Who Is Killing Long Island Sound?
That's the question the Times put on top of the op-ed piece of mine they published today, in the Connecticut, Westchester and Long Island sections. One of the key paragraphs says:
...just when efforts to save the Sound should be increasing, the Connecticut Legislature is doing the opposite. It is backing off its cleanup commitment by slashing money for sewage plant improvements. This is particularly distressing not just because of the ecological implications but because Connecticut had been the leader in the cleanup, surpassing both New York State and New York City.
You can read it all here. (And since that link won't last forever, here's the piece, on my other blog.) The opinions and conclusions are mine, but Leah Schmalz of Save the Sound and Terry Backer, Soundkeeper and a Connecticut legislator, deserve my thanks for helping me get my facts straight.
...just when efforts to save the Sound should be increasing, the Connecticut Legislature is doing the opposite. It is backing off its cleanup commitment by slashing money for sewage plant improvements. This is particularly distressing not just because of the ecological implications but because Connecticut had been the leader in the cleanup, surpassing both New York State and New York City.
You can read it all here. (And since that link won't last forever, here's the piece, on my other blog.) The opinions and conclusions are mine, but Leah Schmalz of Save the Sound and Terry Backer, Soundkeeper and a Connecticut legislator, deserve my thanks for helping me get my facts straight.
posted by Tom Andersen at 9:13 AM
1 Comments:
Hey Tom, I saw you in the big paper! Congratulations once again.
If I might add, the CT Clean Water program was perhaps partially funded by the EPA, since they had a grant matching program that could be leveraged. You might check on that, but my understanding was that recent "war on terrorism" demands have cut the EPA wastewater projects down to the nub. A few are being funded from NAD-Bank (NAFTA) along the Mexico border and that's about the best the current presidential administration can say.
And may I also add, the law makers up on "Constipation Plaza" in Hartford have always gotten the vapors after starting something great but then losing funds somehow for some foolish reason. It is very simple: if you get a big blob of federal DOT grant allocations coming online, you can leverage that better than paying cash for some stinky old sewage plants that nobody really sees ... or apparently cares about.
Now is the time to move, since elections will be held in November and there are lots of legislators scurrying like rats because they're nervous. Big changes are on the horizon. Push them on LI Sound. Put them on the Gong Show. Use facts and be honest ... and totally ruthless.
-Sam
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