. But as he found out, the poker run is about more than beer and wheels. It's another example of Forestport refusing to fade away.

(10/05/06) In their weekly series on North Country place names, Dale Hobson and Gregory Warner discuss a bogus origin for the name "Oswegatchie" as well as the truth... we also hear from Chris Angus, editor of "Oswegatchie: A North Country River".

(08/04/06) A Lewis County dairy farm has agreed to a $2.2 million settlement for a massive manure spill into the Black River last summer. The Department of Environmental Conservation announced the settlement with Marks Dairy Farm in Lowville yesterday. The farm has agreed to fund over $1.5 million in environmental benefit projects along the Black River and a tributary, Whetstone Creek. It'll also pay $700 thousand in penalties to the DEC. The spill occurred last August 10. The earthen wall of a lagoon holding the liquid manure blew out, sending about 3 million gallons into a drainage ditch and then into the river. The spill killed approximately 375,000 fish in a 20-mile stretch of river. The farm has also upgraded its manure storage facility and handed over development rights for part of the farmland to the DEC. Deparment spokesperson Maureen Wren says that's good for the environment and the public.

(08/24/05) The Lewis County dairy farm that spilled millions of gallons of liquid manure into the Black River could have to pay more than $2 million in fines. The Department of Environmental Conservation announced several alleged violations and fines yesterday. They included paying ten dollars for every fish the manure killed. David Sommerstein reports.

(08/16/05) Following the 3 million-gallon liquid manure spill in the Black River last week, we wanted to know why farmers use liquid manure in the first place. So David Sommerstein called Brent Buchanan of the Cornell Cooperatve Extension of St. Lawrence County. He says in the old days on dairy farms, each milking cow had its own stall with its own bedding.

(08/15/05) A massive spill of liquid manure in the Black River flowed slower than expected this weekend. Three million gallons of cow waste entered the river last week when a wall in a holding lagoon burst on Marks dairy farms south of Lowville. Hundreds of thousands of fish were killed. The Hudson River/Black River Regulating District released extra water from Stillwater Reservoir on Friday to help move the manure into Lake Ontario. According to News 10 Now, kayaking, rafting, and fishing outfitters along the river had to cancel hundreds of reservations. Steve Litwiler is a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Conservation, which is handling the spill. He spoke with Todd Moe.