BEACON RECORD The Village
volume 31, no. 4
S T O R M DA M
AG E?
S TUM P RE MOVAL L A DSC A• PleiSure Mount Sinai • Miller Place • Sound Beach • rocky Point • ShorehaM • WadingNriver E/MAScountry O N WO R K august 20, 2015
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Port Jeff Heritage Weekend Also: Fall opportunities in education, PJ Greek Festival
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What a waste Politicians oppose 10-year dredge plan By Giselle Barkley
SBU chimps denied legal rights
Judge declines to give Hercules, Leo personhood in Supreme Court suit
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Town and state officials gathered at Cedar Beach on Monday in opposition to the plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to continue dumping dredge waste into the Long Island Sound. The organizations were dumping dredge spoils into the Connecticut River, which spills into the Sound. According to Greg Blower of Sen. Ken LaValle’s office, town and state officials are not sure what chemicals or sediments were disposed of in the river, especially with the variety of manufacturing facilities around that area. Ten years ago, the organizations were asked to create a plan that would propose an alternative area where they could dump the waste. Officials including Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R), Councilwoman Jane Bonner (C-Rocky Point), Assemblyman
File photo at top by Erin Duenas; photo above by Giselle Barkley
at top, long island Sound marine life is being compromised as a result of dredge spoils. above, Brookhaven town Supervisor ed romaine, center, with anthony graves, the town’s chief environmental analyst, on left, and state assemblyman Steve englebright, during the press conference disapproving plans to continue dumping dredge waste in the Sound.
Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) and LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) received the plan at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning according to Anthony Graves, the town’s chief environmental analyst. Originally, the officials only had seven days to make public comment on the 1,300-page plan, but after Romaine brought
this into question, the date was altered allowing people to make their comments until Oct. 5. Graves said the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA were told in 2005 to create this report, which didn’t address the concerns of town and state officials. According to Bonner, the organizations recommended to continue depos-
iting the waste in the Sound. Bonner added to this saying, “we have better technology now and we know dredge spoils can be repurposed for capping landfills.” While there are alternative dumping sites such as abandoned mines and landfills, Romaine said the organizations DREDGE continued on page A9