Monday's News: Meetings to Discuss Broadwater, Davids Island; Federal Budget Cuts

Broadwater's LNG proposal will be one of themain topics at the next meeting of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Long Island Sound Study. The committee will hear briefings from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on their role in the Broadwater proposal, and the committee will discuss and vote on a resolution opposing regulations that would allow FERC to ignore the wishes of the states when it decides on the LNG terminal.

The meeting will be on Thursday, March 24, at Pfizer World Headquarters in Manhattan. The meetings are open to the public but you need to let EPA know ahead of time, for security reasons. E-mail nolfi.edna@epa.gov, if you'd like to attend.


The future of Davids Island, off New Rochelle, is still up in the air despite environmentalists having won a major fight with a developer and the local government more than a decade ago (I wrote about it in my book because of its significance as one of the first development proposals halted because of concern for Long Island Sound).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started to study the environmental issues associated with demolishing and removing the old Army buildings on the island. The corps will hold a public meeting to discuss it, on March 22, in New Rochelle. More information here.


Speaking of the Army Corps, federal budget cuts are threatening coastal habitat restoration projects just east of the Sound. The Providence Journal has a story that summarizes the cuts that Rhode Island's coastal programs, including sewage treatment projects, are facing.