WATKINS GLEN, Dec. 5, 2024 — I will be closing down the WaterFront blog later this month because Laura and I are moving to Massachusetts.
We’ve been toying with the idea of heading east for several years because our three children and eight grandkids all have links to our new stomping grounds outside Boston.
Events in the last couple of months — both personal and political — led us to speed up our departure plans.
We’ll be selling our home in Watkins Glen, which is within easy walking distance of the famous gorge that we’ve gotten to know and love.
Of course, I regret having to abruptly stop blogging on the politics of the environment in the Finger Lakes. I really hope someone will step up to take over the work of digging deep into thorny technical and political issues. Our beautiful region needs it, deserves it.
I launched WaterFront seven years ago because I saw that the lakes were in dire need of protection. The goal has been to raise public awareness of their vulnerabilities. A motivated public can be a powerful defense. A passive public invites harmful exploitation.
Will the Finger Lakes — with New York’s three largest landfills located within 30 miles of Geneva — continue to serve as the state’s primary dumping ground?
Will the governor and the state legislature get around to addressing the explosion of toxic cyanobacteria blooms that threaten lake recreation and public drinking water — even if it means cracking down on runoff from farms?
Will Cayuga Lake survive the state’s complete failure to adequately regulate Cargill’s massive salt mine beneath that state-owned treasure?
Will the Finger Lakes face a brand new fight over whether to allow fracking for natural gas?
The new administration’s pick to head the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, campaigned for governor of New York in 2022 on a platform of revoking the state’s fracking ban. Never mind that the state has meager potential for gas riches or that the Finger Lakes in particular are acutely vulnerable to fracking’s nasty downsides.
Even if the state legislature refuses to budge on the fracking ban, the state seems poised to backtrack on enforcing its two signature environmental initiatives of the past five years: the 2019 climate law (CLCPA) and the 2022 Green Amendment. Gov. Kathy Hochul has signaled willingness to water down CLCPA mandates, and the state attorney general argues that the constitutional amendment guaranteeing every New Yorker clean air and clean water has no real legal power.
Most every Republican state legislator that represents the Finger Lakes voted against both initiatives, and the political winds in Washington are certainly blowing their way. The new administration says it plans an all-out assault on environmental protection measures.
Environmental advocates fear that would come at a very steep price.
Those advocates have relied on WaterFront posts as a resource. I’m working on a way to keep them available to the public through online searches even after I quit writing new ones.
For those of you who have helped me build and sustain WaterFront, thank you so much. There are many, and I hesitate to begin a list because I’d surely slip up and leave people out. You know who you are. It’s been a privilege to work with you.
I know you’ll keep up the fight.
Water Front- Peter Mantius 
Oh my. Shocking news. You are the best environmental reporter
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Thank you for all you’ve done, you have been so helpful in informing me and my husband of the environmental issues in the area. Your waterfront blog will be missed!
Good luck with the move and in the future.
Kind regards, Karen and Andrew Martin
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Peter,
You don’t know me, but as one who as admired your work for some time, let me say that your departure will leave a huge hole that I doubt anyone can fill. Water Front has served as the only single source of reliable, deeply researched, and professionally reported information on the environmental threats to our Finger Lakes area.
Yes, please archive your work if possible. Just this morning I was reviewing your article on hydrilla treatments in Cayuga Lake for a piece I’m writing.
I wish you all the best in your move, but am sad to see you leave.
A fan,
Jim Long
Ithaca
http://www.longing4nature.com http://www.longing4nature.com
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I am so saddened by your decision to move to Massachusetts but I understand the motivation. Peter, you were a critical resource to those of us who understood the stakes but were incapable of doing the research and the foils and to articulate in a straight forward way what was happening in the Finger Lakes. I am having a very difficult time just articulating how much you will be missed. I am no writer and even less of a blogger. My only hope is that someone will take the reins and continue to report on what is necessary to continue to fight for clean water and clean air. I will continue to share the blog if one continues. I will not be complacent. I will continue to do my best to fight for the environment. You will be monumentally missed
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Peter,
Thanks for your efforts. You’re a pro and will be missed.
Mark Venuti
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So very sorry to lose your important reporting and your efforts to raise awareness of the needs of our region. I wish you and your family much happiness in your new location!
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I can’t believe it has been only seven years that you have been helping us understand the risks around us Peter. Thank you so much for your excellent professional journalism. Personally I hope you grow so bored so quickly that working remotely will become a pleasant way out and a pleasant way back onto the Finger Lakes’ wavelengths.
If you had six volunteers to keep tabs on each of the existing threats, could you serve as Executive Editor of a new eWaterfront Weekly? Sure you could and you could do it in less time than you are spending now. Could you guide the development of a permanent publication that also provided internships and a platform for others who want to build communication skills? Sure you could.
David Youst
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Godspeed, Peter & Laura, and warmest wishes for your next batch of adventures. And thank you so much for your example of stewardship. It has been powerful and eye-opening at times. ❤
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Pete. You really will be missed. We have so appreciated how deeply you research topics and provide fair and balance reporting. Moreover, your passion for preserving our little piece of the planet has been most endearing.
Please find a clone as soon as possible and send him our way. Jake Welch, President of FLRWA
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Peter, What a loss for the Finger Lakes communities that have benefited mightily from your reporting and perspectives on the life of our waters. I grieve the loss of your voice. I wish you and your family all the best.
With respect and gratitude for WaterFront.
Tony Del Plato
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You will be missed! Your contributions of valuable environmental insights have motivated people to pay attention and act. Your exit is such a loss for our region. Thank you for all of your efforts these years and best wishes with your new adventure, Beth Cain Dresden
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Wow! You have become a priceless and irreplaceable asset to the cause.
While we hate to see you go, I wish you well! Good luck with your move and enjoy your family!
(If you need a real estate broker I am at your service. (Based in Buffalo, but I will travel…))
Ann Finneran
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A sad loss for our region! Thanks so much for all the years of dedication. Enjoy every second with kids and grandchildren. Carol Chock Ithaca
“The world will unravel but you will not.” Alejandro Frid
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Hi Peter,
Thank you so so much for the indescribable and wonderful intelligent analysis of everything that’s been going on here in the last seven years. It is really changed things. I’m so sorry you and Laura have to leave, and I will miss you terribly. It makes so much sense to be close to your grandkids, and I wish you all the best in your new home!
Regards,
Bill
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Good luck with your relocation. You will love being closer to your family. I am a regular reader of your blog and have really appreciated your excellent coverage of the environmental issues faced by the Finger Lakes region. Thank you for keeping so many important challenges top of mind!
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sad to see you go, although I completely understand the pull…and the push. Your work has been a needed and well-used support to many groups and organizations which have been fighting for the health of our beautiful Finger Lakes region and its surroundings. May good health, good luck and happiness follow you.
Pam Quattrini
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Peter, you have been a gift, and it is hard to imagine anyone out there who might be able to fill your shoes. I do hope some such person exists. I and my family are eternally grateful for your role as a champion of truth in the face of power, driven by fear and greed, not to say ignorance. And your educating us all out of our own ignorance will be sorely missed. We wish you “goodly fare.” Andrew Seubert
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Thank you for your excellent reporting and good luck with your relocation. I hope you can archive your past articles and others can pick up where you left off.
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Thank you so much for you important and excellent reporting.You cut a very wide swath.Best wishes,Regi TeasleyIthaca___________Protect wh
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Peter,
Good news for you and your family.
A loss to Watkins Glen, to Schuyler County, and to the Finger Lakes of a great reporter.
I first started reading you when you had a column at the “Odessa File” and followed you when you had columns at DCBureau.org http://dcbureau.org/ and in the Corning Leader.
My own e-mail files have various e-mails from/to you going back to 2/1/12 (because that as far back in time as my files go on my current computer) as Mantius@aol.com Mantius@aol.com Mantius (altho’ you were using your @gmail address). One is to you on 9/28/17 when I “found your blog” from a posting at GasFree Seneca.
Thanks for all your work over the years.
Enjoy your grandkids.
Lory Peck 6315 States Road Alpine, NY 14805 lory@htva.net
>
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Peter, I wish you and your wife all the best in Massachusetts. I truly appreciate all your hard work bringing attention to all the environmental issues in theFinger Lakes. It is New York’s loss and a big win for Massachusetts. Thank you.
Merry Christmas and a Happy Healthy New Year to you and your family. Wishing you all the best.
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Hi Peter,
Sorry to hear the region will lose your great journalism! I’m the climate reporter at WSKG, the local NPR station in the area. Even before I arrived here, I was reading up on your stories to make sure I had the context right for many of the key environmental fights in the area. You provided such a vital service in an area with so many environmental stories and few people to report them.
Wishing you all the best, Rebecca Redelmeier
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