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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | MAY 29-JUNE 4, 2020 13
Pols will reintroduce measure
to protect Jamaica Bay
BY BILL PARRY
Jamaica Bay is flourishing with the
cleanest water in decades, drawing marine
life including a humpback whale and
a new seal population, and two Queens
lawmakers are refusing to allow that trajectory
to change.
State Senator Joseph Addabbo and
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato
will reintroduce legislation that would
further protect the natural habitat, measures
that Governor Andrew Cuomo vetoed
in 2019.
“In the past, the waters of Jamaica Bay
were polluted and devoid of marine life,”
Addabbo said. “The bill that was implemented
in 2014, as well as the incredible
work by the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation (DEC),
helped to create a drastic change in the
health of the water, so much so that wildlife
— such as dolphins and whales — has
been sighted there for the first time in
decades. Because of the success of the
2014 bill, I want to see the sunset clause
removed so the bill would be permanent
and we would not need to renew the protections
every few years.”
The legislation corrected the longstanding
problem of the use of sub-quality
dredging material to fill in the borrow
pits of the bay, which is expected to expire
in June 2022. A borrow pit, also known as
a sandpit, is an area where material such
as soil, gravel or sand has been dug up for
use at another location.
In his 2019 veto statement, Cuomo said
the legislation would change the criteria
for filling in the Jamaica Bay borrow
pits to comply with the federal guidelines
for the unrestricted ocean dumping of
dredged material, which is not applicable
to Jamaica Bay. Under the legislation, the
DEC would be required to utilize more restrictive
and costly federal ocean dumping
criteria to test the materials instead
of DEC’s existing standard. Furthermore,
the legislation would make the enhanced
standard permanent.
“We have made so much progress protecting
Jamaica Bay, the bill passed by
the legislature in 2014 and partnership
with the DEC have turned the bay into
an ecological miracle,” Pheffer Amato
said. “We cannot dial down the efforts,
or compromise our standards and relinquish
all the hard work that’s been put in
to get us here. These bills are only going
to strengthen and further protect the bay,
and we must remove the sunset clause
permanently, so we don’t have to renew
them.”
Senator Addabbo and I will continue
to work with the DEC and the community
activists to further protect the bay.”
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