Citizens Campaign for the Environment
Empowering Communities, Advocating Solutions.
- Water Protection
- Aquatic Invasive Species
- Broadwater: Liguefied Natural Gas Facility
- Carmans River
- Great Lakes
- Long Island Sound Dredged Materials
- Long Island Sound Protection
- Millstone Nuclear Power Station
- MTBE Pollution in Drinking Water
- Ocean Protection
- Onondaga Lake
- Owasco Lake
- Sewage Pollution
- Wetlands Protection
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Great Lakes Conference
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Long Island Groundwater
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve
- SPECIAL FEATURE: New York State Sewer Scorecard Report
- Public Health, Toxics, and Recycling
- Acid Rain
- Artificial Turf
- Brookhaven National Laboratory
- Human Pesticide Testing
- Lawn Pesticides: An Unacceptable Risk
- Manufactured Gas Plants on Long Island
- Mercury Pollution
- New York State's Bottle Bill
- Pesticide Free Schools
- Pesticide Neighbor Notification
- Pesticides: Mosquito Control / West Nile Virus
- Plastic Bag Reduction
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Current Local Air Quality
- SPECIAL FEATURE: Long Island Recycling
- Open Space and Working Landscapes
- Climate Change and Energy Policy
- Legislative Campaigns
CAMPAIGNS
Broadwater: Liquefied Natural Gas Facility
VICTORY!!!!
New York State Governor Paterson Says NO to Broadwater! The public prevails over Big Oil!
Governor David Paterson announced on April 10, 2008, at Sunken Meadow State Park on Long Island to a crowd of Broadwater opponents that the State finds the Broadwater proposal to violate the Coastal Zone Management Act and ruled the project inconsistent with the values and uses of the Sound. This challenging campaign to stop Broadwater spanned three years, and CCE is eternally grateful to every person who wrote a letter, attended a public hearing, made a phone call, and stood up to keep Shell Oil from industrializing Long Island Sound. This victory for Long Island Sound was won by the thousands of citizens, organizations, and elected officials who worked tirelessly to ensure the Sound’s integrity is preserved for future generations.
What
is Broadwater?
Broadwater, a joint venture between Shell Oil and TransCanada, was a proposal to place a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in the middle of the Sound, approximately 9 miles from Rocky Point. The LNG terminal would have been permanently moored to the bottom of LIS—destroying 13,000 square feet of critical habitat for lobsters. The LNG terminal would also require 2-3 LNG tankers per week, causing constant disruption to the waterway. A new 22-mile pipeline would have been required to transport the gas into the existing Iroquois Pipeline.
The massive LNG terminal would have forever changed the way we currently use the Sound!
- A Permanent NO Public Access Zone and an
Additional Moving No Access Zone
A “no public access zone” of 1.5 square miles will surround the LNG terminal. This means that for the first time in the Sound’s history, a section of the open water body will be given over to a private corporation. Gunned security vessels would patrol the no access zone 24/7. No fishing, boating, canoeing, swimming or sailing will be allowed. The Coast Guard report mandates an additional moving “no public access zone” around the incoming LNG tankers that would be 2 miles in front, 1 mile in back and 750 yards on each side. Armed escort boats would surround the tankers as they transverse the Sound, marking the moving zone and requiring all vessels to get out of the way.
- Problems and disruptions in “The
Race”
“The Race”, named for its strong currents and navigational challenges, is the main passageway into the Sound. There would be 2-3 LNG tankers that enter The Race each week. The Coast Guard report identified that The Race as having a heavy concentration of recreational fisherman throughout the boating season.
These security zones would disrupt and conflict with traditional uses including commercial and recreational fishing, boating activities, fishing, shell fishing, sailing and even enjoyment of our beaches.
The Broadwater Energy proposal was awaiting a New York State consistency ruling under the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). Click here for a CZMA summary and to learn why Broadwater was inconsistent with the values and uses of Long Island Sound.
|
Listen
to Bust a Lung, a "Hippie protest
song" by the band BEARKLOWN, written in opposition
to the proposed Broadwater facility. |
Click here to view images from the Anti-Broadwater concert on July 7, 2007
Click here to view images from an Anti-Broadwater rally in Albany, NY on June 12, 2007
Click here to read CCE's Broadwater Myths and Facts (PDF format)
Anti-Broadwater Progress Update (PDF format)
INDEPENDENT REPORT CONCLUDES BROADWATER NOT NEEDED IN REGION
“Having carefully reviewed the project documentation put forth by Broadwater, we find that they have failed to identify any compelling local or regional need for the proposed project that would justify the impact that this project would have on the environmental, economic, recreational and historical value of Long Island Sound.” (Synapse Energy Economics, 2006)
Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., a Boston based consulting firm, released a report concluding that the massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility, known as Broadwater, proposed for the Long Island Sound, is unnecessary to meet the region’s energy needs. Broadwater spokespersons repeatedly claim that a growing need for LNG in the region is the justification for the facility. Broadwater’s claim is debunked by the Synapse analysis. The report cites specific examples of how future energy needs can be met through a combination of energy projects already approved, existing renewable energy initiatives, and demand side management techniques.
CCE TESTIFIES IN ALBANY
CCE was invited by the NYS Senate Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, the NYS Assembly standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, the Senate Standing Committee on Energy and Telecommunications, and the Assembly Standing Committee on Energy to testify at a public hearing regarding the Broadwater proposal.
Click here to read testimony submitted by CCE to the NYS Senate and Assembly (PDF format)
Under current practices, both Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and State authorities monitor the citing of new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities. FERC recently attempted to usurp local authority by asserting its authority as the sole designator and approver of LNG facilities built and operated in the United States.
Click here to read CCE’s position paper on this important topic (PDF format)
CCE HELPED TO SPEARHEAD ANTI-BROADWATER COALITION
CCE has recently helped to spearhead the Anti-Broadwater Coalition (ABC), which now consists of over 80 local environmental and civic groups (click here for ABC membership list). Not only does the facility pose significant environmental effects on both the Long Island Sound and its surrounding communities, but also poses as a security risk and a fiscal burden on local and state governments. The Sounds fragile ecosystem is already severely stressed and New York State, Connecticut and the Federal Government have already partnered and spent close to $45 million on restoration of its waters. This project would jeopardize the hard work and commitments already made to restoring this Estuary of National Significance.
Click here to read ABC’s position paper (PDF format)
Click here to read ABC’s factsheet (PDF format)
Citizens Campaign for the Environment and Renew Community Earth co-sponsored a Broadwater forum: A New Human Rights Perspective. The forum provided an update on the Broadwater proposal and offered a new human rights perspective on the project sponsor, Shell Oil.
Valentine-themed Press Conference on 1/16/08 Against Broadwater:
Anti-Broadwater Coalition (ABC) Lobby in Albany on 6/12/07 Against Broadwater
[photos by Casey Gobbi]:
At a news conference on Friday, August 12, 2005, in Wading River, NY, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton joined her colleagues in New York and Connecticut in opposition to the Broadwater project
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the news conference. CCE Executive Director Adrienne Esposito is pictured to her left, and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy stands to her right.
On May 17, 2005, the Suffolk Legislature unanimously approved an Anti-Broadwater Resolution. Thousands of residents voiced opposition to Broadwater proposal…and Suffolk County responded by taking a formal stance of opposition.
Dick Amper, Executive Director, LI Pine Barrens Society, Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Doug Ditko, President of ABCO, and Sid Bail, President of Wading River Civic Association, work together to lead the Anti-Broadwater campaign.
Brendan Mahoney, LI Program Coordinator, Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Jason Kulczyk, LI Staff Director, and Megan Smith, LI Field Manger, show off some of the 5,000 signatures that CCE collected in opposition to the project.
Environmentalists, Civic Leaders, and Elected Officials all stand together in opposing the risky Broadwater facility.
On October 21, 2005, CCE hosted Sunset Cruise on Long Island Sound to stop Broadwater
The James Joseph II left Huntington Harbor October 21, 2005. Bon Voyage!
Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of CCE, and Huntington Town Supervisor Frank Petrone cut "Our Water Not Broadwater" cake.
The sun sets over the Sound.