FoBP Joins Efforts to Ensure Safe Environmental Testing

Dear Friends,

Attached is a letter sent to Council President Christine Quinn signed by over 62 organizations opposing Int. 650-A.

Members of the coalition continue to believe that that despite the large number of drafts that the bill has had to go through to remove blatantly obvious flaws and objectionable provisions, the proposed bill continues to demonstrate the administration's failure to produce a carefully crafted bill which narrowly achieves its legislative intent.
Despite the changes made by the New York Police Department (NYPD), the proposed legislation is still fundamentally flawed. In our estimation, despite NYPD's stated intention, the bill would leave the city less safe, not more.

The most recent revision proposed seems intended to resolve the objection that the bill grants undue authority to seize detectors. It does not. While we have proposed language amending the proposed legislation which would improve the bill on this issue, we emphasize that it would not eliminate opposition to the intrusion and control over environmental monitoring and the negative public health implications.

Calls are needed now to members of the CityCouncil to urge that Int. 650-A be defeated. Please call your City Council representative and urge Int 650 be defeated.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

125 Cedar Street Residents * 9/11 Environmental Action * Actor’s Equity Assn * Asian American Legal Defense Fund * American Littoral Society, NE Chapter * American Lung Assn of the City of NY * Asthma Free School Zones (Real World Foundation) * Battery Park City Community Emergency Response Team * CHEJ * Chinese Progressive Association * CEC * CWA, District 1 & Local 1180 * Concerned Stuyvesant Community * DC 37, AFSCME * EDF * Environmental Toxicology Laboratory * Friends of Brook Park * Healthy Schools Network * IATSE, Local 1 * Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany * League of Conservation Voters * Long Island Soundkeeper * Lower East Side Ecology Center * Manhattan Community Board #1, 3M, 6 * Maui Peace Action * NRDC * Natural Resources Protective Assn. * National Lawyers Guild, Environmental Justice Committee * NYC Group of the Sierra Club * NYC Central Labor Council * NYCLU * NYCOSH * NY Environmental Law & Justice Project * NY Lawyers for the Public Interest * NY/NJ Baykeeper, Inc. * NYPIRG * NY Soil and Water Conservation District * NY State Laborers International Union * NY State Public Employees Federation * Organization of Staff Analysts * PSC of CUNY, NYSUT, AFT * PHANYC * Riverkeeper, Inc. * RWDSU/UFCW * South Bridge Parents and Youth Assn. * Staten Island Taxpayers Assn., Inc. * StuyHealth * Sustainable South Bronx * The Environmental Health Clinic * The Gaia Institute * TWU, Local 100 * Tribeca Community Emergency Response Team * United Auto Workers, Region 9A * United Church of Christ * United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities * Wellness in Schools * WEACT * Working Families Party * World Trade Center Community Labor Coalition * World Trade Center Environmental Organization * World Trade Center Residents Coalition