Brownfield cleanup studies on state's chopping block

BY DANIEL WAGNER

First published in Newsday, April 9, 2008

State lawmakers are poised to cut most of the funding for a popular program that has helped struggling communities like Wyandanch, New Cassel and Huntington Station assess environmentally damaged areas and attract developers to revitalize them.

"Cutting a program like this is just going to disproportionately hurt minority communities that have traditionally had more environmental degradation," said Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone, who has used Brownfields Opportunity Area grants to do environmental studies on Wyandanch to "get us close to the redevelopment phase."

Under the proposed state budget that is likely to be adopted in coming days, the program's annual allocation will be cut from $12.75 million to $2.75 million. Republican lawmakers argued -- and Gov. David Paterson agreed -- that most of the funds were not being spent, so the program was ripe for a reduction.

But supporters, including community-planning advocates and Assembly Democrats, have argued that the program is crucial for revitalizing communities with extensive environmental contamination.

Val Washington, deputy commissioner for remediation and materials management with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said some spending had been delayed because the then-necessary legislative approval process for the most recent round of grants had taken 18 months, until March.

"It's like the government strangled this program, and now they're complaining that it stopped moving," she said.

But Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset), who chairs the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee and who last year held a public hearing on brownfield cleanup programs, defended the reduction in funding, saying the $10 million is "money unspent and unallocated and not likely to be spent in the near future."

He blamed the DEC and the Department of State, which jointly administer the program, for "dropping the ball"

Assemb. Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst), chair of the Assembly Environmental Committee, said the Assembly had opposed the cut. "They were looking for every nickel that wasn't nailed down and that money was too tempting for them to resist," he said. ". . . I don't want these environmental programs to be viewed as a pot of money that can be grabbed and used for non-environmental purposes."

Both Sweeney and Marcellino said they intend to propose comprehensive changes to the state's brownfields programs before the end of the current legislative session.

Long Island developer Michael Posillico said Brownfields Opportunity Area-funded studies can help attract private developers to communities in need, although the studies and limited cleanup money provided by grants are not enough to ensure development. Posillico has not been involved in developing such areas but is applying for tax incentives for a residential development in Island Park.

A spokesman for Gov. Paterson said the governor "would have preferred" to maintain current funding levels but that "given the budet problems, adjustments had to be made."

The Department of State did not return calls seeking comment.