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NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION PUBLIC HEARING On the Preservation of Plum Island as Open Space Farmingville, Long Island Brookhaven Town Hall Auditorium 1 Independence Hill Farmingville, New York September 28, 2015 [11:00 a.m. - 3:42 p.m.] Page 2 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 ASSEMBLY MEMBERS PRESENT: ASSEMBLY MEMBER STEVE ENGLEBRIGHT Chair, Assembly Chairman Committee on Environmental Conservation ASSEMBLY MEMBER ANTHONY PALUMBO ASSEMBLY MEMBER FRED THIELE Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 3 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 INDEX Page Al Krupski 11 County Legislator Suffolk County Edward P. Romaine 15 Supervisor Town of Brookhaven Scott A. Russell 19 Supervisor Town of Southold Kevin Dowling 34 Legislative Assistant Congressman Lee Zeldin Kathleen Moser 49 Assistant Commissioner of Natural Resources New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Amy Folk 69 Co-author A History of Plum Island Adrienne Esposito 85 Executive Director Citizens Campaign for the Environment Amanda Pachomski 85 Long Island Bird Conservation Coordinator Audubon, New York Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 4 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 INDEX Page Randall T. Parsons 99 Conservation Finance and Policy Advisor The Nature Conservancy, Long Island Chapter Steven C. Resler 116 Owner and Principal Scientific Diver InnerSpace Scientific Diving Leah Lopez Schmalz 151 Program Director Connecticut Fund for the Environment Chris Cryder 162 Special Projects Coordinator Save the Sound Louise Harrison 174 Principal Conservation & Natural Areas Planning (consulting firm) Michael Kaufmann 188 Member of the Suffolk County Planning Commission and Commissioner for Suffolk County Robert S. DeLuca 194 President Group for the East End Bill Toedter 204 President North Fork Environmental Council Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 5 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 INDEX Page John L. Turner 211 Spokesperson Preserve Plum Island Coalition Robert de Zafra 232 Professor Stony Brook Robert Adamo 236 NYS Ornithological Association Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 6 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 2 (The public hearing commenced at [11:00 3 a.m.] 4 ASSEMBLY MEMBER STEVE ENGLEBRIGHT, 5 CHAIR, ASSEMBLY STANDING COMMITTEE ON 6 ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION: I’m going to ask the 7 three elected officials who are here today to 8 come to the front and begin to prepare to offer 9 their testimony. These include Al Krupski, the 10 county legislator from the North Fork. Ed 11 Romaine, and we’re in Ed’s house today. This is 12 Brookhaven Town Hall and he is the supervisor of 13 Brookhaven. Thank you by the way Mr. Supervisor 14 for your cooperation in providing us with this 15 forum, much appreciated. And Scott A. Russell, 16 the supervisor of the Town of Southold. So if 17 you guys can come up and on this side of the 18 podium I’m joined with my colleague from the 19 North Fork, which includes Plum Island, which is 20 the subject of this hearing today, Tony Palumbo 21 and I’m going to offer a couple of comments in a 22 moment but I first want to defer to my colleague 23 and also mention that Assemblyman, Fred Thiele, 24 from the first assembly district is, we Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 7 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 2 understand making his way here and will join us 3 shortly, but first Anthony Palumbo from the 4 second assembly district. If you have any 5 comments or greetings this is a good time. 6 ASSEMBLY MEMBER ANTHONY PALUMBO: I just 7 want to say thank you, thanks for having me Steve 8 and this is obviously of growing concern with the 9 proposed sale of Plum Island so we certainly are 10 very interested in your comments and of course, 11 working with Ed, Al and Scott Russell, with these 12 three folks who are kind enough to offer some 13 testimony. I think we can hopefully work on some 14 sort of a comprehensive plan. I know Congressman 15 Zeldin does have a representative here and he’s 16 been very active on this issue and he is quite 17 concerned as well. So I look forward to hearing 18 some suggestions from you folks because I think 19 we all know where we want this and we want it to 20 stay and remain in its current state, but as also 21 is a member of the Environmental Conservation 22 Committee, I thank the chairman for allowing me 23 to be here and we look forward to making some 24 progress here. Thank you, again. Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 8 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 2 ASSEMBLY MEMBER ENGLEBRIGHT: Thank you, 3 I have a couple of thoughts I just want to offer 4 as we’re prepared to receive testimony. First I 5 want to thank you all for being here. This is a 6 very, very important issue and Plum Island is 7 important in and of itself as an ecological and 8 historical treasure that bestrides two nationally 9 designated estuarine sanctuaries, the Long Island 10 Sound and the Peconic Bay. So it’s all about 11 location with real estate and this particular 12 piece of real estate, the location, location, 13 location admonishing has great meaning. It is at 14 the gateway to our greatest city and to what we, 15 who are in government here know to be our 16 greatest state, but in a larger sense there is 17 also a context. The island, Plum Island is part 18 of a glacial archipelago of eastern Long Island 19 that has found focus as it is important for the 20 biodiversity of the state. This area includes 21 the greatest biodiversity to be found in all of 22 the state and it is historically significant. 23 The island has many vestiges of the military 24 history of our nation going back to the Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 9 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 2 revolutionary war. To order it sold as if it’s a 3 piece of meat is something that I was very 4 disappointed to learn about that our 5 distinguished colleagues did some years ago in 6 Washington. Nevertheless, that does not preclude 7 the reality that the state has a great interest 8 and we’re going to learn more about that today 9 and the particular issues that I want to focus on 10 is first of all to give a sense of context. Plum 11 Island is yes, an important singular island and 12 to itself, but it’s part of an ecosystem. An 13 eco-system that the state has already recognized 14 as being important in law, and when I was a 15 county legislature and Al you’ll be our first 16 speaker in just a moment, but when I was in the 17 body you now serve in I was there with Mr. 18 Romaine and we worked together on putting 19 together a piece of legislation that became law 20 called the Pine Barons Maritime Reserve Act. And 21 the Pine Barons is the upland’s portion, we’re 22 all aware of its ecological important, but that 23 act made it clear that the state understood that 24 the entire estuary included all of the islands Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 10 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 2 and all of the Peconic Bay, and that the Peconic 3 Bay is the wet portion of a wet to dry coastal 4 ecosystem; the dry portion being the Pine Barons. 5 It’s all tied together, it’s all something that 6 we have invested great amounts of public interest 7 and money to try to protect and the state itself 8 just across from Plum Island has Orient State 9 Park and just to the south Montauk State Park. 10 As well as all of the investments made by other 11 levels of government. I’m hoping that Senator 12 Ken LaValle will be able to join us here today as 13 we prepare I just want to express my appreciation 14 to Supervisor Russell who I had the privilege of 15 joining along with the senator last week to tour 16 the island, and I just want to publically express 17 my appreciation for your knowledge and your 18 passion for protecting this part of your 19 beautiful town, and we’re here to explore ways 20 that the state might be able to assist in that as 21 well. And so with that being said I wish that 22 instead of offering law to sell Plum Island that 23 they had realized that if they can make a Gateway 24 National Park that includes that part of San Geneva Worldwide, Inc. 256 West 38 th Street, 10 th Floor, New York, NY 10018 Page 11 Committee on Environmental Conservation 9-28-2015 2 Francisco and part of New Jersey that they surely 3 could have taken a perspective that this part of 4 the gateway to our nation is also a national and 5 had edited as the Plum Island unit of the Gateway 6 National Park, but they didn’t do that, they 7 decided to sell it.