Dear Nassau County Legislators:
I strongly oppose the Sands casino project at the site of the Nassau Coliseum. The Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) clearly demonstrates that there are overwhelmingly negative environmental, societal, economic, and financial impacts that will impose destructive costs on our environment, our local economy, and our social fabric – costs that will be imposed on my community in exchange for insufficient benefits.
1) The casino will average 10 million annual visitors or approx. 27,000 per day, along with the estimated 5,000 employees working on site. The lack of mass transportation to the site will impose an enormous increase in traffic volume that will negatively impact residents throughout Nassau County, but especially along the vital Meadowbrook Parkway and Hempstead Turnpike arteries. The number of casino visitors will peak during evening hours and weekends and most of them will arrive by car and by bus.
The proposal made by LVS to expand the Meadowbrook Parkway and other surrounding roads will not sufficiently accommodate the 10 million visitors they expect per year who will overwhelm our already inadequate traffic infrastructure. After years of inconvenience during road construction, traffic will remain just as bad if not worse. Our congested roads are simply not designed to handle an additional 20,000+ vehicles per day.
2) Nothing in the DEIS addresses the increase in air pollution that will be imposed on our communities from casino traffic, including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, smog-causing volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, formaldehyde, benzene, and microparticulates. Imposing more traffic generated pollution on communities with high asthma rates would be a social injustice. Several disadvantaged communities surrounding the Nassau Hub have already been designated by the NYS DEC as overburdened from the impacts of air pollution and climate change.
3) Studies have shown an increase in crime in counties that host casinos. In one study, 8.6% of property crime and 12.6% of violent crime in counties with casinos was due to the presence of the casino. This increase in crime rate translates into substantial increases in financial costs for Nassau County. Using the same method used in the source analysis and accounting for inflation and Nassau County’s adult population, county costs—and our taxes—could potentially need to increase by $165 million to cover the additional costs of criminal activity generated by a casino, to say nothing of the other social costs that come with an increase in crime.
4) The DEIS proposes the installation of a new groundwater supply well with a pumping capacity of up to 2 million gallons per day. This well would tap into the Magothy aquifer which is the sole source of drinking water for central Nassau County. This aquifer is already overutilized and under stress from contamination. We cannot spare another 760,000+ gallons per day for a massive casino.
Additional pumping of the Magothy aquifer risks pulling existing offsite contaminant plumes deeper into the aquifer, decreasing the flow of groundwater feeding Meadow Brook, and drawing water away from surrounding public supply wells. The DEIS is inadequate because it does not consider the impact of a new high-volume supply well on the local hydrologic system, risking negative impacts to existing community water supplies and surface waterways.
5) LVS expects to dump 120,000 tons of CO2 into our air each year, after ‘mitigating’ from 137,000 tons. At this enormous scale, it would take more than 5 million new trees to offset the impact of this dangerous, climate-change-causing pollutant.
6) The DEIS claims that off-site renewable energy sources will be used. However, Long Island has a limited amount of renewable energy resources and Nassau County is already at full capacity. If the casino was to draw from the available pool of renewable energy, current customers would be forced to revert to fossil fuel for their electricity needs.
7) The socioeconomic analysis in the DEIS is lacking and biased as it did not analyze:
the impact on our locally owned restaurants and businesses from the diversion of $2 billion of disposable income into gambling losses and the resultant losses in local employment;
the lost sales tax revenue from this diversion of dollars into gambling losses and the impact on the Roosevelt Field shopping district from increased traffic;
the potential economic loss to homeowners near the casino from lower home values;
the economic losses to Hofstra University and other local businesses.
the increased social costs to our County, Town of Hempstead and local villages due to increases in traffic, crime and gambling addiction;
the loss of potential economic activity from companies who will not want to expand in Nassau County due to the increase in traffic and other casino impacts; and
the potential harm to our local tourism industry from the increase in traffic that will discourage visits to current destinations like the Hamptons/North Fork.
If the County was to perform a more comprehensive economic analysis, it would be clear that the casino’s many harmful impacts heavily outweigh any potential benefits.
8) We have an epidemic of gambling addiction in our country due to existing casinos, lotteries and most recently, the explosion of online betting. Many are comparing this problem to the opioid crisis where for years the problem was ignored by our elected officials and only addressed after hundreds of thousands of lives were ruined or lost.
Sands makes the case that because we have an explosion of online gambling, no one should object to a massive casino. Common sense tells you that placing a massive casino in the heart of our community will only serve to make our gambling addiction crisis even worse.
Sands has provided no evidence that any of its mitigation practices are effective, they are just words on paper with no supporting studies to demonstrate that any of Sands’ methods have ever been successful.
Problem gamblers contribute to a large portion of gambling losses; one recent study suggested up to 33%. It is estimated that for every job created at a casino, three people will experience gambling addiction. Sands is marketing an addictive and highly profitable product in casino gambling. The DEIS does not address how much of the casino’s profit will come directly from members of the surrounding communities with gambling addictions, nor how many new addicts the casino will create in our communities.
9) Placing a massive casino in the heart of a congested suburb, next to a community college, a major regional university, and a Catholic high school will inevitably lead to more citizens impacted by crime, including lives lost to drunk and impaired driving. It could be deemed gross negligence by the courts and could open the County and to its Legislators personally to endless litigation each and every time a life is lost in a traffic accident caused by one of the 10 million annual casino visitors.
10) The casino project as proposed will put the survival of adjacent last remains of the historic Hempstead Plains in grave risk - this will be a tremendous loss to our community and our history. The Plains are a unique ecosystem, vital to many species of birds, plants and animals.
11) The emergencies from this massive complex and its 27,000+ daily visitors will overwhelm our all-volunteer fire departments that are already challenged with meeting current community needs. A comprehensive assessment of the requirements and costs for police, fire, ambulance and health services must be conducted.
12) NYU Langone plans to build a $3 billion hospital and healthcare center on Nassau Community College land. Approving a massive casino that will consume so many resources (water, electricity, etc.) and impose so much traffic in the heart of our County, will no doubt put this proposal in serious jeopardy of ever getting approved.
A major hospital is a project that will save thousands of Nassau County lives, not destroy thousands of lives like the proposed casino will do. The Nassau Hub needs to be developed in a way that serves local communities and Long Island and improves, not diminishes, the quality of life of the residents and the businesses and institutions in the area.
Given the volume of materials that comprise the DEIS and the recent holidays, the County should extend the comment period for at least two additional weeks to allow the public and involved parties to have a reasonable time period to provide comments.
In summary, I urge you to protect Nassau County’s future and your legacy by voting to stop this ill-conceived project, and to take a leadership role in bringing development to the Nassau Hub that you and county residents can truly be proud of.
Sincerely, [YOUR NAME AND TOWN]
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