Bethpage-Tribune_1971-07-15

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Island Trees Serving Beth page - Plainview - Island Trees - Plainedge - Seaford Old Bethpage
Vol. 5 No. 36 Thursday, July 15, 1971 10c per copy
Ph0to8-ln-The-News | Conservationists Against
Offshore Oil Developers
The Bethpage Fire Department
answered a call Wednesday night
at 8:40 to put out a fire at 102
Benkert Street.
The fire burned out the interior
of the La Concha Beauty Salon
and considerably damaged the
building which also housed a
Laundremat and a dental
turned In by
Patrolman Jacobs of the 8th
Precinct.
Rev. Robert Gutheil, candidate for the Democratic
nomination for Supervisor of Oyster Bay, turns his
headquarters at 268 N. Broadway, Hicksville, over to
his young campaign workers for a party to celebrate
ratification of the 26th amendment, giving 18-21 year
olds the right to vote. Gutheil announced that his staff
would be providing transportation from the Hicksville
headquarters to the Board of elections in Mineola for
young people who have not yet registered.
Island Trees Budget Revote
July 27; Trustee Resigns
district schools during business
hours on July 19, 1971.
Registration for voting is on July
The Island Trees Board of
Education voted to resubmit the
Budget for a revote on July 27,
1971 at a special meeting held on
Monday night.
The purpose of the new vote is
for the "benefit of the students,"
quoted a spokesman of the Board.
The trustees are confident that
the budget can be reduced
without hurting the educational
program and give the students
their transportation to school as
well as their athletic programs.
Some "belt tightening" will be
necessary, the spokesman stated.
Copies of the budget will be
available to the public at all
20, 1971 from 1-9 p.m.
There will be a Special Meeting
of the Board of Education of the
Island Trees Public School
District No. 26, Monday, July
•19th, 1971 at 8:30 p.m. in the
Michael F. Stokes School, Condor
Road and Owl Place, Levittown.
In other action, trustee
Lawrence Zeis submitted his
resignation, effective im­mediately,
after the meeting. He
gave business reasons (his em­ployer
is transferring him out of
Levittown) for his resignation.
"Long Island from Montauk to
Rockaway Point could have a
solid string of ghost
beaches...part of an ugly stain
stretching from Cape Cod to Cape
Hatteras."
That was the warning issued as
three veteran L.I. con­servationists
announced a battle
to prevent and Atlantic coast
disaster. Their concern over
hazards posed by offshore oil
drilling prompted the formation
of the Committee for Resource
Management to prevent an east
coast occurrence of catastrophes
which have struck. other U.S.
shorelines.
Robert Howard, of Southamp­ton,
co-chairman of the new
group, a director or the Suffolk
Federation of Sportsman's Clubs
and former official of the Suffolk
Conservation Council, said, "Our
concern is not only over, scenic
-andrecreational loss of beaches
and property but equally the risk
to our multi-billion dollar sport
and commercial fin and shellfish
industries."
Howard said that Thomas
Macres, Jr., of Patchogue, a
longtime battler for conservation
and former vice president of the
N.Y. State Conservation Council,
and Peter Clark, of Sag Harbor,
author and conservationist, had
joined him to organize the new
anti oil-pollution group.
Asked if he thought there was a
chance no oil would be found
along the coast, Howard said,
"These people ...the oil interests
..wouldn't have spent four
years..and millions of dollars...as
we kpow they have...if oil weren't
there. It is and now they plan to
drill...they've asked for leases."
Howard brushed aside
assurances of rigid control of­fered
by Interior Department as
meaningless. "They told us", he
said, "in September of 1969 that
new tougher orders then would
protect our resources and the
interests of all the people. Six
months later came the
disasterous Gulf coast oil spills.
The assurances of regulatory
agencies are suspect, not for lack
of intergrity, but because of
continued adherence to an out­moded
concept if a mineral
resource exists, it must be ex­ploited."
Macres pointed out that oil
exploitation along the Atlantic
coast would engender problems
far greater than those ex­perienced
on the Gulf and Pacific
coasts. "Can you imagine", he
asked, "the catastrophic effect of
thousands of barrels of oil en­tering
our. tidal wetlands,
described as 'the best in the
world*. The loss would be in­calculable.
Such a disaster could forever
destroy spawning arid nursery
areas for many important
species of fin fish; torn cod,
striped bass, and fluke to name
only a few. Migratory waterfowl
would be denied vital remaining
feeding and resting areas. And
shellfish, too...Great South Bay
alone produces 40 per cent of the
nation's clams."
Macres scored the Interior
Department for granting the oil
consortium exploration permits
"in the face of the past record so
vivid in everyone's mind. For the
presently unneeded economic
benefit of one industry...there are
today many other sources of
oil...we are asked to assume
known and even admitted risks to
a multibillion dollar complex of
industries; our sport and com­mercial
fishery, boating,
tourism, and others.
The aggregate of our shoreline
and marine oriented industries
represents hundreds of billions of*
dollars; tens of billions of man
and recreation hours. All would
be endangered. It is poor en­vironmental
policy, it is poor
economic policy...In fact, at this
time, it is damned foolish", he
declared.
"The drilling platforms",
Macres said, "which would
sprout like mushrooms after a
summer rain...morsels to the oil
interests...are in reality
'destroying angels' which would
poison our natural treasures. In
the absence of proven
safeguards...and to date we have
seen none that are effective...we
cannot permit such risk. We shall
fight with every legal means
available to us. Our irreplacable
jewels...our beaches and bays,
our wetlands...must not be traded
off for the sake of short-term
corporate profit."
Peter Clark, active in the East
Hampton Preservation Society,
said the Committee for Resource
Management is seeking
dedicated supporters and funds
in order to have a "fighting
chance" against the powerful oil
lobby.
"There are millions of dollars
of potential profit involved.", he
said, "We have no reason to
assume they will willingly ac­cede.
We are launching an im­mediate
effort to recruit aid not
only from conservation oriented
groups but also from typically
concerned citizens everywhere.
The battle will likely be long and
costly. It can...indeed it must...be
won."
Clark said that individuals and
organizations seek-information
regarding participation in the
new group or wishing to make
contributions should write to:
Committee for Resource
Management, 129 Prince Street,
Te!e^OT^Mo^§^^drWe^283-
3423
The three conservationists;
Howard, Clark, and Macres;
have had a long background in
this area. Their investigations
two years ago led to initial
disclosure of the ongoing oil
explorations. At the time, oil
companies participating in the
consortium and even the Interior
Department which had issued the
required permits, brazenly
denied knowledge of the search.
The efforts of the three led not
only to reluctant admissions by
government and industry but also
to disclosure of a then "secret"
oil refinery proposed for Long
Island. As a direct result of
peremature disclosure it was
possible to mount a campaign to
reject the unwanted facility.
Foes Join To Fight Oil Slicks
- The Long Island Lighting
Company and the thirty-nine
member Long Island Oil Ter­minals
Association announced
theis week that they have
developed a joint program to add
further protection to Long
Island's shoreline environment.
The arch competitors for Long
Island's heating market stated
that they were making their
combined knowledge, skills, and
equipment available for use by
member firms, and communities
or municipalities who might have
need to cope with oil in their
harbor or bay waters, no matter
wht the source might be.
LILCO and LIOTA, as an
exampleliave in excess of 12-.000
feet of U.S. Coast Guard ap­proved
boom barrier
strategically located in Nassau
and Suffolk harbors having an oil
terminal or a LILCO generating
plant. A boom barrier is a
floating device which is deployed
to surround and contain an oil
spill.
Otherprecautionary equipment
on. hand include skimmers (a
floating mechanism which
pumps the oil off the water into
holding tanks or back into a
barge) and absorbants, used to
soak up the remaining oil residue
from the water.
While the U.S. Coast Guard has
urisdiction and authority to
contain and clean up oil spills,
LILCO and LIOTA's co-op
program is designed to allow
immediate action to be taken
without waiting for the Coast
Guard to arrive at the scene.
Speaking on behalf of their
respective industries, Charles R.
Pierce, Senior Vice President of
LILCO and Joseph G. Shapiro,
Vice President of Commander Oil
and Ecology Chairman of the
Long Island Oil Terminals
Association, stated, "We might
have differences of opinion as to
what fuel heats best, but we do
agree on the environmental
program and procedures we have
jointly developed to protect the'
shores of Long Island." «L