Lawmakers, coalition fight to block sale of Plum Island

Lawmakers, coalition fight to block sale of Plum Island | iNFOnews.ca
FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2010, file photo, Adrienne Esposito, left, director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and Stella Miller, president of the Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society, look over the beach from the top of an old battery, previously used for defense, on Plum Island in New York. Lawmakers in Connecticut and New York are moving in September 2018 to block the sale of Plum Island, the latest effort to block private development on the former germ warfare testing site in Long Island Sound that is also a habitat for over 200 bird species. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

HARTFORD, Conn. – Lawmakers from New York and Connecticut have joined environmental groups in ramping up efforts to block the federal government from selling a mysterious piece of land in Long Island Sound that for years housed an animal disease research facility.

The lawmakers penned a letter this week asking Congress not to provide funding for the marketing or sale of Plum Island. The island is also home to endangered birds, turtles and other animals.

The federal General Service Administration is charged with selling the island to help fund a new bio-research centre in Kansas. It’s agreed to postpone the sale until it conducts a second environmental impact study.

The Preserve Plum Island Coalition, which includes more than 100 groups, says it will bring stakeholders together later this year to come up with an alternative conservation plan.

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