Letter to the editor: NYC developers likely to pounce on EPF for waterfront pork

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators are likely to propose misspending Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) and other funds on environmentally damaging boondoggles in disaster-prone locations in and over the lower Hudson River and other waters in the next few months — unless the Sierra Club mobilizes to prevent this. 

These illegal, environmentally destructive, in-the-water, pork-barrel projects will be hyped as “natural,” “sustainable,” “resilient,” “park,” “wetland restoration or mitigation,” “environmental education,” “public access,” and/or other “multi-use” projects. 

But subsidizing rebuilt “piers” and buildings for non-water-dependent uses in and over near-shore waters will put people in the path of deadly storms and hurricanes, degrade or destroy irreplaceable marine habitats, and ruin scenic views of open water.

The federal Clean Water Act effectively prohibits building non-water-dependent projects and buildings in public waterways because it’s essential to protect and preserve existing, naturally occurring habitats in rivers, wetlands and coastal  waters for navigation, and for sustaining coastal and global fisheries, marine mammals and other living marine resources. But our governor and some state legislators and their political allies seem to think it’s okay to disregard this basic national environmental law when they plan how to spend state taxpayers’ money.

There are more than enough desirable, proven-to-be-effective measures for preventing storm and hurricane damage by investing public funds in genuine “resiliency” measures in upland areas — that is, not in the water. 

These include billion-dollar projects for storm-proofing Housing Authority buildings and for keeping mass transit viable. But the single most important measure for what climate change experts refer to as “adaptation” involves not spending money — that is, simply shifting new real estate development away from coastal waters by ending public subsidies for building in floodplains and, especially, for building in the water. Subsidizing new development not just along the water but right in it moves in exactly the wrong direction.

Reducing carbon emissions with energy efficiency/conservation measures should be a top Club priority.  But so should ending public subsidies for new or rebuilt real estate on fills, “piers,” pile-supported platforms etc., and buildings on top of those structures for amphitheaters and for office, performance space, retail, museum, parking, classroom or other non-water-dependent uses (at Piers 26, 40, 54, 55, and 57 in the Hudson River offshore, for example).  The Hudson River Estuary Committee works to prevent this kind of misuse of our rivers and other offshore waters and of limited public funds.

As for the national and international big picture: there are likely to be mass migrations in search of drinkable water and food — especially protein — all too soon.  The human body cannot make its own protein. 

Fisheries are the single most important source of protein on the planet — for subsistence fishers in coastal waters off NYC, and off low-lying nations like Bangledesh alike. Without aquatic habitats there can be no wild fisheries.

Please read www.WestwayThen andNow.org and its FAQ links for more information. It’s crucial that Sierra Club activists and leaders be aware of the points in this letter and on that website before taking inadequately informed positions (or endorsing plans like NYC Mayor deBlasio’s OneNYC plan, which are decidedly mixed bags). 

It’s profoundly important that good, long-standing Sierra Club positions in favor of preserving existing, naturally occurring aquatic habitats, ecosystems and fisheries be integrated with the Club’s climate change, “sustainable food” and state budget positions, and that more activists speak out about these issues in upcoming public forums.

The next few months are likely to be a make-or-break time for saving the lower Hudson River from harmful development — and saving the great laws and Sierra Club case law that are supposed to protect these waters. Please contact the Hudson River Estuary Committee’s co-chair (allison tupper@verizon.net) if you can help, or if you need more information. 

We hope New Yorkers throughout the state will become more active and vocal before EPF and other funds allocated through the state budget are misspent destroying priceless natural resources instead of saving them.

MARCY BENSTOCK