The-Leader_1972-01-20

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FREEPORT>NEW YORK,THURSDAY, JANUARY 20; 1972 PRICE: TEN CENTS PER COPY
"WETPORr' SIZE AND LOCATION GRAPHICALLY SHOWN: The illustration above, exerpted from
the study prepared for the Federal Aviation Administration, graphically ihowi the tize and location
of tiie proposed facility, which Congressman Norman Lent, In revealing the study, has called a
gargantuan ectrfogical imbroglio."
STREET SCENE: Mayor Robert J. Sweeney accepts l i n t ticket! to Freeport Community
Chorale's piroduction of "Street Scene" from Connie Briel and Betty Guilota. The show
by Kurt Weil will be presented at the Freeport High School on Friday and Saturday e¥en<
ings February 11th and 12 at 8:30 P.M. Ticketi may be had from any membrr of the cast,
also FrJEieport Florist and Village Book and Gift Shop.
Photo by Oscar's Studio
Calling it a "drawing board monstrosity" Congressman
Norman F. Lent has sharply criticized the first phase of
a two-part study authorized by the Federal Aviation
Administration on the feasibility of locating a 4th New
York area jetport in Atlantic Ocean waters off Long
Island's South Shore.
After an in-depth study of t|ie three volume report,
the 5th District Representative attended a meeting late
last week in the eastern regional offices of the FAA at
Kennedy International Airport, and called for a halt to
further work on the proposal.
The wetport feasibility report prepared by Saphier,
Lerner Schindler Environetics, studied several sites in the
metropolitan area for possible use as a wetport location,
mcluding Long Island Scpnd and an area off Sandy Hook,
New Jersey, hut settled on one 3 1/2 miles south of
the City of Long Beach.
Said Congressman Lent^ *'210,000 of the taxpayei^*
.mjmejr^-Jhaft;;,t«^:^ i a •' propdsal
•sultihg-'ftriifr"by'^thrTAA,"wiiici-^^^
bility of an off-shore location for the much-needed
airport, but, he continued, "this report has instead
offered up a gargantuan ecological imbroglio, incoqjo-rating
a super-sized nuclear power plant and sewage
treatment facility designed io handle an eventual daily
transient population of one million pe<»ple. and a deep-water
supertanker port for oil, liquified natural gas and
jet fuel big enough to support the petroleum needs of the
entire northeastern region of the Untied Slates." "fhe
Congressman continued, "The real shocker is thai this
facility would be located just 3 1/2 miles off the shore of
Long Beach on a 32 square mile platform that would be
geographically six times larger than Ihe CtJy of Long
Beach itself!"
The entire deep-water port and jcl platform would be
protected from the ocean by a twelve mile long breakwaler
that would effectively create what LenI lias lermed a
"Dead Sea" in the waters right off one of Long Island's
most popular recreational beaches, stretching from Hemp­stead
Town Beach at Point Lookout to Rockaway Beach,
Designed to serve 300 million anticipated jet-borne
travelers a year and a work force of up to 150,000
people by the time it became fully operational, the
proposal suggested that the wetport would be reached
exclusively by rail, yet the consultants never contacted
the MTA to determine whetlier that was possible. MTA
representatives at the high-level meeting claimed it was
out of the question, citing tliat the anticipated paanenger
volume was ten times the number currently served by the
entu-e Long Island Railroad system.
'*The consultants have proposed a new Long Island off
the coast of Long Island," continued the Congressman,"
. . .the cost of which could run as higli as 40 billion doliarf»,
and have established a setting for this architectural pipe-dream
so close to already noise-harried Long Island Uiat
it wouldn't solve the noise problem anyway, while dumping
up to 41,000 tons of pollutants Into the air over our
coastline each year."
Congr^sman Lent concluded, "I believe that the wct-
' J ' * T £ 0 " ^ P * might remain as the only viable solution to
fd0.tJ%-4l {^iBjfx^t needs, but tlie proposal advanced thus
Inued on Page 10)
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