A groundbreaking new study on sewage solutions for Fire Island recommends piping wastewater to Long Island among potential initiatives to address nitrogen pollution in the Great South Bay.
Experts focus on North Shore, South Shore sea level rise at nextLI town hall
Experts in local government, the insurance industry, the environment and marine science explored how sea level rise could affect South Shore and North Shore communities during a nextLI Town Hall that airs Tuesday on NewsdayTV.
Two Agreements Announced On Underutilized Sites for Renewable Energy Development
Horseshoe crab protections pass in Albany, await governor’s signature
HOCHUL DINES ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERS:
Sound Bites: CT needs faster adoption of EVs, state watchdog says
Connecticut has made progress to protect its land, water and air over the last decade — but struggles to control greenhouse gas emissions that worsen climate change, according to the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality. A report from the state watchdog blames the transportation sector for the emissions increase last year. The Council recommends a faster adoption of electric vehicles, less fuel consumption, and more use of public transit.
Hochul heads to the Vatican
THE POPE AND HOCHUL: Gov. Kathy Hochul will be jetting away to Rome this week for a climate conference hosted by Pope Francis.
She’ll be giving a 15-minute talk, titled “Climate Leadership in the Empire State: Building Resiliency for All,” at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Vatican City time.
Highlights and Happenings: June 2024
Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay
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Highlights
2024 NY Legislative Session Wraps Up
In June we celebrated major victories. Thanks to your support, we led successful efforts to protect clean water, safeguard the public from toxic chemicals, save vulnerable species, fight climate change, save taxpayers money, and more. Bills that passed the legislature include (most still need a signature from the Governor to become law):
Horseshoe Crab Protection Act: While horseshoe crabs have been around for over 350 million years, having survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, their numbers are now dwindling in New York State due to overharvesting. We led efforts to get legislation passed that will ban harvesting of these crabs for commercial and biomedical purposes. Now, we need to urge Governor Hochul to sign this bill into law!
Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, which will allow a Suffolk County ballot referendum to allow the creation of a fund to upgrade sewers and septic systems to protect clean water, is a priority bill that passed and was already signed into law by the Governor.
Climate Superfund Act: Holds corporations accountable by requiring fossil fuel companies to pay into a fund that will help New York adapt to climate change. It would generate about $3 billion annually to fund projects to keep communities safe from flooding, protect vulnerable infrastructure, pay for damage from extreme weather, and much more. This bill still needs to be signed by the Governor.
Ban on Fracking with CO2: While we fought to ban dangerous fracking that uses water to extract gas (hydraulic fracking) years ago, there was interest in circumventing the ban by extracting gas using carbon dioxide instead. Since this would be just as dirty and dangerous as hydraulic fracking, we supported legislation to ban CO2 fracking. This bill still needs to be signed by the Governor.
After major campaigns with our coalition partners, bills banning PFAS in household chemicals and the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act passed overwhelmingly in the NYS Senate. While we secured more than enough votes to pass the bills in the Assembly, Assembly leadership failed to allow the bills to come up for a vote. We’ll work to get these bills passed as soon as possible:
Victory! Suffolk County Approves Clean Water Ballot Referendum
The Suffolk County Legislature passed critical legislation that will allow Suffolk County residents to vote on a Clean Water ballot referendum this November. The initiative would create a unified wastewater management district and allow sales tax to be increased by 1/8 of one penny to create a reliable funding stream dedicated to protecting water resources by expanding and upgrading sewers and installing upgraded nitrogen-removing septic systems. This is a victory 10 years in the making! Now we need Suffolk residents to turn out to vote on clean water this year! As Newsday editorial board stated, “The stars finally are aligning for clean water in Suffolk.”
Welcome CCE’s Summer Interns
Summer is finally here! We were very excited to welcome Damaris, Jordan, Jacob, Kathleen, Omi, and Tenley, who will be interning with us this summer. In June, they headed out to several Long Island beaches and street festivals to conduct education on offshore wind. Stop by our tent for environmental updates, plus fun games and prizes all summer! See you in the sun!
Happenings
Transitioning to Offshore Wind
These were some of the big developments in June related to offshore wind development:
South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Groundbreaking – We joined NYSERDA, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and many of our Wind Works NY partners for the ground breaking on Equinor‘s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Offshore Wind Port. This is a historic milestone for the future of renewable energy in New York City. This 73-acre project will allow us to bring offshore wind energy to the NYC grid. It will provide energy to 500,000 homes and create a thousand green jobs for New Yorkers.
Learning More About Battery Energy Storage - As part of NY’s transition to renewable energy, especially offshore wind, we will need to use battery energy storage systems (BESS). These systems provide capacity that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel based generated power, thereby providing significant environmental and public health benefits. We joined our partners for a community meeting in Babylon, on Long Isand, to discuss how battery storage works and the role it plays in our renewable energy transition. We plan on having more community meetings on Long Island, so stay tuned for more info.
Global Wind Day – For Global Wind Day on June 18th, we headed down to the Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center for an educational open house on offshore wind. It was great to see many of our Wind Works NY partners and energy experts to answer the public’s questions on NY’s offshore wind projects and the benefits of offshore wind for our communities.
Sewage Solutions for Fire Island
Our Executive Director, Adrienne Esposito, presented with Cameron Engineering to the Suffolk County Legislature last month on the new Fire Island Sewage Solutions Plan. This is the first comprehensive, community-led plan that brought together federal, state, and local leaders and stakeholder organizations. We worked for the past 6 years to assess the wastewater management needs of Fire Island. Thank you to Steve Flotteron for sponsoring the project and to Suzy Lawrence Goldhirsch and the Fire Island Association for all their input, time, and expertise to create this holistic plan.
PFAS in Everyday Products
Last month we presented at the Association of Educational Safety & Health Professionals Conference on the threats of PFAS in everyday products and drinking water. PFAS is unnecessarily present in common products such as cookware, dental floss, children’s products, personal care products, ski wax and so much more. The ubiquitous use of these toxic chemicals has led to a variety of adverse human health impacts and drinking water contamination. We work to educate the public about the threats of PFAS exposure and continue to fight to ban these chemicals from the products we use every day. This remains one of our top legislative priorities.
Paying the Price: Long Island’s Stormy Future
In June, Newsday hosted “Paying the Price: Long Island’s Stormy Future” — a conversation about the status of Long Island’s shorelines and the challenges we face as a result of climate change and sea level rise. Adrienne Esposito was among the four speakers in this discussion, along with Dr Chris Gobler, Supervisor Dan Panico and Robert Larocca. Stay tuned for when the show is posted and click here for more information.
Conserving Water in the Summer Heat Wave
While facing record high temperatures around New York this June, we joined the Long Island Commission for Aquifer Protection for an event on how to conserve water to protect Long Island’s sole source aquifer and protect public health. It’s likely to be a hot summer, so check out the video to learn more.
Upcoming: Tackling Plastic Pollution for Plastic-Free July
The Long Island Sound Coastal Watershed network will be hosting our webinar “Tackling Long Island Sound Plastic Pollution: Plastic Free July”. Join us on July 16th from 12:30p.m-1:30p.m as we hear from expert Rachael Miller as she tells us more about Microplastics in the Sound. Smithtown High School Students Nicole Gullason and Natasha Mishra will discuss their research findings on Microplastics and Algal Blooms in Long Island Sound and Adrienne Esposito will discuss solutions to the plastic crisis. Register now.
Join Us: Tackling Plastic Pollution in Long Island Sound
Join us for a free “Plastic-Free July” webinar to learn about plastic pollution in Long Island Sound and how to help advance solutions!
CCE and our partners at the Coastal Watershed Network invite you to join a free Zoom webinar for Plastic-Free July to learn about newly identified microplastic “hot spots” in Long Island Sound, research related to microplastics and algal blooms, and solutions to reduce plastic pollution. Participants will hear from the experts and have the opportunity to ask questions.
Webinar details:
Date: Tuesday, July 16
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Where: Via Zoom (register here)
Speakers/Topics:
Rachael Miller, Founder of the Rozalia Project: Microplastic “Hot Spots” in Long Island Sound
Nicole Gullason and Natasha Mishra, Students at Smithtown High School West: Connection between Microplastics and Algal Blooms
Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director at Citizens Campaign for the Environment: Individual, Corporate, and Policy Solutions to Reduce Plastic Pollution in the Sound
Thank you for joining us!
Sincerely,
All of us at CCE
Protect Drinking Water from Dangerous “Forever Chemicals”
In recent years, many communities across New York State discovered their drinking water sources are contaminated with harmful PFAS chemicals. PFAS are referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are very persistent, meaning they build up in our bodies and don’t break down in the environment. New York State has taken some important steps to address PFAS, however, new science indicates that we must do more in order to protect public health from this growing threat!
What is PFAS?
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of thousands of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products for many decades, due to their non-stick, grease-resistant and waterproof properties. PFAS is used in cookware, packaging, clothing, furniture, adhesives, paint, firefighting foam, artificial turf, and other products. According to the U.S. EPA, there are 3,500 industrial sites across New York State that may be handling or using PFAS chemicals.
PFAS Pollutes our Environment and Drinking Water
Due to widespread use of PFAS chemicals in numerous products and industries, PFAS chemicals have become ubiquitous in the environment, including our soil, air, and drinking water. Testing has revealed PFAS in water sources in dozens of communities across New York State, from Western New York to Long Island.
PFAS Threatens our Health
Studies show that human exposure to PFAS is widespread and that nearly all people in the United States have some PFAS compounds in their blood. Exposure to PFAS can lead to higher rates of kidney and testicular cancer, higher cholesterol levels, thyroid problems, adverse developmental effects and decreased immune response in children, and other adverse health impacts.
EPA Indicates That There is No Safe Level of Exposure to PFAS
In 2022, based on a growing body of new science, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency updated its drinking water health advisory for two types of PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA. Drinking water health advisories indicate the amount of a chemical in drinking water that is expected to cause adverse health impacts. The EPA significantly reduced the health advisory from 70 parts per trillion (ppt) for both PFOA and PFOS down to a mere .004 ppt for PFOA and .02 ppt for PFOS. This means that there is essentially no safe level of exposure to these chemicals in our drinking water!
EPA Proposes Strong National Drinking Water Standards
In 2024, the U.S. EPA finalized a rule to establish the first nationwide enforceable limits on the amount of six highly toxic PFAS chemicals allowed in drinking water. For PFOA and PFOS, EPA adopted individual drinking water limits (known as Maximum Contaminant Levels or MCLs) of 4 ppt per chemical. For the other four PFAS (PFNA, PFBS, PFHxS, and GenX), EPA proposed an enforceable limit designed to address those chemicals’ combined effects as a mixture. While we want to ultimately eliminate PFAS in drinking water, EPA’s proposed standards represent the strongest standards that are currently technically feasible.
In 2020, New York State set MCL’s of 10 ppt for both PFOA and PFOS. While the standards were among the strongest of any state in the nation at the time, new science is clearly demonstrating that we must do more to protect clean drinking water by adopting EPA’s proposed standards. Adopting these drinking water standards will protect drinking water in New York, Connecticut, and throughout the nation and prevent thousands of premature deaths. CCE continues to advocate that New York State adopt EPA’s new standards as soon as possible.
It’s Time to Turn Off the Tap to PFAS!
As we make important progress to remove PFAS from our drinking water, it does not make sense to continue using more PFAS and allow more contamination to occur. New York must get serious about limiting further PFAS contamination by banning unnecessary uses of PFAS in products. New York has already enacted laws to limit PFAS in firefighting foam, food packaging, carpets, and apparel; however, there are numerous other products that continue to use PFAS unnecessarily. Learn more about our campaign to ban PFAS in a range of household products in New York State.
Interactive Long Island Map: Is there PFAS in Your Water?
In 2023, CCE compiled data from every Long Island water district and created an interactive map of PFAS levels in drinking water. This analysis has found that:
450,000+ Long Islanders (out of 2.7 million served by public water) have drinking water below the detection levels of 2 ppt for PFAS chemicals.
570,000+ Long Islanders’ drinking water exceeds the current standard of 10 ppt for PFOA/PFOS.
1.7+ million Long Islanders’ drinking water with PFOA/PFOS between 2ppt and 10ppt.
Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams Announce Start of Construction on Transformation of South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Into Nation’s Largest Offshore Wind Hub
City’s First Offshore Wind Transmission Connection and Port at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal to Become Staging Hub for Empire Wind 1 Project, Which Will Deliver 810 Megawatts of Renewable Electricity to New York
Expected to Create More Than 1,000 Construction Jobs at South Brooklyn Marine Terminal
Advances Progress Toward State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act Goal to Develop 9,000 Megawatts of Offshore Wind by 2035
Affordability makes its move in Albany
Daily Point
Fear stalks pols over cost-of-living burden
Election-year political fears of making any move that could hit New York taxpayers in the wallet proved decisive in crushing several big policy initiatives, as Albany’s annual legislative session ground to a quirky close on Saturday.
One surprise was the unexpected eleventh-hour death of a bill aimed at requiring large companies to decrease their millions of annual tons of packaging waste, known as the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. It passed the Senate, 37-23, along party lines but the Assembly adjourned before bringing it to a floor vote.
Want to Learn More about Battery Energy Storage?
Join us for a free community meeting on battery energy storage and its role in Long Island’s transition to renewable energy
New York is a leader in the fight against climate change, with targets of 70% renewable energy by 2030 and carbon neutral electricity by 2040. We are in the process of transitioning from polluting fossil fuels to renewable energy, including wind and solar energy.
As part of this transition, we will need to use battery energy storage systems (BESS). These systems provide capacity that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel based generated power, thereby providing significant environmental and public health benefits. They will also help stabilize the energy grid as we move towards achieving our state energy mandates, powering thousands of homes and bringing significant economic benefits to our region.
Join us and our partners to learn how large-scale battery storage works and the critical role it will play in transitioning us away from polluting fossil fuel power plants. We will have a presentation followed by a Q&A. Register here
When: Wednesday, June 26th at 7:00 pm
Where: Christ Episcopal Church, 12 Prospect Street, Babylon, NY
Thank you for joining us!
Sincerely,
All of us at CCE
PROTECT OUR GREAT LAKES!
Tell Congress to pass the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025
The Great Lakes supply millions of New Yorkers with their drinking water, provide habitat for wildlife, and support billion-dollar industries such as tourism and fishing. To help protect and restore the health of the lakes, Congress established the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) in 2010. The GLRI has funded thousands of projects to clean up the lakes—protecting drinking water, cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, and more.
Despite our progress, more work remains to protect and restore the health of our Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 will extend the successful program for another five years—authorizing $500 million annually. We need our federal representatives from New York State to fight for passage of this critical legislation as soon as possible—email your representatives today!
BACKGROUND
New York’s Great Lakes basin covers 42% of the state’s surface area—second most among all Great Lakes states
The Great Lakes are a natural wonder of the world that hold 20% of the world’s fresh water supply. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and the St. Lawrence River comprise over 700 miles of shoreline in NYS. The Great Lakes provide four million New Yorkers with drinking water and support a multibillion-dollar tourism, fishing, and recreation economy.
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
Established by Congress in 2010, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was created to fund projects to protect and restore the health of the Great Lakes—cleaning up toxic pollution, restoring important habitat, fighting invasive species, reducing pollution from farms, and more. To date, the GLRI has funded more than 7,563 individual projects totaling over $3.7 billion and has greatly improved the quality of life in the region. New York State has received over $270 million to support hundreds of restoration projects.
The GLRI is not only restoring the health of our Great Lakes, but it is also providing major economic benefits. Throughout the Great Lakes region, every dollar invested in restoration provides $3 in economic returns to the regional economy. In Buffalo, where the GLRI is supporting the cleanup of the Buffalo River and other important projects, the return is even higher—providing a 4-to-1 return on investment!
Threats to the Great Lakes Ecosystem Remain
Despite progress to protect and restore the Great Lakes in recent years, the health of Great Lakes remains threatened. Examples include:
Toxic legacy pollution: Only one of New York’s six toxic hot spots (known as Areas of Concern), which were identified back in 1987, has been cleaned up.
Invasive species: Invasive carp sit on the doorstep of the Great Lakes. If established in the lakes, they would decimate the ecosystem and the multibillion-dollar fishing industry.
Emerging Contaminants: Emerging toxic pollutants, such as PFAS “forever chemicals,” are being found in Great Lakes waters and contaminating drinking water.
Congress Must Continue Progress to Restore the Great Lakes
The GLRI program is authorized through 2026, and unless action is taken by Congress, the program will expire in 2027. Recently introduced in the Congress, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 would reauthorize the GLRI program for an additional five years. The GLRI Act of 2025 would provide $500 million annually, from 2027-2031.
Thank you for taking action.
Sincerely,
All of Us at CCE
Sweeping measure on packaging recycling advances in New York State Legislature
Fear stalks pols over cost-of-living burden
Brookhaven to receive $1M to end lawsuit filed over ash dumped at town landfill
Glick Bill Banning Taking Horseshoe Crabs Passes Assembly
Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick, 66th Assembly District Manhattan, announced today the passage of her legislation A.10140 to prohibit the harvesting of horseshoe crabs from the waters of New York.
Under this bill, no horseshoe crab may be taken in the state, including for commercial or biomedical purposes – unless the taking is for a bona fide educational or research purpose as approved by the Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner.
2024 New York State Legislative Session Wraps Up
We’re celebrating major victories—while continuing to fight to address unfinished business
This past weekend, the New York State legislature finished up the 2024 legislative session, which began back in January. Thanks to your support, we led successful efforts to protect clean water, safeguard the public from toxic chemicals, save vulnerable species, fight climate change, save taxpayers money, and more.
The Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, which will allow a Suffolk County ballot referendum to allow the creation of a fund to upgrade sewers and septic systems in order to protect clean water, is a priority bill that passed and was signed into law by the Governor.
While the following bills still need to be signed by the Governor to become law, passing these important bills in NYS Senate and Assembly is a major accomplishment:
✔ Horseshoe Crab Protection Act: While horseshoe crabs have been around for over 350 million years, having survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, their numbers are now dwindling due to overharvesting. Not only is this a problem for this keystone species, but also the threatened and endangered bird species that depend upon horseshoe crab eggs for survival, such as the Red Knot. We led efforts to get legislation passed that will ban harvesting of these crabs for commercial and biomedical purposes.
✔ Climate Superfund Act: We know that the burning of fossil fuels is causing the climate crisis, yet fossil fuel companies have not taken responsibility for the damage this is causing, until now. Rather than forcing taxpayers to pay for damage, this legislation will hold these corporations accountable—fossil fuel companies will pay into a fund that will help New York adapt to climate change. It would generate about $3 billion annually to fund projects to keep communities safe from flooding, protect vulnerable infrastructure, pay for damage from extreme weather, and much more.
✔ Ban on Fracking with CO2: While we fought to ban dangerous fracking that uses water to extract gas (hydraulic fracking) years ago, there was interest in circumventing the ban by extracting gas using carbon dioxide instead. Since this would be just as dirty and dangerous as hydraulic fracking, we supported legislation to ban CO2 fracking.
Unfinished Business
While we successfully advocated to pass some critical bills, other priority bills didn’t make it past the finish line. After major campaigns by CCE and our coalition partners, the following bills passed overwhelmingly in the NYS Senate. While we secured more than enough votes to pass the bills in the Assembly, Assembly leadership failed to allow the bills to come up for a vote. We’ll work to get these bills passed as soon as possible, which may be a special session later this year or next legislative session:
Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act: This groundbreaking legislation would reduce wasteful plastic packaging by 30%, while also increasing recycling, banning toxic chemicals in packaging, and saving local taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. This is the most important thing we can do to help solve our solid waste crisis in NYS, and we won’t stop until we get this bill passed into law!
Ban on PFAS in Household Products: This legislation would ban the use of harmful PFAS “forever chemicals” in products that New Yorkers use every day, including children’s products, cleaning products, rugs, ski wax, and more. Not only would this reduce our daily exposure to these dangerous chemicals, but it would also reduce the amount of PFAS chemicals that are polluting our environment and our water supplies throughout the state.
Let’s Not Forget Our Success in the State Budget!
While it was passed a couple months back, we can’t forget what we accomplished in this year’s state budget. After a proposal to cut clean water funding by 50%, we successfully led efforts to have full funding restored in the final budget at $500 million. This will ensure that we continue progress to stop sewage overflows into our waterways, remove toxic contaminants from drinking water, replace dangerous lead drinking water pipes, and more!
The NYS Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) was also at risk of being cut, and we worked with our partners to ensure program funding was fully restored to $400 million. We worked to ensure that priority programs within the EPF, including those that help to protect and restore our Great Lakes, ocean, and South Shore Estuary Reserve, were fully funded and not cut.
These bills and budget priorities represent just some of what CCE worked on throughout the legislative session. Visit our website for more information on our 2024 NYS legislative agenda.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
All of us at CCE
Governor Hochul Announces the Finalization of New Contracts for Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind
Once in Operation in 2026, Offshore Wind Projects Will Be the Largest Power Generation Projects in New York State in Over 35 Years
Supports Progress Towards Achievement of the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act Goal for 9,000 Megawatts of Offshore Wind by 2035
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the finalization of new contracts for Empire Wind 1, a planned 810-megawatt project (developed by Equinor), and Sunrise Wind, a planned 924-megawatt project (developed by Ørsted and Eversource) as the result of New York’s fourth offshore wind solicitation. The two offshore wind projects, totaling over 1,700 megawatts, will produce enough clean energy to power over one million New York homes and will be the largest power generation projects in New York State in over 35 years once they enter operation in 2026. Today’s announcement is part of New York’s 10-Point Action Plan to support the growing large-scale renewable energy industry, and represents progress toward the achievement of the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) goal to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035.
