More New and Significant Information

On Monday, Cheryl Roberts indicated that the discovery in May by the South Bay Task Force of two species of aquatic fauna--the American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) and the Blueback Herring (Alosa aestivalis)--was one of the things that had delayed revisions to the GEIS and LWRP. Roberts reported that those discoveries were determined to be neither new nor significant.

Undaunted, the South Bay Task Force sent notification yesterday to the Common Council, as SEQR lead agency, and the Department of State, Division of Coastal Resources, of another discovery in South Bay: the Spongy Arrowhead (Sagittaria montevidensis var. spongiosa), an annual plant that is a New York State Threatened Species. The memo annnouncing the discovery concludes: "Whether or not the Draft GEIS should have been more specific as to the terms of the proposed conditional use permitting requirements for activities in the South Bay area, the vagueness of the terms as presented in the Final GEIS is a serious inadequacy, and a liability for the document. This becomes more apparent and urgent while new rare species continue to be found in South Bay. (Plant species such as the Spongy Arrowhead are identifiable only late in the growing season.) . . . We trust that the SEQR Lead Agency will appreciate the magnitude of yet another NYS Threatened species being present in the South Bay, and that both agencies will revisit the issue [of] all of the South Bay's rare flora and fauna before issuing their Findings Statements."