The Environmental Management Committee is seeking a volunteer to represent the Village of Chatham.  Membership consists of representatives from the County’s eighteen towns – and four Villages – and the City of Hudson who are appointed to two years terms by the County Board of Supervisors. Monthly meetings are open to the public, and are held on the fourth Monday of each month at 6:30 pm in the Columbia County Office Building, 1st-Floor Committee Room, 401 State Street, Hudson, NY (note that meetings are currently being held over Google Meet during the Covid crisis.)  Residents of the Village who are interested should contact the Chatham Village Clerk’s Office at 518-392-5821 or email .

The EMC’s purpose is to advise local and state government (and where resources within the county are influenced, the federal government) on present and proposed methods of using, protecting, and conserving the environment for the benefit of all the people.

This work may be accomplished through research, recommendations, reports, plans, inventories, public information, and education. The Columbia County EMC has worked in the following broad areas: energy production/transmission, hazardous and municipal solid waste, Hudson River and coastal zone issues, water quality and quantity issues, air quality issues, plant and animal habitats, septic systems and water wells, recycling, and major industrial project reviews.  The EMC is leading a Climate Smart initiative to ensure that the County is a leader on this issue while also making itself eligible for grants that the State and NYSERDA have available as encouragement to municipalities to further “green” their operations.  This County-led initiative allows the towns and villages to “piggy-back” on these efforts, often making them eligible for those same grants without competing with the County.