New York City Insider: Espaillat, Pascrell Lead Push to Deliver $1.2M for Hudson Raritan Estuary.

 

PRESS RELEASE For Immediate Release January 31, 2022

Espaillat, Pascrell Lead Push to Deliver $1.2M for Hudson Raritan Estuary. Members Urge Leadership to Support Critical Funding to Strengthen Estuaries, Restore Wetland Habitats. WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representatives Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) and Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09) led 17 of their colleagues in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, and Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy expressing strong support for the $1.2M dollars allocated for the Hudson Raritan Estuary (HRE) efforts in the FY 2022 Energy and Water Senate Bill, and urging for this funding to be included in the final FY 2022 final conference agreement.  “New York and New Jersey have suffered from historic levels of flooding and storm surges over the past few decades. Restoring these wetlands will help mitigate flooding and storm surge, as well prevent erosion, ensure adequate groundwater levels and base flow, assimilate nutrients, and protect drinking water sources,” said Rep. Espaillat (NY-13). “By passing this $1.2 million in funding here in the House, we can help catapult countless projects that will undoubtedly improve wildlife quality of life, as well as mitigate damages to human infrastructure – here in New York City, and across all of the tri-state area.” “As the impact of climate change grows, we must prepare our tristate communities for greater and more frequent extreme weather events,” said Rep. Pascrell. “This bit of funding to safeguard the Hudson Raritan Estuary will go a long way to preventing flooding and erosion bedeviling our region. It is a small investment in our collective future.”   With House passage of this $1.2 million in funding for the HRE program, the following projects will be able to move forward: Bronx Zoo and Stone Mill Dam (New York’s 13th, 14th, and 16th Congressional Districts) Stony Creek Marsh Island in Jamaica Bay (New York’s 5th and 8th Congressional Districts) Flushing Creek (New York’s 6th Congressional District) Lower Passaic River (New Jersey’s 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Congressional District) Hackensack Meadowlands (New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District) Oysters at Naval Station Earle in Lower Bay (New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District)  In addition to Representatives Espaillat and Pascrell, Jr., this letter was also signed by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (NY-10), Frank Pallone (NJ-06), Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09), Ritchie Torres (NY-15), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Grace Meng (NY-06), Mondaire Jones (NY-17), Albio Sires (NJ-08), Gregory W. Meeks (NY-05), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Donald Payne, Jr. (NJ-10), Tom Suozzi (NY-03), Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12), Tom Malinowski (NJ-07), Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D. (NY-16), and Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08).  You can read the full text of the letter HERE and below: Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, Chair DeLauro, and Chair Leahy, Thank you for your leadership and work to advance appropriations bills through regular order for the 2022 fiscal year. We write this letter to express our strong support for the $1.2M dollars allocated for the Hudson Raritan Estuary (HRE) efforts in the FY 2022 Energy and Water Senate Bill and report language accompanying the House bill. These efforts will strength the estuary and restore wetland habitats. As you know, New York City and New Jersey have suffered from historic levels of flooding and storm surges over the past few decades. Restoring these wetlands will help mitigate flooding and storm surge, as well prevent erosion, ensure adequate groundwater levels and base flow, assimilate nutrients, and protect drinking water sources. By passing the $1.2 million in funding in the Senate’s Energy and Water Bill for the HRE program, we can help catapult the following projects forward: Bronx Zoo and Stone Mill Dam (New York’s 13th, 14th, and 16th Congressional Districts) Stony Creek Marsh Island in Jamaica Bay (New York’s 5th and 8th Congressional Districts) Flushing Creek (New York’s 6th Congressional District) Lower Passaic River (New Jersey’s 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Congressional District) Hackensack Meadowlands (New Jersey’s 9th Congressional District) Oysters at Naval Station Earle in Lower Bay (New Jersey’s 6th Congressional District) These projects will provide the New York and New Jersey harbor area with enormous benefits that will improve wildlife quality of life, as well as mitigate damages to human infrastructure. The goals of these projects are to restore approximately 381 acres of estuarine wetland habitat, 50 acres of freshwater riverine wetland habitat, and 27 acres of coastal and maritime forest habitat. In addition to this, a total of 1.6 miles of stream banks and 72 acres of stream beds and channels would be restored. If passed into law, the HRE funding will allow for the rehabilitation of 39 acres of shallow water habitat, 52 acres of oyster habitat, the inclusion of two fish ladders to re-introduce and expand fish passages and control the flow rate volume along particularly the Bronx River. This investment holds long-term benefits and prevents large-scale degradation in the HRE. The result of these investments will cause drastic improvement to the anadromous fish population by improving quantity, but also expanding quality of habitat and life. In addition, these investments provide long term sediment stabilization while also reigning in shoreline erosion, which is crucial to New York and New Jersey’s ability to mitigate flooding and habitat destruction along our rivers.  Overall, this funding is crucial to the viability and sustainability of the Hudson Raritan Estuary, and necessary to the long-term safety of constituents of New Jersey’s 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th and New York’s 5th, 6th, 8th, 13th, 14th, and 16th Districts, along with those in neighboring Districts. That is why we are urging you to include the Senate FY 2022 Energy and Water $1.2M dollars allocated for the Hudson Raritan Estuary and the House report language in the final FY 2022 final conference agreement. Thank you for your consideration of this request.  Sincerely, Representative Espaillat is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and his congressional district includes Harlem, East Harlem, West Harlem, Hamilton Heights, Washington Heights, Inwood, Marble Hill and the north-west Bronx. First elected to Congress in 2016, Representative Espaillat is serving his third term in Congress. Representative Espaillat currently serves as a member of the influential U.S. House Committee on Appropriations responsible for funding the federal government’s vital activities. He is also a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), where he serves in a leadership role as the Second Vice Chair and is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, where he serves as Deputy Whip. Representative Espaillat also currently serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus. To find out more about Rep. Espaillat, visit online at https://espaillat.house.gov/