Your editorial ("An endangered agency," Sept. 18) is right on target about the state Department of Environmental Conservation and its failure to perform its mission.
In revenue-short times, I can understand how that situation affects the agency's performance. What I don't understand is the stonewalling, the failure to tell the truth, the effort to obfuscate, and the attempt to deny that the "emperor has no clothes."
The effect on the environment, especially on the air in our towns and villages from things like wood smoke from outdoor boilers, is almost as damaging as the agency's failure to enact several traits of good governance, including openness, honesty, integrity, inclusiveness and, most importantly, responsiveness.
Thanks for shining a light on an agency that is going from bad to worse; it is the equivalent of the little boy yelling "Look, the emperor has no clothes!" My hope is that, in doing so, you will help the crowd see — and admit — the reality of the situation and encourage the agency and legislators to pay more real attention to the degradation of the environment we all live in, especially in our towns, villages and neighborhoods.
Fran Hunter
Syracuse
