Environmentalists Seek Waiver to Save Pine Barrens

ENVIRONMENTALISTS SEEK WAIVER TO SAVE PINE BARRENS

Want Gas Main in L.I.E. Shoulder to Prevent Clear Cutting

Renew Plea to Pataki & Schumer to Intervene with Highway Agencies

For Release: November 8, 2005 Contact: Richard Amper (516)383-5391

News Conference: 11.08.04, 10:30 a.m. S.E. corner LIE at Walt Whitman Road

Environmentalists have renewed their pleas to Governor Pataki and Senator Schumer to obtain waivers from state and federal highway agencies to permit the construction of a proposed KeySpan pipeline in the shoulder of the Long Island Expressway to avoid clear cutting more than six acres of Pine Barrens in the most sensitive Core Preservation Area.

Two and a half years ago, The New York State Pine Barrens Commission warned KeySpan that construction of the proposed pipeline in the Core would constitute prohibited development in the Pine Barrens. At that time, Senator Schumer called on the Federal Highway Administration to grant a waiver to permit the 5.4 mile construction to occur in the south shoulder of the Expressway east of William Floyd Parkway in the heart of the Pine Barrens. At the time, Schumer said such construction would not cause problems “and we’ll save the Pine Barrens,” he said. (See attached clipping). Since then, Senator Schumer has supported obtaining a waiver and is reported reaching out to the FHWA at the present time.

Four years ago, the New York State Department of Transportation granted a similar waiver to permit construction of an electrical conduit along the south shoulder of Sunrise Highway, also in the Core Preservation Area of the Pine Barrens. Because the L.I.E. is an interstate highway, the FHWA waiver is also required.

Environmentalists have been writing these public officials because the waivers have not been issued and KeySpan has applied to the Pine Barrens Commission for an exemption to permit the clearing for construction. “KeySpan has tried to minimize the impacts of its project by offering limited drilling underground and narrowing the usual clearing corridor,” said Pine Barrens Society Executive Director Richard Amper, “but everyone agrees that installing the line in the shoulder is the best way to protect the Pine Barrens.” The barrens sit atop Long Island’s largest supply of pure drinking water and boast the greatest diversity of plants and animals anywhere in New York State. The public has committed $400 million to the protection of Long Island’s premier ecosystem.

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Many groups have written Pataki and Schumer seeking the waiver and have asked the Pine Barrens Commission to otherwise deny the exemption. They include Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Long Island Neighborhood Network, Group for the South Fork, Save Open Spaces Now, the Open Space Council and the Long Island Drinking Water Coalition.

“Everyone is agreed that shoulder construction is the most environmentally-responsible method,” Amper said, “The time for talking has past – we’re asking the Governor and Schumer to obtain the waivers and save the Pine Barrens.”

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