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Landfill Expansion on Horizon?

http://libn.com Long Island Business News Brookhaven to consider expanding landfillSample Imageby John CallegariPublished:

January 20th, 2012

 

 In his State of the Town speech Thursday evening, Brookhaven Supervisor Mark Lesko indicated it was time for the town to tackle a long-term plan for its landfill in Yaphank.Calling it a “wonderful asset” for the town from a regional waste management standpoint that provides the town tens of millions of dollars each year, Lesko also noted the landfill was a tough place to live next to. The facility has for years been an eyesore, producing various odors.“What are our future plans for the landfill?” Lesko asked the crowd of more than 200 gathered at Town Hall.“Close it,” one person seated in the audience said aloud.That wasn’t one of the options Lesko mentioned in his speech, although the he has noted in previous interviews the facility would need to eventually close in about 15 years unless more capacity was added.The expansion option was available, though. Expanding the landfill and taking in more tonnage in the short term to help address the town’s fiscal woes could be the future of the landfill. Another option cited by Lesko was to move toward single stream recycling – a system in which all paper, plastic, metals and other containers are mixed in a collection truck, instead of being sorted by residents and handled separately.No concrete plans were decided, although Lesko noted the town board would look at each option this year, along with its Landfill Liaison Committee.
 
Forge River Comments Due

Extended Deadline for public comment on Forge River Management plan ends January 19, 2012

 

For those of you who have inquired as to where on the town's website the entire Forge River plan can be found...stop looking it's NOT THERE  The plan is on the Consultant's website...Cameron Engineering... NOT  at the Town's

www.cameronengineering.com/forgeriver/pdf/Forge-River-Management-Plan-Final-lore

DRAFT. FORGE RIVER WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PLAN. NOVEMBER 2011 . The Town of Brookhaven. In Association with. Prepared by ...

Town  extends comment period on Forge 

Originally published: January 17, 2012 8:48 PM
Updated: January 17, 2012 9:32 PM
By PATRICK WHITTLE This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

A view of the Forge River in Mastic.

Photo credit: Carl Corry | A view of the Forge River in Mastic. (Oct. 29, 2011)

A day after receiving a written request from publishing magnate Anna Wintour, Brookhaven's town board extended the public comment period for a much-anticipated plan to protect the polluted Forge River.

The decision prompted cheers from environmentalists but catcalls from some civic activists.

The letter from Vogue magazine's editor-in-chief, submitted electronically on Jan. 4, asked town officials to extend the comment period for the Draft Forge River Watershed Management Plan, which proposes management strategies for the waterway.

The letter described the document as "the foundation to the restoration and revitalization" of the 3.7-mile river, which courses through the Mastic area, where Wintour owns a 13-acre estate.

The next day, Brookhaven's town board voted to extend the public comment period until Jan. 19.

The town board had accepted the 325-page document produced by Cameron Engineering & Associates of Woodbury on Dec. 6 and set a Jan. 5 deadline on public comments.

Town officials said the timing of Wintour's letter and the extension were coincidental, as many town policymakers never saw the letter.

But Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said the Wintour effect was clear. Esposito said the extra time will let more of the public -- including her group -- comment on the proposal.

"Stakeholders appealed to Anna Wintour to help to get the comment period extended, because she's been very active in the Forge River" preservation efforts, Esposito said.

Others, including Affiliated Brookhaven Civic Organization president MaryAnn Johnston, were not enamored of the town board's decision. Johnston said she supports the extension, but added the town should have reacted weeks earlier when civic groups requested an extension.

"Anna Wintour wrote a letter. [Town officials] didn't care how many civics wrote in -- that was the deal," Johnston said.

Several civics wrote letters but it "had no effect -- but the letter from Anna Wintour, badda bing, badda boom."

Brookhaven spokesman Jack Krieger said in a statement that the town board decided to extend the comment period "after discussion with stakeholders."

Town officials have said the plan could be turned into laws and regulations designed to protect the river, but its implementation could take months.

Wintour said in an email that she was "thrilled that the extension was granted."

The email also said: "As a resident, I obviously wanted to become involved after realizing how urgent this health issue was and how seriously it affected the Mastic community."
 
Forge River Plan GETS MORE TIME
UPDATE:  TOWN  FINALLY AGREES TO EXTEND COMMENT PERIOD FOR ADDITIONAL 14 DAYS (JANUARY 19, 2012 NEW DEADLINE) AFTER DEMANDS FROM FORGE RIVER TASK FORCE MEMBERS, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS & THE LOCAL CIVIC COMMUNITY

Long Island Now

More time on Forge River plan sought

5:45 PM By Sophia Chang
A view of the Forge River in Mastic.
Members of the Forge River Task Force are asking for 30 more days for public comment on Brookhaven Town’s plan to protect the river.
In a letter sent Monday to town Supervisor Mark Lesko, six task force members said the traditional 30-day comment period starting Dec. 6 was insufficient because of the holidays.
“We strongly believe that public participation and comments will help to ensure the management plan is a comprehensive, strong roadmap, supported by the community for restoring the river,” the members wrote.
The letter was signed by a group of local civic leaders and environmentalists: Adrienne Esposito, Kevin McAllister, Mary Ann Johnston, John Sicignano and Robert DeBona.
Lesko deferred comment to Councilman Dan Panico, who represents the area of the Forge River. Panico could not be reached yesterday Thursday.
“The Forge River is plagued with declining water quality, high nutrient levels, and periods of hypoxia,” the task force members wrote. The 3.5-mile river feeds into Moriches Bay between Mastic and Moriches. The river has been subject to heavy pollution from runoff, cesspools and duck farming operations, environmentalists and regulatory agencies have said.


MaryAnn Johnston
 
Fish Farming Planned for Yaphank

Hydroponic farm breaks ground in Yaphank

December 29, 2011 by PATRICK WHITTLE / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 

A hydroponic farm, slated for Port Jefferson Station before being derailed by environmental concerns, is taking root -- in Yaphank.

Blue Green Farms, which in 2009 pushed to build near the former Lawrence Aviation plant in Port Jefferson Station, has broken ground near Horseblock Road in Yaphank, said Eugene Fernandez, one of the locally based investors in the project.

The $35 million, 12-acre first phase of the project -- scheduled for completion in June -- will allow the farm initially to grow tomatoes, said Fernandez. The facility is expected to expand in 2013 to include an aquaculture facility that will raise fish, including sturgeon and striped bass, he said.

While town officials support the project, which Fernandez and his partners say will bring more green, renewable agriculture to Long, some who opposed the farm in Port Jefferson also challenged the logic of having it elsewhere.

Activists criticized the project in 2009, in part because they feared contamination from nearby Lawrence Aviation, a federal Superfund site.

Fernandez said those concerns were unwarranted. He pointed to a $517,000 state grant that declares Blue Green Farms to be a "transformative project" worthy of support.

"It's renewable; it's no pesticides; it's green," Fernandez said. "Last time, we had the taint of Lawrence Aviation."

But MaryAnn Johnston, who lives about a mile from Yaphank and heads the Affiliated Brookhaven Civic Organization, said traffic, noise and air quality already overburden the area from industrial businesses and the Brookhaven Town landfill.

"I think if it's not safe in one neighborhood, then it's not safe in another," Johnston said. "We already have a ton of burdens that have been placed on the good people of Yaphank."

Blue Green Farms' first phase will include 400,000 square feet of greenhouse space, said Leonard Shore, president of the Yaphank-based company. The 56 acre-site will allow Blue Green Farms to raise vegetables in water instead of soil, Fernandez said.

In the future, fish farming on the site will allow the farm to use fish waste as a component of the fertilizer, Shore said.

"That's the synergistic relationship," Shore said. "It's bringing state-of-the-art agriculture."

Brookhaven officials voiced concerns in 2009 about Fernandez's record, which includes a handful of state environmental infractions, and the sand mining that might have been necessary to create a Port Jefferson Station tilapia farm. But those fears have been assuaged by the fact that the new site would not necessitate sand mining, said Planning Commissioner Tullio Bertoli.

"This is much better suited," Bertoli said. "In general I thought the location in Port Jefferson was not appropriate."

Shore declined to comment on the facility's false start in Port Jefferson. The company's future is in Yaphank, he said. "We've moving ahead and we're looking to the future," he said
 

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