The Connecticut delegation sent a letter yesterday to Lieutenant General Tom Bostick, Commanding General and Chief of Engineers, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in support of the recently-released Draft Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) and Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Long Island Sound.
“ As representatives from Connecticut, a state with 332 miles of coastline, coves, and harbors on Long Island Sound, we applaud the Army Corps for identifying new environmentally sound alternatives for the handling of dredging materials, such as beach nourishment and wetlands restoration… ,” the letter stated.
“In addition to the critical goal of protecting the Long Island Sound, access to a range of dredged material placement options is absolutely vital to our state’s economy – and that of the entire Long Island Sound region…If this dredging plan does not move forward, it is estimated that the region will see a fifteen percent dip in navigation-dependent economic activity revenue in the next two decades, and significant – and perhaps prohibitive – increases in costs for the private, commercial and federal stakeholders ,” the delegation wrote.
The Army Corps of Engineers opened a public comment period on the DMMP in August, extending through October 5th.
The full text of the letter