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by p.biancaniello
Governor Andrew Cuomo drew a line in the sand Thursday* at Sunken Meadow State Park when he put the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on notice that a proposal to create an additional sludge dumping area in the eastern section of the LI Sound was unacceptable.
In April of this year the EPA proposed “to designate a dredged material disposal site to serve the eastern Long Island Sound region. The Eastern Long Island Sound Disposal Site (ELDS) would be located offshore from New London, Connecticut, and would be available for the disposal of dredged material from harbors and navigation channels in eastern Long Island Sound in the states of Connecticut and New York.” EPA website
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The Governor didn’t go it alone Tuesday. Lending support to his position and going on record by signing a letter to President Obama and the EPA was an array of elected officials from all branches of government who are united in their opposition to dumping in the sound.
“This letter provides notice that, on behalf of the people of the State of New York, and with the full support of more than twenty-five Federal, State, and local elected officials signing onto this letter, I intend to initiate legal action against United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging any final rule designating permanent disposal sites in eastern Long Island Sound, and the State will additionally seek to enjoin any further dumping in eastern Long Island Sound that may be permitted pursuant to the final rule.” (click here to read the entire letter)
Governor Cuomo offered a no-nonsense message, “This is what has to be protected, cleaned-up and passed-on. We are spending billions and billions of dollars to clean-up… Getting chemicals out of drinking water and pollutants out of coastal waters. The Sound is cleaner than it was but not where it needs to be. We still have dangerous algae blooms fish kills due to lack of oxygen. It is absurd, spending so much time and money cleaning up the water while another branch of government is literally adding pollutants.”
Michel Kaufman, Commissioner with the SC Planning Commission, has had experience with dredging having participated in planning the dredging of Stony Brook Harbor. “We know what to do with dredge spoil and we don’t do it the way the EPA is doing it, we do it better. We replenished not dump. The Sound is a giant resource, you don’t want to pollute your resources.”
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Without a script in front of them, every person in attendance;)
committed themselves to fighting the EPA proposal. Environmentalist and former NYS candidate, Adrienne Esposito has a long history in fighting for the environment. In Smithtown she was instrumental in pushing the town to collect hazardous houseold products, she is adamently opposed to an additional dumping site in the sound saying, “We need to protect this resource that is both economically important for Long Island and important for the recreational opportunities - fishing, boating and swimming. Dumping dredge spoils and polluting the water is not the answer.”
Michael Fitzpatrick, Assembly 8th district, “We are here today to sign a letter to President Obama and his administration to ask them to reconsider their options for dumping dredge spoils in the LI Sound. Currently they have two locations where they currently dump and they are contemplating a 3rd. The LI sound estuary made great strides becoming much cleaner we want to keep it that way. We want to see further improvement because it is a very valuable economic engine for us as well as a place of enjoyment for people on both sides of the sound. There are alternatives for dumping we need to follow through with that. We are asking politely, but strongly that President Obama say no to the Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) and to pursue alternatives. A decade ago ACE was supposed to find alternative uses and they dropped the ball, this will set us back at least a decade.”
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Both County Executive Steve Bellone and NYS Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan spoke about the importance of protecting the LI Sound for both economic and recreational purposes. Town Supervisor Patrick R. Vecchio, Congressman Lee Zeldin, Assemblyman Michael Fitzpatrick, Legislators Leslie Kennedy and Rob Trotta all supported the Governors message and signed the letter.
Governor Cuomo and all of the electeds present yesterday sent a strong message that they are unified and willing to take action to prevent additional dumping and polluting of the LI Sound.
* correction of date - Thursday, August 4, 2016