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
Long Island Sound Dredged Materials
Victory!
In the Spring of 2005, Governors George Pataki and Jodi Rell agreed to phase out dumping of untreated dredged material into Long Island Sound! This is a major victory for Long Island Sound and the citizens of New York and Connecticut. The agreement calls for the development of a Dredged Material Management Plan for the Long Island Sound that focuses on alternative technologies for dredged materials and establishes the phase-out of open water dumping.
Dredging the Sound
Many harbors and inlets in the Sound need to be routinely dredged because of sediment build-up. Dredging is the removal of the excess sediment, referred to as “dredged materials”. The dredged materials contain varying amounts of hazardous constituents including toxic chemicals, such as mercury, lead, copper, PCBs and pesticides. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analyzed four sites to be utilized as long-term dumpsites for dredged materials in the Long Island Sound. Unfortunately, the EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers (ACE) highly recommended two sites, the Western Long Island Sound Alternative (WLIS) and the Central Long Island Sound Alternative (CLIS).
The WLIS is located only 2.7 miles from the shoreline and has already received 1.7 million cubic yards of dredged material. It was once a prime lobster producing area, which has died off significantly within the last five years. The CLIS is between New Haven, CT and Riverhead, NY and has already received close to 14 million cubic yards of dredged material. Higher levels of toxic waste and problems with low dissolved oxygen (hypoxia) are found in and near these sites. The new plan calls for an additional 20 million cubic yards of dredged materials to be dumped into the Sound!
Alternatives
Even though dredging is sometimes necessary, open water
disposal of the dredged materials is not. Some of the
alternatives include upland disposal, containment, and/or
treatment technologies. These alternatives have
not been considered.
CCE
POSITION
On April 9, 2004 the EPA released the Final Environmental
Impact Statement concerning the dumping of dredged materials
in the Long Island Sound. A thirty-day public comment
period began on April 16, 2004. Citizens Campaign
for the Environment does not support open water disposal
of dredged materials and believes that the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps
of Engineers (ACE) are quick to rule out safer alternatives
including upland disposal, containment, and/or treatment
technologies.
CCE recommended that the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers:
- Extend the thirty-day comment period to ninety days and increase the number of public hearings from two to eight;
- Abandon the plan designating a long-term open water disposal site for dredged material in Long Island Sound;
- Begin exploring alternatives for the treatment and upland disposal of contaminated dredged material;
- Conduct a thorough review of beneficial reuse of benign dredged material, including possibilities for development of technology and/or methods for decreasing the cost of such disposal techniques; and
- Review the long-term cost that this dredge disposal plan may have on the economic impact of the Long Island Sound.
The immense value of the Long Island Sound cannot be overstated. Recreational activities, tourism, boating, fishing, shell fishing and commercial enterprises all affirm that it would be shortsighted to allow the long-term use of such a waterway to be utilized as a dump for hazardous material.
During the public comment period, CCE and its members asked the EPA and ACE to consider upland disposal and a full environmental review of ALL options, excluding open-water dumping. The official comment period ended on June 1, 2004. EPA will now take at least 30 days before coming out for or AGAINST the proposal to dump 20 million cubic yards of toxic dredged materials into the Long Island Sound.
Click here to view comments submitted by CCE to the US EPA on May 31, 2004