There are days when even the mightiest must stop and tend to that irritating pebble stuck in a shoe. That day has arrived for the Ford Motor Company. Ford is scheduled to begin a new remediation effort the day after the dedication of the Ramapo Saltbox Environmental Research Center, scheduled for Sunday, October 7 at noon on Torne Valley Road in Hillburn.
The Ramapo Saltbox ERC is an important piece of Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence’s environmental education and research effort in the area and complements the town’s Open Space initiative.
Both the remediation effort and the Saltbox have been a long time coming. Chuck Stead, environmental educator with Cornell University Cooperative Extension and Ramapo College, has been a driving force behind both efforts, with the support of Town of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, who will attend Sunday’s dedication.
“This project is an exemplary partnership of historic preservation and environmental education,” said Supervisor St. Lawrence about the reassembled, 200 year old iron-workers’ saltbox style house that will be museum, classroom and research center.
“He’s going to announce the remediation project,” Stead said about Sunday’s dedication, which ends the restoration part of the project and begins the field research part. “It is a major feather in his cap. He’s been able to use this Saltbox project as leverage with Ford. It’s been wonderful.”
With the Ramapo Saltbox project as a showcase for environmental research and education, St. Lawrence has been able to finally bring Ford to the table. The Town of Ramapo and Ford worked out an agreement on a remediation project that will help right a wrong done years ago when the company dumped paint sludge around the Ramapo River and Torne Mountain.
Beginning the week of October 8, Ford is scheduled to begin the new remediation effort in the OU1 area of the United Water well field, a five acre stretch near the Saltbox house, and very close to the Ramapo River.
“It’s a five-month long project and my students and I will be checking in on the project on a weekly basis,” Stead said. “We’re going to keep a record of how it goes and what they find, what their progress is with the removal.”
Stead has been working steadily on the Saltbox restoration for the last several years with Ramapo College undergrad interns, Rockland BOCES high school students who use the project as part of a job/skills program, as well as visiting groups of students, including the Antioch School of Environmental Studies in New Hampshire, and the Americorp program.
Support and partial funding for the project comes directly from the Town of Ramapo’s Cultural Property Management department, headed up by Tom Sullivan. The department oversees historical properties throughout Ramapo, including Harmony Hall in Sloatsburg, Henry Varnum Poor House (of Standard & Poor fame), the Smith Family Farm, and Mobray-Clarke House.
Stead said the Saltbox restoration project cost approximately $50,000. The total cost of the Ford remediation projects is projected to be approximately $12 million dollars.
“Part of my Ph.D. project (from Cornell University) is to document what we’ve done here so it can be used as a sustainable model for impacted communities elsewhere,” Stead said. “My hope is that the Saltbox will offer an opportunity for environmental education, historic preservation and the study of ecological restoration in the seasons to come.”
The Ramapo Saltbox Environmental Research Center dedication is scheduled for Sunday, October 7 at noon on Torne Valley Road in Hillburn. Guests are encouraged to bring a potluck dish that will serve 4-6 people.
Photos courtesy of Geoff Welch.
