Senator Kemp Hannon held a news conference Saturday, Jan. 12 announcing legislation (S. 6727/A. 9635) mandating freight train companies carrying hazardous wastes and radioactive materials alert local villages and first responders to the shipments.

To date, local villages, fire departments, schools and public facilities are not given the information even though such information is given to county entities.

"The local villages and fire departments have been kept in the dark as to the transportation of these materials, which can include radioactive soil from Brookhaven, liquid or gas nitrogen, and construction and factory wastes. In the event of an emergency, first responders would not know how to appropriately cope with the situation. This legislation requires all railroads transporting hazardous materials through Nassau and Suffolk Counties to give advance notice to the MTA, local governments, law enforcement and first responders," Senator Hannon said.

The bill, Senator Hannon continued, was developed in response to freight train shipments of radioactive materials beings shipped through communities without information being provided to localities and first responders. Brookhaven National Labs has already shipped thousands of cubic yards of radioactive soils and is poised to begin new shipments, the senator continued. Officials in Queens County stopped shipments of the materials years ago until they were briefed and given assurances to the safety precautions and disclosure of information.

Long Island Rail Road President Helena Williams told Anton Newspapers: "We support the idea of community notification and we will carefully review this proposal. In fact, in the case of the recent Brookhaven National Lab shipments, we notified the Nassau and Suffolk county executives and the Queens Borough president in writing on Nov. 28, prior to the shipments."

"It has all the appearances of something straight out of Thoreau's Walden Pond. You would never suspect that in this secluded spot, somewhere in the middle of the Pine Barrens of eastern Long Island, plumes of radioactive exhaust spontaneously radiate underneath the surface crust of the earth," sister community Floral Park's mayor, Phil Guarnieri, recently stated.

While he agrees that the use of the rail transport system as opposed to trucks is more efficient, safer and less expensive, Mayor Guarnieri said it doesn't free the LIRR/MTA of their obligation as a public authority from advising local officials as to when these radioactive materials are being shipped.

Assemblyman Tom McKevitt added, "Villages throughout my district are on the front lines in this battle. We need to give our communities the information they need to protect its citizens."

Mayors Angel Soto (South Floral Park), Dan Petruccio (New Hyde Park), Jack Martins (Mineola) and Deputy Mayor Christina Lynch (Stewart Manor) also attended the press conference. In addition, members of Save Our Village New Hyde Park Association, Inc., a new nonprofit and incorporated civic association organized in response to the Mainline Corridor Improvement and the LITRIM projects, the New Hyde Park and Stewart Manor fire departments as well as residents and parents of local schools like Stewart Manor School also attended.

"This legislation is extremely important to the people who live along the track line and beyond. We need to have the assurance that our elected officials and first responders know in advance what types of hazardous material is being transported along the rail line. Without this information, in the event of an accident, the outcome for residents could be catastrophic," Save Our Villages President Robert Femminella said.