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Affidavits

On this page you will find the most current affidavits we have in regards to our legal cases.

Charles Bevington Affidavit

In the July 5, 2020 Response to Substantial Amendment #26, Sierra Club Long Island Group stated that The Living With The Bay (LWTB) objectives do not match the Substantial Amendment No 26 and the work at Hempstead Lake State Park in general. The LWTB Project Objectives are set forth above in paragraph hereof: https://stormrecovery.ny.gov/sites/default/files/crp/community/documents/20200519_Updated_LWTB_BCA_Final_0_0.pdf p.8. GOSR has lost sight of or simply has decided to ignore these objectives. Environmental justice financial distribution issues are further elucidated in the comparison of original highest-ranking prioritization projects deleted by Amendment 26, including Horsebrook Drain West Branch Recharge Basin, Hempstead High School Creek Restoration, Malverne High School, Malverne Green Streets, and the substantially decreased funding for Hempstead Lake State Park (from $34,500,000 to $25,656,429).

Paul A. Rubin Affidavit

Respondent GOSR’s model estimating probable maximum precipitation and probable maximum floods, which were used in its design of the remediation plans for the Hempstead Lake dam, spillways, and other flood controls to protect downstream populations, was based on:  (a) woefully out-of-date precipitation data and stream flow data; (b) an improper calibration of the model; (c) insufficient data on the frequency and magnitude of flood events; (d) a failure to consider the known climate change effects of increased extreme storm events, precipitation quantities, and flood frequencies; (e) a failure to assess the flood risk stemming from channel inundation from Hewlett Bay storm surges; and (f) a failure to consider the additive and/or synergistic effects of multiple sources of increased storm surges. 

Carolyn Bauer Affidavit

The reduction in the number of trees at Hempstead Lake will have an adverse impact on local birds. This is due to "edge effects." where bird species fare best when they are far from the edges of habitat patches. When a habitat patch is reduced in size, the edge areas of the patch increase in a non-linear fashion. For example, a reduction in a habitat patch's area by 50% generally causes a reduction in bird species by much more than 50%.This is because birds living on the edges of a habitat patch are more vulnerable to predators and other forces destructive to bird populations. This has been confirmed by, among others, Andren, H. & Angelstam, P., in their 1988 study entitled "Elevated predation rates are a confirmed edge effect in habitat islands," published in 69:544-547, and by Stephens, S.E., Koons, D.N., Rotella, J.J., Willey, D.W., in their 2004 article entitled “Effects of habitat fragmentation on avian nesting success: A review of the evidence at multiple spatial scales," published in 115:101-110 (2004). Loss of such a great number of trees at Hempstead Lake State Park would exacerbate the loss of Eastern forest bird species. Of great concern is the evidence that almost all classes of North American birds have been declining over that last 30 years.

David A. Stern Affidavit

One of the prominent concepts of LWTB’s Rebuild by Design (“RBD”) program is that of “slow streams” which promotes making room for the river. Contrary to this resiliency goal, the GOSR proposed activities will result in placing fill or reducing the volume of the Mill River, which, in fact, causes the river flow, instead, to speed up. Filling activity would occur as proposed by GOSR in a number of places, including the construction of berms to create settling basins and floatable catchers in the Hempstead Lake State Park Northern Ponds; flood wall construction at Smith Pond, which will result in additional confinement of the River at this point and will funnel flood flows to the tidal portion of the river faster, causing more severe flooding downstream; and adding berms at Lister Park and raising bulkheads at East Rockaway High School with the intent to reduce flooding of these open spaces. The latter, bulkheads, will result in additional flooding in the residential areas on the opposite, east, side of the river by making less room for floodwaters.

James K. Dooley 

Affidavit

The most widely acknowledged approach to studying a biological community is an ecosystem approach. An ecosystem approach promotes the integrated management of land, water and living resources in a way that achieves mutually compatible conservation and sustainable use and delivers equitable benefits for people and nature. The Park is a complex ecosystem in which numerous biotic and abiotic variables interact.

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