New York dredging lawsuit will hurt Connecticut

If the Cuomo administration is striking a blow for better environmental practices, it is being both selective about place and dismissive of steps in the new regulations designed to protect the marine environment.

A fter an eight-year review process and nine more months since the EPA made its decision to permit a dredging disposal site in Connecticut marine waters, the state of New York made a move last week to delay still further.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo made good on a 2016 pledge when his state filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency to prevent the use of the 1.3-square-mile Eastern Long Island Sound Disposal Site, located between the mouth of the Thames River and the western tip of Fishers Island. Cuomo’s office said last October, when the EPA approval was anticipated, that the plan was inconsistent with New York State coastal policies, and that the governor was issuing his formal objection as “the latest in a long line of efforts to ultimately end the practice of disposing dredged material in Long Island Sound.” It appears the line just got longer.

The difference between Cuomo’s stance and that of the Connecticut and Rhode Island congressional delegations and state administrations isn’t that the New Englanders think dredging is a beautiful thing. It’s that reviewers found no realistic way to completely avoid disposal at sea, no economically feasible way to take the material much farther out, and a critical need to dredge and remove.

Instead they wrote new and improved regulations that give priority to disposal on land, particularly to help stem beach erosion, and created an interstate review board so the site is protected from toxic materials.

This is nothing like the days when a barge could find itself a spot any old place and tip who-knows-what into the Sound. But Connecticut’s tidal shores remain vulnerable to silting and filling in, so no dredging is no option.

Submarines and surface ships traveling the Thames to and from the submarine base, State Pier in New London and Electric Boat’s shipyard in Groton need safe deepwater passage, which requires periodic dredging. Marinas, smaller businesses that together comprise a significant part of Connecticut’s coastal economy, need to be able to dredge and dispose as well.

The easternmost site, one of three that got EPA approval in Long Island Sound, is the only one New York is protesting. The central and western sites, which will use the same methods and restrictions, are apparently OK with New York, which would be more likely to use them for material removed from New York waterways. Disposal in the eastern site is expected to come mainly from Connecticut.

So if the Cuomo administration is striking a blow for better environmental practices, it is being both selective about place and dismissive of steps in the new regulations designed to protect the marine environment.

The site was made smaller and a location chosen in Connecticut waters and away from routes used by subs as part of the lengthy negotiations involving all three states, the Army Corps of Engineers, other federal agencies and the Navy. Of particular importance to Connecticut is the dredging at the submarine base itself, as a necessary step to position the base against future rounds of defense base closures. It is not exaggeration to say that the jobs created by the submarine-based industry and military presence, as well as hopes of reviving the port of New London, depend on certainty that approved dredging can go forward.

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen said Friday he is reviewing possible next steps. But it’s a shame it has to come to talk of legal action.

Even while New York goes to court over the eastern disposal site, the two states continue their ongoing cooperation in the Long Island Sound Study, an effort that uses federal dollars to find ways to restore the Sound as a fishery and wildlife habitat by restoring water quality. President Trump’s EPA appointee, Scott Pruitt, has been dropping long-term environmental funding programs; this is no time for the two states to be at odds over any Long Island Sound regulations.

The Day reiterates its long-time support for the site and for the process by which a decision was reached. Government finally ground its way to a solution; the site is open and should be available. The states can keep looking ways to improve the process.