A bill that would prevent the sale of Plum Island to a private developer took a step forward yesterday.
The bill was unanimously approved by the House Homeland Security Committee yesterday, which means it will go to a vote on the House floor this year.
Local officials and environmentalists have been fighting the sale of Plum Island since 2008, when a federal law passed mandating the public sale of Plum Island after current government operations there are transitioned to a new replacement facility in Kansas, which is currently under construction.
Congressman Lee Zeldin, who introduced the bill last year, has called for continued research, public access and preservation of the land, which is home to migratory birds, marine mammals and rare plants.
“It’s our responsibility to protect this precious land for future generations,” Zeldin said in an announcement yesterday, “Plum Island is a natural treasure that has been part of Long Island history since the 1700s.”
Plum Island, home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center since 1954, will be put up for sale by the federal government to offset construction costs of a new replacement facility now being built in Kansas. Upon completion of that facility in 2022, operations at Plum Island will be transitioned to Kansas and the island will be sold to the highest bidder under the 2008 law mandating its sale.
Congressman Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee that approved the bill yesterday, said it’s important for Congress to “examine all the options” for Plum Island. “Congress needs to get the right information before moving ahead and determining the best possible use for the island,” McCaul said.
Zeldin’s bill calls for a comprehensive plan for the future of the island, including possible alternatives uses for the land. That could mean a transfer of ownership to another federal agency, the state or local government or a non-profit organization for the purpose of education, research and conservation.
“Thousands of citizens in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have stood up for saving Plum Island, each one asking that the federal government protect the island’s endangered birds and historic buildings, and the character of Long Island’s East End,” said Save the Sound special projects coordinator Chris Cryder in the announcement. “The ‘Don’t Sell Plum Island Act’ is a critical step in our shared fight to save Plum Island.”
Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have also voiced their opposition to the sale of Plum Island to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
“It would be a mistake and lost opportunity to rip apart this unique 840-acre environmental setting and destroy the habitat of the endangered species that live there,” Schumer said last month.
Schumer said the federal government estimated it would receive $32.85 million from the sale of Plum Island. Interested developers once included Donald Trump, who in 2013 expressed interest in purchasing the island to build “a world-class golf course” there.
Schumer said the amount any sale might fetch “pales in comparison to the overall cost of the state-of-the-art Kansas facility” — which currently carries a price tag of more than $1 billion — and that of the environmental value of Plum Island, which the senator called “priceless.”
