Tuesday April 23, 2024 
Little Thunder Brook suggests 19th-century fight — and new battle
Byline: KENNETH C. CROWE II
Nassau
The town crowned Tributary T-11A as Little Thunder Brook to transform it from a quiet little stream that’s been polluted by the Dewey Loeffel Landfill Superfund Site to a war cry recalling the community’s 19th-century history of fighting back.
“Referring to the stream at T-11A doesn’t do it justice. We’re trying to stand up for rural New Yorkers who’ve been ignored,” said Supervisor David Fleming.
The Town Board reached back 175 years to capture the fury of the Anti-Rent Wars that shook upstate New York in the 1840s. Frank Abbott fought under the name Little Thunder when he led his neighbors dressed as Native-Americans to protest high rents. They even tarred and feathered their opponents as they fought for their cause.
“Frank Abbott helped to bring down politicians that ignored the rights of rural residents. In this fight for our collective future, it is fitting that we honor Abbott’s legacy with the healing represented by the work about to start on Little Thunder Brook,” Fleming said.
The town sees itself standing up to Albany and Washington, D.C., using Little Thunder to shout out for attention to neglected issues.
The heavily polluted Dewey Loeffel Landfill became a toxic dump when an estimated 46,000 tons of industrial waste were buried there. The toxic materials included industrial solvents, waste oil, PCBs, scrap materials, sludge and solids. Soil and sediment along Little Thunder Creek is contaminated with PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — a suspected carcinogen.
Little Thunder Creek is a 1,900-foot-long tributary of the Valatie Kill, a protected trout stream that empties into Kinderhook Lake in Columbia County. Until the Town Board acted earlier this month, the creek was unnamed, known only by its forgettable bureaucratic designation of T-11A.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 Office said in a statement it fully supports the renaming: “Community engagement and grassroots involvement is crucial to addressing environmental concerns such as the contamination in and around the Dewey Loeffel Superfund site.”
The symbolism evoked by the name Little Thunder can be a rallying point for residents and a platform to launch additional action, said Jennifer Dodge, an assistant professor at the state University at Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy.
“What we can understand from this type of symbolic politics is what is at stake for people in an issue, in addition to the tactical and strategic issues… In the Nassau story, the strategy of naming the river Little Thunder might work well to get people mobilized because they might identify with the ‘little guy takes on the government’ narrative,” said Dodge, an expert on framing facts, symbolic politics and environmental policy conflicts.
The question remains if the new name will be as successful “in the sense of raising the issues up, that is, about the contamination of the water and potentially the human health effects, which is a very powerful narrative in politics,” Dodge said.
Dan Shapley, Water Quality Program director for Riverkeeper, said the health of the smallest tributaries impact the Hudson River.
“Naming a stream is a simple and powerful act. Once we’ve ennobled a stream with a name, it’s harder to neglect and pollute it. And I have to add, Little Thunder Brook is an awesome name,” Shapley said in a statement.
Cleanup work is under way at Little Thunder Creek. General Electric Co. is removing contaminated soil and sediments along the creek to be replaced with clean backfill; the stream channel will be restored and trees and shrubs will be planted. The EPA has said the work will be completed in early 2019.
The town crowned Tributary T-11A as Little Thunder Brook to transform it from a quiet little stream that’s been polluted by the Dewey Loeffel Landfill Superfund Site to a war cry recalling the community’s 19th-century history of fighting back.
“Referring to the stream at T-11A doesn’t do it justice. We’re trying to stand up for rural New Yorkers who’ve been ignored,” said Supervisor David Fleming.
The Town Board reached back 175 years to capture the fury of the Anti-Rent Wars that shook upstate New York in the 1840s. Frank Abbott fought under the name Little Thunder when he led his neighbors dressed as Native-Americans to protest high rents. They even tarred and feathered their opponents as they fought for their cause.
“Frank Abbott helped to bring down politicians that ignored the rights of rural residents. In this fight for our collective future, it is fitting that we honor Abbott’s legacy with the healing represented by the work about to start on Little Thunder Brook,” Fleming said.
The town sees itself standing up to Albany and Washington, D.C., using Little Thunder to shout out for attention to neglected issues.
The heavily polluted Dewey Loeffel Landfill became a toxic dump when an estimated 46,000 tons of industrial waste were buried there. The toxic materials included industrial solvents, waste oil, PCBs, scrap materials, sludge and solids. Soil and sediment along Little Thunder Creek is contaminated with PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — a suspected carcinogen.
Little Thunder Creek is a 1,900-foot-long tributary of the Valatie Kill, a protected trout stream that empties into Kinderhook Lake in Columbia County. Until the Town Board acted earlier this month, the creek was unnamed, known only by its forgettable bureaucratic designation of T-11A.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 2 Office said in a statement it fully supports the renaming: “Community engagement and grassroots involvement is crucial to addressing environmental concerns such as the contamination in and around the Dewey Loeffel Superfund site.”
The symbolism evoked by the name Little Thunder can be a rallying point for residents and a platform to launch additional action, said Jennifer Dodge, an assistant professor at the state University at Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy.
“What we can understand from this type of symbolic politics is what is at stake for people in an issue, in addition to the tactical and strategic issues… In the Nassau story, the strategy of naming the river Little Thunder might work well to get people mobilized because they might identify with the ‘little guy takes on the government’ narrative,” said Dodge, an expert on framing facts, symbolic politics and environmental policy conflicts.
The question remains if the new name will be as successful “in the sense of raising the issues up, that is, about the contamination of the water and potentially the human health effects, which is a very powerful narrative in politics,” Dodge said.
Dan Shapley, Water Quality Program director for Riverkeeper, said the health of the smallest tributaries impact the Hudson River.
“Naming a stream is a simple and powerful act. Once we’ve ennobled a stream with a name, it’s harder to neglect and pollute it. And I have to add, Little Thunder Brook is an awesome name,” Shapley said in a statement.
Cleanup work is under way at Little Thunder Creek. General Electric Co. is removing contaminated soil and sediments along the creek to be replaced with clean backfill; the stream channel will be restored and trees and shrubs will be planted. The EPA has said the work will be completed in early 2019.