Environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit in New York seeking to block the sale of Plum Island, home to the nation's only animal disease testing laboratory.
The lawsuit was filed Thursday on Long Island by Save the Sound and six other plaintiffs.
The federal government wants to sell Plum Island to the highest bidder to recoup some of the cost of relocating the animal testing facility to a new property in Kansas.
Leah Schmalz of Save the Sound says the lawsuit claims the General Services Administration and the Department of Homeland Security failed to completely examine all options for the future of the island when it prepared an environmental impact statement.
That same day, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill with an amendment to block the sale of the island.
The amendment, sponsored by Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin of Suffolk, bars the use of federal funds to market or sell the island. Another Zeldin amendment that passed in May reversed the federal mandate to force the island's sale.
Environmentalists and lawmakers are fighting to make the mostly undeveloped 800-acre property off the coast of Long Island into a federal wildlife reserve, saying that the island shouldn't be sold because it is home to several endangered bird species.
