A coalition of environmental groups has gone to federal court to block the sale of Plum Island.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, Group for the East End and Peconic Baykeeper charge the two federal agencies with violating the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal statutes in recommending the unconditional sale of Plum Island.
The plaintiffs seek a judgment ruling that the federal General Services Administration and Department Of Homeland Security violated federal laws by “prejudging the final decision,” failing to conduct a coastal consistency determination and failing to base their final decision on adequate environmental analysis. They also seek an injunction to prevent the completion of the final environmental impact statement and sale of Plum Island until “an adequate environmental impact process has been completed and an appropriate coastal consistency determination has been made.
The lawsuit was filed on the same day that the House of Representatives, for the second time this year, passed legislation including a provision introduced by Rep. Lee Zeldin that would put the sale of the island on hold until a separate assessment is completed by the U.S. Comptroller. The first measure, passed in May, was not passed in the Senate, which yesterday Zeldin called on to take action.
The federal government’s environmental impact statement “process was fundamentally flawed in at least six ways,” according to the 46-page complaint:
First, the General Services Administration and Department Of Homeland Security ”misconstrued their statutory directive” in a 2008 law directing the Department Homeland Security to sell the 840-acre island, “interpreting their authority to only permit a public auction of the entirety of Plum Island to the highest bidder, thereby necessarily excluding a conservation sale from their alternatives analysis,” according to the complaint.
Second, the agencies violated National Environmental Policy Act “by failing to consider important government interests and programs in arriving at their decision, such as the protection of federally listed and state-listed endangered and threatened species, compliance with New York and Connecticut coastal consistency determinations, and the adverse economic impacts of a potential sale of Plum Island.”
Third, the Defendants violated the Environmental Policy Act by failing to adequately consider alternatives to a public auction to the highest bidder, such the sale of separate parcels or a single unitary sale with conservation easements attached to the property or conservation of those parts not supporting the Plum Island Animal Disease Center operations, even though, the plaintiffs say, such alternatives were repeatedly suggested to them.
Fourth, Defendants violated the Environmental Policy Act by failing to consult with and rely upon the expertise of the appropriate federal agencies with respect to endangered species, coastal zone and environmental cleanup.
Fifth, Defendants violated the Environmental Policy Act and the Coastal Zone Management Act by failing to engage in consistency determinations with the appropriate state agencies.
Sixth, Defendants violated the Environmental Policy Act by basing their decision on inadequate ecological data and failed to detail how they would clean up contamination associated with the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.
Photo: Agricultural Research Service/USDA
The Plum Island facility was established in 1954 to research animal diseases, but a new facility with a broader mission is now required, according to the Department of Homeland Security, which in 2003 took ownership and operation of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, a Biosafety Level-3 facility. A new state-of-the-art, BSL-4 facility, needed to fill an “infrastructure gap” to combat bio- and agro-terrorism in the United States, according to DHS, is under construction in Manhattan, Kansas. The new $1.15 billion facility is scheduled to be brought on line by 2022. Operations at Plum Island are to be phased out in 2023.
A report issued by DHS late last month assessed alternatives for Plum Island and rejected outright the possibility that DHS might retain the site for its own use. It has “no viable mission need for the property,” according to the report, dated June 27. Many local residents and town officials favor keeping the Plum Island research facility, which provides many jobs for local residents, operational even after the Kansas center is opened.
Local officials united with Zeldin and his predecessor, Tim Bishop, in longstanding opposition to the sale of the island to the highest bidder. Southold town in 2013 adopted new zoning for the island that greatly restricts the potential for development there outside of a research district, where the code sets a minimum lot size of 125 acres — ensuring that a substantial portion of the island can’t be developed. About 700 of the island’s 840 acres would be a preserve.
The island was once the site of Fort Terry, which served as an anti-submarine base during World War II. The base was deactivated after the war. The U.S. Department of Agriculture established the animal disease research center and operated it from 1954 until it was taken over by the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.
