PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 20, 2001

Contact: Capt. Bill Sheehan or Hugh Carola

VICTORY!

DiFrancesco Says “No” to a Mega-mall on Wetlands and Supports Meadowlands Preservation

Lyndhurst -- In a stunning announcement today, Acting Governor Donald T. DiFrancesco effectively put the brakes on the proposed “Meadowlands Mills” mega-mall development by calling upon the Virginia-based developer to withdraw its permit application and give up on any plan to fill in or otherwise alter one of the Hackensack Meadowlands’ largest existing coastal marshes. In so doing, the Acting Governor and Senate President placed the full weight of New Jersey’s state government on the side of Meadowlands preservation.

“This is a great victory for conservation,” said Hackensack Riverkeeper Capt. Bill Sheehan, “and it’s a vindication for the many thousands of people who submitted comments, signed petitions, sent letters, faxes, emails or made phone calls on behalf of the Meadowlands”. Riverkeeper Program Director (and former Coordinator of the Hackensack Meadowlands Preservation Alliance) Hugh Carola added, “Lots of people said we’d never see this day come. Well, today’s events proved them wrong!”

Responding to a request made months ago by Col. William Pearce of the Corps of Engineers to then-governor Whitman, DiFrancesco’s decisive action put to rest four years of pro-Mills activity by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission and indecision on the part of the former administration. The stage has also been set for New Jersey to take the additional steps necessary to ensure the ultimate protection and restoration of the entire Meadowlands ecosystem.

The Empire Tract, as the marsh is known, stretches over nearly 600 wetlands acres along the west bank of the Hackensack River in the towns of Carlstadt, Moonachie, and South Hackensack. Despite being disingenuously characterized as a place where “nothing lives” by Mills’ hired consultants, the marsh is negatively affected only by the inoperative tidegates which prevent water from flowing freely through the marsh. It is in fact home to more than forty species of birds as well as various mammal and reptile species according to Richard P. Kane, New Jersey Audubon Society’s Vice President for Conservation and Dr. Erik Kiviat, PhD., Science Director of Hudsonia, Ltd.

“Today, the truth has defeated the speculator, the bureaucrat, and the sound bite,” said Bill Sheehan, “It’s a great day for the Meadowlands and for all of us!”