Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Ida and Eddie and Christine speaking out about pipeline project/metering station at Floyd Bennett



Two must reads:

Over at The City Birder blog, where Ida Sanoff speaks not only about why both the pipeline and the metering station are bad ideas for the national park that contains Floyd Bennett Field and the surrounding environment, but also about how slick (and quiet) some of the first public meetings by Williams, National Grid and National Parks were last week. It's worth a read and I cannot add anymore to what this smart woman has said other than to share two questions and answers I got at the meeting. I asked a Williams Rep before leaving  when there would be a more formal presentation on the project in a proper forum where all who attend could hear the questions being raised and answered instead of quiet one-on-one conversations at small tables like at a trade show (which is what the meeting at Floyd Bennett felt like to me). The answer was that the only formal presentations and public outreach currently scheduled by Williams (Transco) will be at the Jamaica Bay Task Force meeting in June and to two local neighborhood boards. If that is true, then these meetings will be important ones to attend. One would think it might be important for the public to learn about the project and voice their concerns in a way that all present can hear before the Senate decides to move in any way on the bill that will authorize this project. One of the other questions I asked Williams representatives was whether or not the legislation that would authorize building and operating the metering station in hangars at Floyd Bennett would be precedent setting and this was a question that could not be answered. I haven't been able to find any evidence of legislation passed to authorize building such a facility on National Park land before, but my research and knowledge on the topic was not and is not exhaustive.

And over at the Brooklyn Daily fellow FBGA gardeners and neighbors Eddie and Christine voice their concerns.

There's hope yet. There is opposition.

Link to my pipeline posts here

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