The Department of State has withdrawn its appeal challenging the decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the Electric Boat matter, which authorized the Electric Boat Corporation’s proposed open water disposal of dredged materials at the Eastern Long Island Sound Disposal Site (ELDS).  While the Department maintains NOAA ignored its own regulations and precedent in order to allow this disposal at ELDS to take place, the Department will withdraw and retain its options to revisit these issues in the future. 

Through this withdrawal, the Department chooses instead to focus its energy on addressing the continuing need for Connecticut and the federal agencies who lead the Long Island Sound Steering Committee -- the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers(Army Corps) -- to identify, plan for, and develop alternatives to the continuous dumping of contaminated dredged materials into Long Island Sound.   The environmental harms caused by open water disposal have both immediate and far-reaching effects on the health of the people and ecosystems who depend on Long Island Sound. The Sound is an estuary of national significance whose environmental and economic resources should be supported, not disregarded for short-term savings.  

New York urges the EPA and the Army Corps to focus their efforts on reducing or eliminating the open water disposal of dredged material in Long Island Sound, in accordance with the federal regulations designating all three open water disposal sites in Long Island Sound. Those  regulations, promulgated in 2015 and 2016, require the reduction of open water disposal over time, which will not be possible without the development of viable alternatives. Therefore, New York further urges the EPA and the Army Corps to fulfill their obligation to work with New York and Connecticut to establish a roadmap toward this goal by immediately convening a meeting of the Steering Committee to actively pursue and develop alternatives to the dumping of dredged materials in the Sound.  

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