Highlands Current: Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who represents New York’s 18th district in Congress, which includes Philipstown and Beacon, has introduced legislature that would ban the U.S. Coast Guard from adding new anchorage grounds on the Hudson River between Kingston and Yonkers.

The Coast Guard earlier this year announced it was considering a request from the shipping industry to create anchorage grounds at 10 spots along the river, including between Beacon and Newburgh. The Coast Guard is accepting public comment on the proposal until Dec. 7.

“This is a solution in search of a problem. There is no need for these additional anchorage sites,” Maloney told Rear Admiral Paul Thomas of the Coast Guard at a Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on Sept. 7. “This is a bad idea, this is not something we need – we don’t want it. And we want the process to take into account the intense public opposition to this from all corners, of all communities, in the Hudson Valley.”  Read more.