NRDC Taps Coalition


A letter from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) asked the HPCC to provide information on local environmental conditions. The NRDC has joined Save the Sound, and the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, to specifically address the region's environmental problems that affect Long Island Sound. With the help of community groups, they plan to "issue Municipal Report Cards on environmental practices for municipalities bordering Long Island Sound."

In response to the NRDC request, the HPCC gave failing grades to the Empire State Development Corporation, the City and State of New York, as well as the Port Authority of NY & NJ. Stressing the need for reducing non-point sources of pollution to the Long Island Sound, Ms. Cuminale said that "the natural surface and wetland vegetation have been replaced by concrete."

The Coalition emphasized the need for the rehabilitation of mixed-use and industrial waterfront communities, but encouraged this be done in a way that would use natural systems and technology to abate non-point sources of pollution. "Communities must be engaged, and advocacy should be available to those communities which do not have the resources to make the difference on their own."

NRDC's Dare Fuller said the Coalition's information was "helpful in alerting which needs should be addressed and pointing in a direction that otherwise might not have been looked at."

Report cards will be out in August.

Back to The View - Volume 4 Number 1

To contact the Hunters Point Community Coalition
Call or write:

Hunters Point Community Coalition
P.O. Box 1276
Long Island City, NY 11101
718-472-4260

Last Update: June 1997