L.I. How Did We Get Here? Environment

From their living rooms after work in the mid-1960s, a trio of Long Island scientists and avid birders, Art Cooley, Charlie Wurster, and Dennis Puleston came together to discuss and document what they were observing - the decline of the osprey population.

A few years prior in 1962, Rachel Carson’s book, “Silent Spring,” was published. In her book, Carson effectively argued that the pesticide DDT, which had been widely used since WWII, was having a destructive effect on the environment. Specifically, causing the shells of bald eagles and peregrine falcon eggs to thin, weaken, and break, ultimately threatening their survival.

Back on Long Island, this small group of scientists researching the osprey population decline found that unhatched eggs contained substantial concentrations of DDT. They asked the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission to stop using the chemical. The commission was unmoved and continued to use DDT, citing its efficacy and cost efficiency.

Unprecedented at the time, the scientists joined with a lawyer and went to the NY State Supreme court in Riverhead and filed a lawsuit on behalf of the environment. They prepared for months and made a convincing case. DDT wasn’t just poisoning bird species, but also crustaceans while diminishing in value as a mosquito control, as the insects were becoming resistant to it. A few weeks later, the court issued an injunction against the use of DDT by the Mosquito Control Commission. The injunction lasted a year, but the lawsuit was ultimately thrown out. DDT, however, was never sprayed on Long Island again. The scientists had won the case in the court of public opinion.

In 1967, the group of scientists gathered in a conference room at Brookhaven National Laboratory and signed documents of incorporation to form the Environmental Defense Fund. Their first office was above the Stonybrook Post Office. Ultimately, the New York State Legislature banned DDT in 1971, and a nationwide ban followed in 1972. Following the national ban, the bald eagle and peregrine falcon were removed from the federal endangered species list, and Long Island osprey populations made a dramatic recovery. 

Interview with EDF Founding Trustee Charlie Wurster highlighting the organization’s history. 

NY Times article on the passing of EDF founder Dennis Puleston.

LI Press Obituary of Art Cooley.

In 1969 voters in the southwestern portion of Suffolk County voted for establishment of the Southwest Sewer District. The plan soared in price, was hindered by corruption and defrauded taxpayers. Ultimately, turning into a $120-million bid-rigging case and one of the biggest scandals in the history of Suffolk County in which two vendors were convicted and four others paid fines without admitting guilt.

The scandal took down the administration of County Executive John V. N. Klein of Smithtown. With the scandal central to his campaign, then Islip Town Supervisor Peter F. Cohalan ran against Klein in a Republican primary for county executive and won, then won again in the general election. Cohalan’s campaign slogan called on Republican voters to “Flush Klein.” The scandal effectively ended sewer expansion in Suffolk County for decades. As a result, county officials estimate at least 70 percent of the county relies on cesspools.

1981 NY Times article.

LI Business News article, “Down the Drain.” 

Karl Grossman's article touching on the history of the scandal.

The Nassau Suffolk Regional Planning Board released the Long Island Comprehensive Waste Treatment Management Plan in July of 1978. The plan was named the “208 Study” because it was developed pursuant to Section 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The 208 Study was the first attempt at comprehensive water quality management on Long Island. It created an awareness that, unlike most communities that rely upon rivers or reservoirs, Long Island relied upon environmentally vulnerable underwater aquifers for all drinking water needs. The 208 study described Long Island’s sole source aquifer system as consisting of three major aquifers: the Upper Glacial aquifer, the Magothy aquifer, and the Lloyd aquifer. Additionally, the study identified eight hydrogeologic zones located across the Island, which created conflicts between the pressure to develop and the need to maintain open space to serve as recharge areas for the aquifers.

A PDF of the entire study is available here.

Chartered by entrepreneur and owner of the barge, Lowell Harrelson, and Luchese family mob boss, Salvatore Avellino, the barge set sail on March 22 from Islip carrying 3,168 tons of trash headed for a pilot program in Morehead City, North Carolina, to be turned into methane. While in transit, a rumor proliferated that the trash contained hospital waste, syringes, and diapers that contaminated the entire load.  The barge was docked at Morehead City until a local WRAL-TV news crew, acting on a tip, flew over the barge by helicopter to investigate. The story broke on the 6 p.m. news on April 1, 1987, and North Carolina officials began their own investigation, resulting in an order refusing to accept the waste. The barge then continued along the coast looking for another place to offload. After an 11-day delay, the barge made its way to its home port in Louisiana, but that state, too, refused to accept the waste. Likewise, Alabama and three other states, the nations of Mexico, Belize, and the Bahamas also rejected the load before the operators abandoned the plan and returned to New York. 

The owner of the garbage barge tried to negotiate to dock near Queens, NY, where the load would be carried back to Islip by truck, but Claire Schulman, borough president of Queens at the time, secured a temporary restraining order that forced the waste to stay offshore. The barge stayed off the shores of Brooklyn, decaying until July, when the vessel was granted a federal anchorage in New Jersey. Court hearings ran until October, when it was arranged that the cargo would be incinerated in Brooklyn, and the 430 tons of ash that remained would be dumped at the Islip landfill. 

At the time, the incident was widely cited by environmentalists and the media as representative of the solid-waste disposal crisis in the United States and a shortage of landfill space. The incident sparked national public discussion about waste disposal and was likely a factor in increased recycling rates in the late 1980s and after.

NY Times article “Garbage Barge Returns in Search of a Dump” 

2017 Newsday project looking back on the 30-year anniversary of the garbage barge.

PBS Retro Report on the garbage barge (video). 

In the late 1980s, real estate development, including strip malls and housing developments of suburban sprawl was responsible for Long Island losing vast acres of its valued woodland Pine Barrens at the rate of nearly 5,000 acres a year. The ecosystem that once covered 250,000 acres had declined to an estimated 125,000 acres. At the time, 234 development projects were proposed in the remaining Pine Barrens area. The Long Island Pine Barrens Society, founded in 1977 by three Long Island naturalists to increase public understanding of the significance of the Pine Barrens found itself in a historic effort to stop development before the Pine Barrens ceased to be a viable ecosystem.

Photo by Sandra Richard CC BY-NC 2.0

On November 21, 1989, the Pine Barrens Society filed the largest environmental lawsuit in the history of New York State, asking the State Supreme Court to require a collective environmental assessment of all the projects in this critical region under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

The Society quickly gained a reputation as determined fighters for drinking water protection and open space preservation. The founders enlisted communications professional and community education expert, Richard Amper, as their first professional staff person. They educated him on everything about the Pine Barrens and tasked him with developing and executing a campaign to save the Pine Barrens. 

During the campaign, the Society emerged as one of the most effective environmental groups in the state and achieved protection of some 55,000 acres of Pine Barrens through landmark legislation, the Pine Barrens Protection Act. Richard Amper and the Pine Barrens Society won several awards for their efforts and received regional and national recognition for the conservation campaign. 

Pine Barrens Society co-founder, John Turner, on the significance of the Pine Barrens (video). 

New York State enacted the Special Groundwater Protection Areas (SGPA) Law in 1987 (Article 55 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law). The law outlined the framework for designating SGPAs within federally identified Sole Source Aquifer regions, such as Long Island, and named the Long Island Regional Planning Board (previously Nassau Suffolk Regional Planning Board) as the planning entity for SGPAs in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The LIRPB released The Long Island Comprehensive Special Groundwater Protection Area Plan in 1992. Nine SGPAs were identified on Long Island as important for maintaining adequate volumes of high-quality groundwater. These SGPAs are crucial for recharging the deep aquifers that provide drinking water; therefore, policies that aim to protect water quality by controlling or restricting development in SGPAs are considered reasonable restrictions to achieve drinking water protection goals. Under New York State’s environmental quality review laws, SGPAs meet the designation of Critical Environmental Areas (CEAs). This designation signifies their unique ecological, geological, or hydrological sensitivity and requires lead agencies to provide a hard look during SEQRA review regarding the potential impact of a proposed development.  

LI Special Groundwater Protection Plan (PDF) - Long Island Regional Planning Board

In 1996, the Sisters of St. Dominic in Amityville launched Sophia Garden, later renamed Homecoming Farm, as part of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement. Led by Sister Jeanne Clark, the project modeled a sustainable way of living centered on organic farming and became one of Long Island’s oldest certified organic CSA farms. Rooted in the belief that caring for the Earth means caring for one another, Homecoming Farm not only supplied fresh vegetables to CSA members but also donated a portion of its harvest to local hunger relief efforts.

Homecoming Farm’s mission reflected a larger shift on Long Island toward organic produce, sustainable land use, and community-based agriculture. The CSA model involves a direct relationship between local farms and consumers, where members pay upfront for a season's worth of fresh, seasonal, and often organic produce. At the same time, preservation efforts underscored the importance of protecting the island’s limited farmland. The Nassau County Environmental Bond Act helped secure properties such as Meyer’s Farm in Woodbury and Grossman’s Farm in Malverne, ensuring that some of the county’s few remaining farms were protected for future generations. Together, these developments highlight how Long Island contributed to advancing organic produce, community-based farming, and even inspiring home gardeners to reduce reliance on pesticides.

In 2023, the Sisters ensured that the land would continue its mission of environmental stewardship by transferring Homecoming Farm to the Peconic Land Trust, cementing its role in Long Island’s organic farming history and its contribution to the region’s environmental and food justice movements.

On August 21, 2000, then New York State Governor George Pataki signed the Neighbor Notification Law, capping a nine-year campaign that started on Long Island. The law requires 48-hour prior written notification to adjacent neighbors of properties where pestides are to be sprayed. The effort began when the environmental organization, Long Island Neighborhood Network, received a call from a member who proceeded to tell staff attorney Neal Lewis about a pesticide exposure incident her infant was subjected to on a summer day in 1992. The Neighborhood Network proceeded to propose legislation to protect families from unnecessary pesticide exposure to then Long Island Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli, who championed the reform early in the 1993 legislative session. He drafted and became the prime sponsor of the Prior Neighbor Notification of Pesticide Spraying bill. Later, Senator Carl Marcellino boosted the effort when, upon his election to the State Senate in 1995 became the bill’s prime sponsor in the Senate in his first term. For nine years, Long Island Neighborhood Network organized a door-to-door and telephone campaign across Long Island to educate the public, distribute hundreds of thousands of brochures, and generate thousands of phone calls and letters from constituents to their elected officials calling for the passage of the bill. The bill was strongly opposed by the pesticide industry and upstate farmers, despite not restricting agricultural pesticide use.

However, demand for prior notice of pesticide spraying mounted. Prior notice of pesticide spraying made common sense and proved immensely popular with Long Island homeowners. Providing the public with information also represented a strategic offensive against the pesticide industry by creating an informed public who wanted answers about what they were spraying.

What started as an environmental protection effort had grown into an environmental health rights movement. Combined with the efforts of a broad coalition of homeowners, environmentalists, and breast cancer action organizations took the movement statewide. Upon becoming a top environmental priority, Albany-based environmental organizations suggested adding school notices to the bill, which further enhanced its already strong public support. By the time the bill became law, with the hard work of its prime sponsors and their staffs, the Long Island Neighborhood Network, and hundreds of thousands of NY State homeowners the law became the most comprehensive and significant pesticide laws in the nation. The historic, first-in-the-nation statute also paved the way for additional environmental regulations and similar laws in other states.

Governor George Pataki signing the Neighbor Notification Law. Bill authors and primary sponsors State Senator Carl Marcelino (left) and Assemblyman Thomas Dinapoli (right) stand next to him. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos stands directly behind the Governor. Neal Lewis, then executive director of the Long Island Neighborhood Network stands behind and right of Senator Skelos.

NYS Dept. of Health’s Neighbor Notification Law Fact Sheet  

New York Times article, “Legislature to Vote on Pesticide Measure” 

New York Times article “Pesticide Applicators Must Notify Neighbors” 

NYS Dept. of Education Neighbor Notification Law Reminder

The ENERGY STAR Certified Homes project was introduced by the EPA in 1995. The voluntary program was intended to help buyers of new homes choose houses that are significantly more energy-efficient than standard construction. A vital part of the program is an inspection and rating by an independent, third-party Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater, accredited by RESNET, the Residential Energy Services Network, a nationwide, not-for-profit organization founded by the National Association of State Energy Officials and Energy Rated Homes of America.

The proposal to adopt local codes and make the national standard for ENERGY STAR Labeled Homes a mandatory code requirement rather than just a voluntary, incentive-driven program, was first developed in 2005 at meetings of the Clean Energy Leadership Task Force. The idea was borrowed from a similar local law in the Town of Greenburgh, New York.

The concept was further debated at two meetings of the Long Island Association’s (LIA) Environment/Energy Subcommittee, which helped to identify concerns of the Long Island builders, and lead to the proposal eventually gaining the support of LIBI. As a result, LIBI became one of the first builders trade groups in the country to support higher efficiency standards. The LIA board of directors formally endorsed the policy, and has directly encouraged all towns to adopt the standard. Newsday printed a number of editorials urging towns to adopt the measure. There was broad support from environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Group for the East End.

Long Island Power Authority provided each town or municipality passing a similar law a $25,000 grant to help train inspectors to assess new home construction.

Beginning in 2006, the towns of Babylon and Brookhaven adopted the codes, with the sponsorship of Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Connie Kepert and then-Supervisor Brian Foley and Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone. Eventually, 11 of the 13 towns on Long Island adopted similar codes.

In 2006, the EPA updated the ENERGY STAR Homes standard, making it considerably more stringent. Rather than have their building energy codes tied to a program that could change without their input, the Long Island towns that had adopted the ENERGY STAR standard as a code amended their local laws to require new homes to achieve specific HERS indexes instead. When the code was no longer tied to the ENERGY STAR Homes program, the Town of Southampton adopted a tiered system, which required larger homes to meet higher energy efficiency, making it one of the most stringent residential construction energy codes in the nation

The program has proved that establishing better efficiency standards can result in substantial emissions reduction, with little or no expense, while creating long-term savings for homeowners, and advancing “Green Economy” jobs.

Sustainability Institute Green Paper. 

NYSERDA letter to the EPA 2005: https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/bldrs_lenders_raters/downloads/NYSERDA.pdf

ENERGY STAR Homebuilding Standards.

In the early 2000s, the solar installation permitting process on Long Island necessitated a different set of policies for every town and village, which created confusion, added extra costs, and was responsible for installation delays. During a meeting of the Long Island Clean Energy Leadership Task Force, an initiative administered by the Sustainability Institute at Molloy University, the idea of a unified, streamlined permit process was advanced. Under the direction of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, a committee was formed, which included representatives from the Nassau and Suffolk County Planning Commissions, industry professionals, the Long Island Power Authority, and several municipalities. The Committee endeavored to establish a permitting process that could maintain thorough safety measures and quality control, but also be achieved quickly.

The committee proposed an accelerated and standardized process for residential solar power systems. The new Solar Energy System Fast Track Permit Application process allows municipalities to meet the governing requirements, while reducing the time and money associated with approving solar installation permits. An additional aspect of the application includes waiving the need for a survey of the entire property or other information not relevant to the installation. To encourage municipalities to adopt the initiative, the Long Island Power Authority provides incentives to each Long Island town and to each of the first ten villages where the standard is adopted. It has been adopted by most Long Island towns and some villages.

Suffolk County and Nassau County Planning Commissions: Long Island Unified Solar Permitting Initiative (PDF).

Long Island Unified Solar Permit Initiative Solar Energy System Fast Track Permit Application.  

ARTICLE: “A Model for Expediting Solar Permits: Long Island Unified Solar Permit Initiative” 

On May 10, 2010 then governor, David Patterson signed the Safe School Grounds bill into law. In the nine previous legislative sessions professional lobbyists in Albany extensively representing the chemical industry successfully ensured that the bill died in the Senate. For years prior to and after the passage of the Neighborhood Notification Law in 2001, environmental organization, Long Island Neighborhood Network had been building momentum in demanding safer pesticide use in schools. In 1995, the Neighborhood Network published and distributed the report, “Pesticides and Children: Avoiding the Risks,” which was one of the first highly publicized educational efforts bringing attention to the special risks pesticides posed to children. In 1998, the Neighborhood Network established the Pesticide Alternatives Project, which focused on the availability of alternative and organic lawn and garden maintenance products. In 2002, the Neighborhood Network organized the Toxic-Free Schools Project empowering parents to demand changes in school pest control policies and offering help to schools in designing and implementing pest control plans that do not rely on toxic, synthetic pesticides. At the time it was estimated that over 10 million pounds of pesticides are applied on Long Island every year. A 2000 study by the state attorney general’s office determined that 87 percent of schools in New York use pesticides, with almost 65 percent using pesticides outdoors.

In the 2010 NY State Legislative Session, the bill was sponsored by two Long Island elected officials, Senator Brian X. Foley in the Senate, and Steven Englebright in the Assembly. The bill addressed a growing body of research and evidence that children are especially susceptible to pesticide exposure. The bill gained widespread statewide attention and was passed in both houses of the Legislature. The bill was supported by the Healthy Schools Network, Grassroots Environmental Education, and Environemntal Advocates of New York. The law bans almost all uses of chemical pesticides on the grounds of schools and day care centers and protects children from unnecessary exposure to toxic pesticides. The law also prohibits pesticides used for lawn care on school grounds, playgrounds, turf, athletic and playing fields. The law does not apply to pesticides used in a health emergency, as determined by the county health department or school board, or to protect children from an imminent threat of biting, stinging and venomous pests. The requirements and guidelines of the law are administered by the State Education Department for schools and by the Office of Children and Family Services for child care centers.

Former NYS Senator Brian Foley’s press release on the law’s passage:

Dept. of Environmental Conservation guidance (PDF) on the law: https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/guidancech85.pdf 

American Academy of Pediatrics statement on pesticide exposure in children: 

Launched in 2010, the Sustainability Institute at Molloy University’s Sustainable Living Film Series was a free public program that screened documentaries focused on environmental protection, animal and environmental ethics, and sustainability. Each screening partnered with a nonprofit organization, creating opportunities for networking and collaboration among Long Island’s social change community. With 100 to 200 attendees at each event, the series fostered unity between local organizations and the broader public while also broadening Molloy’s circle of friends. Target audiences included teachers, Molloy faculty and students, nonprofit professionals, and community members, but all were welcome to attend.

Over the course of its run, twenty-five films were screened, drawing attention to critical issues and building connections that extended well beyond the campus. The series not only provided education and dialogue on key sustainability challenges but also enhanced the university’s reputation as a convener of community engagement around social and environmental issues.

Debate about how to approach plastic bags and the environmental impact they have had been a hot topic on Long Island for several years. A Suffolk county bill was proposed in 2016 to ban plastic bags altogether, but it failed to gain necessary support in the county legislature. Instead, on Jan. 1, 2017 the legislature required stores to charge 5 cents for every non-reusable paper or plastic shopping bag, with some exceptions. The county law, passed by a 13-4 vote, requires supermarkets, pharmacies, clothing stores, and other retailers to charge customers 5 cents for each single-use plastic or paper bag they use to carry purchases.

Environmental advocates supporting the bill cited data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that indicates that between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide every year, and that Americans use more than 10 billion paper bags each year. In addition, an estimated 14 million trees are cut down each year to make paper bags. One of the primary environmental groups supporting the legislation was Citizens Campaign for the Environment, led by executive director, Adrienne Esposito. The Suffolk law aimed to boost reusable bag use and reduce the number of single-use plastic bags polluting waterways and threatening marine life. Following passage of the bill a one-year effectiveness report in 2019 by Suffolk County’s Department of Health Services indicated that use of single-use plastic bags was down 81.7% and single-use paper bags was down 78.8% compared with 2017. The report also showed that in November and December 2017 and in the first two-month of 2018, that use of reusable bags or no bags increased from 27.8% to 60.1%. Furthermore, the reporting indicated that between 2017 and 2018, there was a 42% decrease, to 1,552, in plastic bags that cleanup volunteers found littering Suffolk shorelines.

Newsday article: “Suffolk plastic bag use down by 1.1 billion, report says” 

Suffolk County Department of Health Services One-year Effectiveness Report (PDF)

Plastic bag use poses significant environmental damage when bags end up as litter on the side of roadways, in trees, and in waterways where they pose an imminent threat to marine life. After several municipalities around the state passed their own single-use plastic bag prohibitions, New York State became the third state in the country, behind California and Hawaii, to pass a bag ban of its own. In New York, where some 23 billion plastic bags are used each year, the Bag Waste Reduction Law went into effect on March 1, 2020. It was not immediately enforced, however, a result of a lawsuit brought before the NYS Supreme Court. In the complaint, the defendants called the rule vague and unconstitutional, and alleged that it directly conflicted with another state recycling law. 

On Aug. 20, 2020, a State Supreme Court judge ruled against the defendants, upholding the ban on plastic bags and giving the State Department of Environmental Conservation the green light to begin enforcing it on October 19, 2020. After the effective date, however, the COVID-19 pandemic further delayed rollout and enforcement. Studies have shown that use of single-use plastics increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people opted for takeout food delivery, and local enforcement agencies have looked the other way as small businesses struggled during the state shutdown.

The law affects all plastic bags (except those exempt) from distribution by anyone required to collect New York State sales tax. For sales that are tax exempt, plastic carry out bags are still not allowed to be distributed by anyone required to collect New York State sales tax (unless it is an exempt bag). The law also affects anyone required to collect New York State sales tax, bag manufacturers and consumers. Examples of an exempt bag are bags used by a pharmacy to carry prescription drugs and produce bags for bulk items such as fruits and vegetables.

From the beginning, an important element of the state law has been to encourage consumers to bring their own bags. The law is not intended to replace single-use plastic bags with single-use paper bags, the law was intended for people to bring reusable bags, and not intended to put the burden on the store owners. That remains a point of contention as businesses report that they are bearing the cost burden of replacing plastic with paper, and that they want regulators to allow them to use up their remaining stock of plastic bags before switching. They also note that many customers stop by their establishments on their way home from work or appointments and haven’t necessarily planned in advance to pick up grocery items. Environmentalists have their own complaints with regulators, largely that enforcement remains slow some two years after the law’s passage, and that plastic bag use continues to be ubiquitous as a result.

About 79 percent of plastic waste ends up in landfills, rivers and oceans where it can remain for hundreds of years, according to the United Nations. Even when the larger plastic products degrade, they remain in oceans in a smaller form, known as microplastics, which are easily ingested by fish and wildlife. 

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Fact Sheet on the law. 

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation information for retailers and manufacturers: 

State Supreme Court’s full decision (PDF).

https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/polypakvsny.pdf

Approved by county referendum in 2019, Suffolk County lawmakers approved two bills in early October 2021 paving the way for the county’s largest sewer expansion in decades. At a groundbreaking on October 29, 2021, exactly nine years after Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island, Suffolk County announced a $400 million sewer expansion project known as the Suffolk County Coastal Resiliency Initiative. The project was part of a plan to make the region’s coastline more resistant to storm surge in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Constructed with federal and state grant funds, the initiative aims to connect some 6,000 parcels of land along Suffolk’s south shore to sewers, eliminating the need for thousands of cesspools and septic systems that have been identified as a primary cause of the pollution of local waterways. Suffolk County Executive, Steven Bellone said at the groundbreaking, “This a tremendous victory for our economy and our environment.” According to a county statement issued at the time, the construction would be completed at no cost to Suffolk County residents. Instead, the major funding for the project includes $243 million from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and $66 million from the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. New York State committed $30.7 million in state financial assistance, and Suffolk County will invest $42 million of its allotment in American Rescue Plan funding received from the federal government, and $24 million from a sewer stabilization reserve fund. 

The sewer expansion project includes the connection of 2,184 homes in the Carlls River Watershed in Babylon to an existing sewer district, and the connection of 1,884 parcels in the Forge River Watershed in Brookhaven to a new treatment facility expected to be constructed in Mastic by 2025. In addition, 1,489 homes located in Suffolk County Sewer District No. 3 that had never been tied into the sewage collection system, will be connected as part of the project. 

Sacred Heart University Public Radio audio article and transcript. 

Governor Hochul’s press release on the project.