Tribe Backs Off Task Force

MASSENA — The St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council is reducing its role in the North Country Redevelopment Task Force from “participant” to “observer.”

Tribal officials have maintained a presence at nearly every meeting about the remediation and future of the General Motors-Powertrain site. Economic development and environmental officials, and occasionally the council chiefs themselves, attended and offered input about the site’s eventual redevelopment and cleanup.

For much of the last year, the task force meetings alternated monthly between Akwesasne and Massena.

Now all meetings will shift to Massena, and the tribal officials who attend will act in an observational capacity. At Thursday’s meeting, St. Lawrence County Legislator Anthony J. Arquiett, task force chairman, said he was informed about a week ago of the tribal government’s changing role, which he said concerned him greatly.

“I personally think the involvement of the tribe is integral in the ... redevelopment,” he said. “At any point that you want to change that status, we welcome you with open arms.”

Tribal Environmental Division representative Craig Arquette said he will continue attending meetings and report to the tribal council about the GM site. Lindsay Tarbell, a tribal economic development specialist, said the role was reduced because “that’s what our tribal council decided.”

Chief Ronald LaFrance Jr. said Thursday night the tribe was reducing its role out of frustration with the pace of progress at the site.

“We haven’’t heard any viable options from the task force ... There’s really been no plan for that site,” he said. “They just keep asking what the tribe wants to do. It gets frustrating after awhile ... We don’t see any movement going on.”

Observer status allows the tribal government to “sit back and see what’s going on,” Mr. LaFrance said.

He said the tribe does not have its own plan for the site, but will provide updates if it does.

The tribal government is also concerned with the capped waste-disposal area at the northeastern portion of the site and wants it removed, Mr. LaFrance said.

The Environmental Protection Agency decided keeping the landfill permanently capped was the best course of action for the Superfund site. The landfill garnered attention last summer when Larry V. Thompson of Akwesasne dug into the site with an excavator in an attempt to remove its contents.

The decision to leave the landfill there “probably has a lot to do” with the tribal government’s decision to reduce its role in the task force, Mr. LaFrance said.

“It’s hard to develop an area when you have a toxic waste dump,” he said.

Some Mohawks also expressed concern that Mayor James F. Hidy might be proposing the former GM site as the location for a nuclear power plant, Mr. LaFrance said.

“Where would they put it?” he asked. “In Wilson Hill? In Downtown Massena?”

Mr. Hidy said the nuclear power project is still in its infancy and no site has been determined yet.

“There are many sites that are ideal for it. We’ve had no discussion at all as far as the GM site,” he said. “Wherever it goes it’s going to create thousands of jobs.”

Supervisor Joseph D. Gray said the nuclear plant and other concerns would be best addressed by all stakeholders getting together.

“The most appropriate way to address those concerns would be to sit at the table and air those concerns,” Mr. Gray said.

Mr. Gray called the tribal government’s reduced role “unfortunate.”

“There are, from time to time, competing interests with the tribe,” Mr. Gray said. “We more often have cooperating interests rather than competing interests. I’ll continue to reach out to the tribe from the town’s perspective.

“It’s unfortunate they’ve chosen to be observers rather than participants,” he said. “It’s a loss for the task force.”