Mr. Gerry Barnhart, Director of DEC’s Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Marine Resources, gave an overview of the Governor’s budget proposals. State funding for the DEC will increase by $917,000 over last year, enough to compensate for inflation and maintain current operations and staffing. There may be some growth in natural resource damages claims for PCB contamination of the Hudson River by General Electric facilities. Nine people will be working on this; success would mean a multi-million dollar restoration fund to deal with this contamination. Clean water projects to be funded under the Bond Act will receive an additional $50 million in this year’s budget, bringing the total available under the Long Island Sound Comprehensive Management Plan to $84.2 million. Priorities are waste-water treatment facility upgrades, non-point source pollution abatement, and aquatic habitat restoration. Habitat restoration in New York Harbor will receive $2 million this year, bringing the total available to $20 million. The Hudson River Bond Act clean water projects will receive an additional $4 million for a total of $14.6 million. Clean water projects in the Peconic Bays and South Shore Estuary area are in for $7 million, for a total available of $14.5 million. Major environmental projects have two programs: the Clean Air Clean Water Bond Act of 1996 and the Environmental Protection Fund, which is a continuing stream of revenue derived largely from the real estate transfer tax. The Governor has proposed fully funding that at $125 million, including $12 million to implement the Hudson River Estuary Management Plan, $2 million for Oyster Bay Waterfront Revitalization Plan implementation, and $275,000 for the South Shore Estuary Reserve. The Governor is proposing $1.6 million for funding a training academy to bring the Environmental Conservation Officers and Forest Rangers up to full staff.

In response to Councilor Schwab’s question, Mr. Barnhart explained that the NY/NJ Harbor and Estuary Comprehensive Management Plan was created by DEC, EPA, and New Jersey DEP to deal with contaminant clean up, habitat restoration, and water quality improvement. There is interaction between this plan and the US Army Corps of Engineers proposed Dredged Material Management Plan for the harbor. Mr. Colvin added that, like the Long Island Sound Study, the NY/NJ Harbor Comprehensive Management Plan is a bi-state federal program for the harbor. Long Island Sound’s principal problem was hypoxia; in New York Harbor, sediment contamination is the major issue. So the focus is on reducing toxic loads in the harbor sediments and biota. This dovetails with what New York and New Jersey governors are planning for future dredging management in the harbor.