Syracuse.com - National Grid giving 2,800 acres of prime fishing land to NY on Salmon River

[HuntingNY-News]

It follows 11 years of negotiations and delays following a punitive action by the state against Niagara Mohawk.

Following 11 years of negotiations and various delays, the state Department of Environmental Conservation is expected to take ownership soon of 2,800 acres of National Grid land along the lower Salmon River and the Salmon River Reservoir.

The development is a big deal because the land the DEC is getting along the river, which makes up the majority of the transaction, will ensure continued public access for fishing. No other plans have been released at this point by the DEC.

The annual salmon and steelhead fishing scene - particularly in the fall -- is a huge and crucial part of the economic scene in the greater Pulaski area, drawing tens of thousands of anglers from throughout the state and beyond.

The 2,800 acres is being turned over to the state by the utility company as part of a 2005 consent decree reached with Niagara Mohawk. The agreement followed serious health and environmental violations by two of Niagara Mohawk's coal-fired power plants in the western part of the state - the Huntley Station near Tonawanda, and the Dunkirk Station in Dunkirk. Both released harmful emissions of nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxide into the air in violation of air emission standards.

The consent decree noted its terms would be binding upon Niagara Mohawk and its successors. National Grid, which acquired Niagara Mohawk in 2002, assumed responsibility for the actions and the terms of the agreement.

The land that the state will acquire "is in the vicinity of the Salmon River and Salmon River Reservoir in the towns of Albion, Orwell, Redfield and Richland, and the villages of Altmar and Pulaski, in Oswego County." In late 2004, the land was appraised and said to have a market value of $2.56 million.

The 2005 agreement included terms that Niagara Mohawk pay a $3 million civil penalty, in addition to putting $3 million in a "Niagara Mohawk Environmental Mitigation Project Account." The latter was to be used for projects approved by the DEC involving "energy efficiency and/or pollution reduction in Western New York, including but not limited to the weatherization of low income housing and the retrofitting of pollution controls on school buses."

Both the payment of the civil penalty and the setting up of the mitigation project account have been taken care of already, according to Virginia Limmiatis, a National Grid spokeswoman.

The last piece of the deal, "the gift agreement," has been delayed for various reasons. When the ownership of the land is finally transferred, National Grid's responsibility in regard to satisfying the terms of the consent decree is finished, Limmiatis said.

Fishing is a multi-million dollar business in Oswego County, said David Turner, the county's director of community development, tourism and planning. He cited a 2015 stuydy of state fishing license purchases in the county - specifically, the annual "river fishing period," beginning in mid-September and continuing through to March.

He said license sales to out-of-staters alone amounted to more than 22,000 licenses. Also, that the anglers came from every single state in the country and "33 provinces and countries from around the world."

"These anglers aren't up here ice fishing. They're fishing on the river," he said.

Big bucks arrowed by Upstate NY bow and crossbow hunters this fall (photos)

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