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Suffolk County To Join State Lawsuit Over EPA Dredging Plan

Courtesy of Pixabay

The Suffolk County Legislature approved a resolution to join a lawsuit with New York State against the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to dump dredging materials from Connecticut into the Long Island Sound.

The EPA’s decision allows Connecticut to dump dredging waste into an eastern Long Island Sound site.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, says while the Army Corps of Engineers will test the materials for toxins before being dumped, the waste will still affect water quality.

“We can’t take an estuary of national importance, as it’s been designated, and start using it as a junkyard.”

Esposito says that the dredge materials should be reused to renourish beaches, rebuild wetlands and backfill bulkheads.

Legislator Al Krupski is one of the co-sponsors of the resolution. He says the EPA plan doesn’t make sense.

“We, including Connecticut, have spent so much money trying to clean up the Sound and reduce the amount of impairments entering into the Sound, and this just completely contradicts that effort. Connecticut wants to dredge out their harbors for safety and navigation, they should be able to, but not to dispose of their waste in the estuary.”