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| Proposed Long Island Rail-Truck Intermodal Project Divides Environmental Groups - Read More - Page 4 |
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| Features - Features | |||||||
| Written by Stuart Vincent | |||||||
| Monday, 29 June 2009 13:46 | |||||||
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That property is also part of an important state designated groundwater recharge area, he said. “It’s a very environmentally significant property. When the DOT proposed to asphalt over 80-90 acres of the site; we said ‘You’re taking away all that groundwater recharge.’” Also, since being declared surplus land by the state, there has been significant regrowth of vegetation on the site, he noted. Part of Johnson’s 1986 legislation creating the preserve states that any surplus state property contiguous to the preserve that has shown such regeneration should be added to the preserve. Already lost to development was a chunk of the property that was sold off to developer Gerald Wolkoff under the administration of Governor George Pataki, which is now the Heartland Industrial Park. Wolkoff recently unveiled plans for Heartland Town Square, described as a “mini-city”, on another piece of former hospital land, a 476-acre parcel north of both the preserve and the intermodal site next to the Long Island Expressway. Burkhart and Byrne have led state officials on numerous tours of the preserve and the intermodal site to prove that regeneration is taking place on the intermodal site. One of their destinations is a series of sewer lagoons, or leeching fields, which were used to treat wastewater from the hospitals. In operation until the early 90s, leeching fields located on the preserve and also on the intermodal site now have pitch pines, grasses, wildflowers and moss growing up through the sand and gravel that cover the basins. “A third grader can see that these are regenerating. It’s not rocket science,” Burkhart said as she led a tour of the Edgewood preserve and intermodal site. “None of the trees growing in the leeching fields were planted.” Burkhart, who has organized local scouting troops and other volunteers to clean and maintain the preserve, said the intermodal facility would have a devastating affect on both the wildlife in and the use of the preserve. “When you consider just the light pollution because the bays they would need for these cranes to unload those big rail cars onto the trucks [are] so high that the lights would have to be higher to clear them, much higher than normal parking lot lighting,” she said as she led another visitor along the preserve’s hiking trails. “And no amount of down-lighting [covers over the tops of the light] is going to keep that glare from going into the preserve and it would have a devastating impact on the wildlife because wildlife needs darkness to mate, to hunt.” Burkhart points out trail markers along paths that have been cleaned and maintained by volunteers for hikers and mountain bikers. She explains how the scrub oaks grow thickly beneath the towering pitch pines, the two plants together giving this habitat its distinctive features. She points to bat boxes and barn owl boxes erected high up on polls with the help of the Deer Park Fire Department to attract back to the site creatures that formerly took up residence in abandoned hospital buildings that have since been demolished. Above, a red-tail hawk circled, looking for its next meal. “Who would want to come to a preserve with kids and scouts when you have this truck-train facility right next to it?” she asks. |
