Preserving Plum Island

Connecticut’s two U.S. senators — Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy — need to do what they can to protect Plum Island from development. They can do so by assuring that the Senate acts on a measure approved by the House of Representatives that is intended to block the sale of Plum Island to a private bidder.

It is the second time in two years that the House has taken this step. The Senate failed to act last time. Blumenthal and Murphy, both Democrats, need to focus on not letting that happen again. It should help that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is the minority leader.

The island, off limits to the public since the animal disease laboratories there began operations in the mid-1950s, is part of the town of Southold, N.Y. Tight protocols assured any disease testing was restricted to the research compound.

Congress voted in 2008 to close the Plum Island Disease Center and move it to a centrally located facility in Kansas, expected to be ready by 2023.

That same legislation directed the U.S. General Services Administration to sell the 840acre island off the North Fork of Long Island at auction.

That never made sense. The island should remain in its natural state. The research laboratories only take up a small portion.

Audubon staff has documented more than 200 bird species as breeding or foraging on Plum Island and adjacent coastal waters. It hosts the largest seasonal seal population in those waters, according to the Nature Conservancy. And it is home to many rare plants.

The bill passed in the House would require the General Services Administration to halt any plans to sell the island and instead await a study that will provide options for conserving the island, with public access for educational and enrichment purposes.

There should be high confidence that once such a study is completed, it will document the importance of maintaining the island as a preserve and end any suggestion of developing it.

Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, was a co-sponsor of the bill in the House. Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., introduced the legislation.

Southold already took steps to make sure the island never became a palatial and exclusive enclave for the super-rich. Town zoning laws prohibit residential or commercial development on the island.

Plum Island should become an unspoiled place where brief visitors can enjoy nature.