Southold Town has announced it will join the state’s lawsuit to block the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to dump dredged materials in the eastern Long Island Sound.
The eastern dump sites are located off the coast of Southold Town, one just north of Greenport and another just west of Fishers Island, the town said in a press release issued yesterday.
“To protect the interests of the town, the Southold Town Board has decided to join the lawsuit,” according to the release.
New York State on Aug. 17 filed a federal lawsuit challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s designation of a third permanent open water disposal site in eastern Long Island Sound.
The new site could accept tens of millions of cubic yards of dredged sediments. The L.I. Sound, an estuary of national significance, already has two permanent disposal sites, in the western and central regions.
The state argues that EPA’s December 2016 designation of the new site, violated the federal Ocean Dumping and the Coastal Zone Management acts and asks the court to vacate the agency’s decision designating the new site.
“The designation … was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,” according to the complaint filed by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
“In the mid-1970’s, famous oceanographer Jacques Cousteau commented that the L.I. Sound was ‘dead.’ Since then, so much time and public funding has been spent to help bring the Sound back to life,” Southold Town Councilman Bob Ghosio said in the press release.
“Allowing dumping of potentially contaminated dredge spoils in the Sound just flies in the face of common sense,” Ghosio said.
“The fact that these dump sites are just off the environmentally sensitive shores of Southold Town is especially troubling. The town board’s unanimous support of joining the state’s lawsuit against the EPA will ensure that our interests are represented and hopefully stop this ill-conceived plan,” the councilman said.
