Young protesters say no to the intermodal!
We are a coalition of community leaders, groups, associations, organizations and just individual families trying to protect what’s important.
Led by Friends of the Edgewood Preserve, we are Long Islanders who intend to make sure that the law is upheld and that the a surplus parcel of Pilgrim State Hospital land becomes part of the Edgewood-Oak Brush Plains State Nature Preserve, as per Chapter 635, Section 7 of the Laws of 1987.
Friends of the Edgewood Preserve is an all-volunteer, not for profit organization, dedicated to protecting the rare and irreplaceable 850-acre pitch pine scrub oak brush nature preserve. The group works independently of and in cooperation with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to both protect and improve this critical habitat, the largest remaining parcel of pitch pine scrub oak brush on Long Island and the second largest in New York State (the largest is the Albany Pine Bush).
We are teachers, mothers, fathers, kids, community leaders, activists, birders, hikers, mountain bicyclists, walkers, and more who will do whatever it takes to protect this parcel of Pilgrim land from being developed, thus poisoning our air more than it already is, putting our drinking water supply at risk by contamination and paving over a groundwater protection area, making more kids sick with asthma and other breathing problems (Brentwood, a minority community, already has the highest rate of childhood asthma on Long Island and is crowded with little open space) increasing the already high rate of breast cancer in Dix Hills and wreaking havoc on the Edgewood Preserve, due to habitat fragmentation, light pollution stress to trees, plants, birds, amphibeans, moths, and other wildlife, noise and vibrations, and, well, the 64,000 question — who would want to visit a nature preserve with a 24/7 noisy truck, train, crane facility just over the fence?
We demand justice for our communities. Western Suffolk County is already overstressed, overdeveloped and under siege with more trucks than our fragile road system can handle. Sure, intermodal facilities may help take trucks off SOME roads, but they end up diverting MORE truck traffic to the area where the intermodal facility is located. So, in an area that already has over the top air pollution (Western Suffolk County has a D-minus rating) and with already too many trucks on Commack Road and other local roads, the state, with help from the federal government, wants to send MORE trucks to Brentwood, Dix Hills, Deer Park and Commack.
Enough is enough. Tell them, no way. It is against the law, it is discriminatory, it is reckless.
We need YOU to join our fight now. Time is of the essence. The Governor has not listened (he vetoed a bill that was unanimously passed by the ENTIRE Assembly last summer and in the Senate with just a few dissenters). The New York State Department of Transportation NEVER listens. They proceed first, include the communty LAST. Everything they do is under a veil of secrecy and with the greatest contempt for the public. More important than even this is that the Commissioner of the Office of General Services has failed to do his job: transfer the land.
According to the 1987 statute, the Commissioner has NO CHOICE but to transfer surplus Pilgrim State land to the Edgewood Preserve. The language is clear: “the commissioner shall transfer”. SHALL MEANS MUST. PERIOD.
Please — join our fight. Donate to our legal fund, spread the word, write letters, pressure the media to investigate and cover this issue (they have not done their job).
Contact: Patricia at pburkhart@friendsofedgewoodpreserve.org or Denis at 631-836-2616.
Together, we will protect what’s important, or as Abigail, a young Dix Hills resident said in a recent letter sent to the Governor:
Save Our Birds, Trees & Me!
Help us STOP the DOT! Join the fight today! Thank you.
