ADRIENNE ESPOSITO
Co-Founder, Executive Director

STORY BY MAUREEN TRAXLER • PHOTO BY MIRANDA GATEWOOD

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Citizens Campaign for the Environment Celebrates 25 Years of Activism

With the grit and determination of a Brooklyn native and a B.A in Geology and Environmental Science from Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, Adrienne Esposito says her job prospects after graduation were “to work for an oil company, which I wasn’t going to do, or explore an activist option.” By January 1985, she found herself hosting a small group of environment enthusiasts in her living room. “We were young, energetic and naïve,” Esposito said in a recent interview with Networking® magazine. “We wanted to work on protecting Long Island’s drinking water and land preservation.” With the assistance of a local attorney, they filed the necessary not-for-profit papers and founded the Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE).

“We knew that CCE had to create an identity and establish credibility—that would come with time,” she says. “And, we quickly realized that in order to accomplish our goals, we’d have to lobby in Albany for the passage of state laws.” They’d need to expand, too, and they did…from Long Island to Westchester; then Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo; and in 2008, to Connecticut. “Once we got going, the organization picked up its own momentum,” notes Esposito, who served as the organization’s first Associate Executive Director, and in 2004, was named Executive Director.

“People care about protecting their water, their land, their air and their health—basic issues that cut across party lines, across income levels and every traditional barrier,” Esposito states. Grassroots from the get-go, CCE empowers the public and provides a way to participate. “When action is done collectively,” she adds, “the voice is louder, more powerful and listened to more clearly.”
“Twenty-five years ago, people thought environmentalists were the fringe of society, but today we’re embraced by mainstream,” Esposito notes. At the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, she and her staff have contributed largely to the health and wellbeing of Long Islanders, from protecting the waters of the Long Island Sound, to preservation of open space and advocacy for wind power. “The team at CCE consists of smart, dedicated and serious people,” she continues. “We have a mix of people with history and experience, and young people with bold ideas and good energy. There have been many times we only succeeded because we were stubborn and resilient.”

Developing programs and funding
CCE’s program areas are broad—water protection; public health and toxic chemical contamination; open space, habitat and wildlife protection; climate change and energy policies; and environmental policy advancement. Esposito meets quarterly with staff from around the state, and after progress reviews, they begin planning. When determining program agendas, staff asks: how meaningful is the issue, what and where will the impact be, and will CCE’s involvement make a difference. “Think globally, but act locally”—she quotes the popular slogan.
“Whatever issues we don’t detect ourselves, the public calls and tells us about,” she quips. “One of the hardest things is when members of the public call with issues and we don’t have the resources to work on them. If you overextend your resources, you won’t be successful in any area. We’re never short of potential campaigns; we have a wait list.” Esposito adds. “Almost all our funds come from memberships—from people who agree with what we do. In turn, CCE is able to give a unified voice to the public on issues they care about.

Victories, large and small
CCE engages in extensive research and evaluation before taking a position on an issue. “We like to say we make decisions on good science, good policy and good common sense,” Esposito remarks. CCE has helped forge many historic agreements.
In the 1990s, CCE led a New York-Connecticut effort to reduce nitrogen in the Long Island Sound, which continues to be implemented at the state and federal levels. In 2005, CCE spearheaded a bi-state campaign to stop the 60-year-old practice of dumping dredged spoils into the Sound. Governors Jodi Rell and George Pataki signed an agreement that focuses on alternative technologies for dredged materials and established an 8-year phase-out of open water dumping.
CCE conducted a four-year fight to “stop Broadwater,” notes Esposito, “in one of our most stressful, tension filled, cliffhanger campaigns.” In April 2008, New York Governor David Paterson announced that the state found the Broadwater proposal to place a Liquefied National Gas Barge in the middle of Long Island Sound a violation of the Coastal Zone Management Act and inconsistent with the values and uses of the Sound. The plan would have threatened local ecosystems and required an unprecedented “no public access zone” in open waters. Esposito says that CCE’s victory is a credit to every person who wrote a letter, attended a public hearing, made a phone call, and stood up to keep Shell Oil from industrializing Long Island Sound. The Sound generates $8.2 billion annually for the regional economy from fishing, boating and related industries.
“I think that an understanding of the intricate connection between environment and economy needs to continue,” says Esposito. “Living on an island, we also need to understand that we have limited resources, and we have to learn to live sustainably—and that’s a new lesson for most everyone.”
One of CCE’s most successful campaigns produced a ban on the cancer-causing chemical Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) from use in gasoline. New York became the second state to approve the ban, followed by Connecticut and New Jersey. The issue was critical to Long Island because the chemical was seeping into groundwater and water wells. CCE was instrumental in the establishment of the South Shore Estuary Reserve, establishing the South Shore bays as an “ecosystem” that requires state protection. Esposito notes her own rewarding involvement in the two Nassau County Environmental Bond Acts, totaling $150 million, which allowed the County to buy farm land and open space for drinking water protection, among other projects.
CCE was one of several groups that worked with Governor Pataki’s staff to create the state’s Environmental Protection Fund. Last year, the Fund provided $255 million for critical programs on Long Island, such as land preservation, recycling, estuary and drinking water protection, and “benefited the health, quality of life and economy of all New Yorkers,” notes Esposito.
“No meaningful change happens without public support,” she adds. Therefore, CCE has been working to gain public understanding and acceptance of renewable energy and translate that support to public officials. She points out that Long Island has the largest utility-scale solar project on the East Coast at Brookhaven National Lab. CCE has successfully urged more than 50 municipalities to purchase wind power for some or all of their electricity needs. However, on the northeast coast, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Delaware are “way ahead of New York in wind energy,” notes Esposito, and CCE continues to prompt LIPA to erect an offshore wind farm. In Western New York, CCE is supporting an offshore wind farm for the Great Lakes.
“We’ve put a tremendous amount of resources into keeping the Great Lakes great,” says Esposito. In 2008, New York became the fourth of eight Great Lake states to adopt the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Compact, regulating the withdrawal of water. CCE is actively working with Congress to secure final ratifications to ban diversion to water-deprived states and to sustainably manage the Great Lakes for generations to come. In addition, last year Congress appropriated over $400 million for Great Lakes restoration of toxic zones. The Great Lakes are a resource that holds one-fifth of our earth’s fresh water supply.
In 2008, CCE released its first Recycling Report Card, grading Long Island towns on their recycling programs. The results produced a number of F’s and D’s, and only one A for the Town of Islip. Esposito says, “Soon after, towns were calling us to arrange meetings with staff, asking how they can get a better grade and improve their programs.” Throughout the next year, CCE consulted with town representatives, and the 2009 Report Card saw only one F and four A’s. “It was a great way to get towns to pay more attention to recycling, make significant changes to their programs, and provide more recycling options to the public.” The project was funded by the Rauch Foundation.

Looking forward
Working with state and local municipalities throughout New York, CCE looks to eliminate pharmaceutical drug disposals that endanger drinking water and coastal waters. In addition, it will launch an educational campaign to “eliminate the plastic bag from New York and Connecticut societies!” Esposito says. “They’re not needed, ubiquitous, dangerous and expensive. They get stuck in trees and fences, clog storm drains, litter beaches and kill wildlife. We want to get the public to change their behavior and use reusable bags.” CCE also supports S4983-A and A07937A, two bills sponsored by Suffolk State Legislators, Senator Brian Foley and Assemblyman Steve Englebright, respectively, to eliminate pesticides on school playing fields.
“You don’t really get to appreciate the work you’ve accomplished until you have moments like this, celebrating 25 years of service,” remarks Esposito. Continuing to commemorate its silver anniversary, CCE will host its 2010 Environmental Equinox Awards Gala at the Woodbury Country Club on May 6. This year’s honorees are two prominent women in environment and science, Katherine Kennedy, Special Deputy New York Attorney General for Environmental Protection, and Carol Murphy, Executive Director of Alliance for Clean Energy New York.
A 20-year Patchogue Village resident, Esposito says she always had an interest in the environment. Her father was a deep sea fisherman, and she adds, “I grew up with a fishing pole in one hand and a crab trap in the other, one foot on the land and one foot in the water.” Her mother took her bird watching and hiking in the Pine Barrens. While she’s faced many challenges as a woman environmentalist, the challenges have motivated her to always be knowledgeable and prepared.
“My job encompasses a great deal of strategy, lobbying, public speaking and managing the organization. It’s never boring,” says Esposito. “There’s no way I could have stayed here for 25 years, if I didn’t love what I do.”