New London — Declaring the establishment of a dredge disposal site crucial to eastern Connecticut’s economy, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy led a list of speakers supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan for a location in eastern Long Island Sound and countering objections being raised by New York State.

“I would not be here if it hadn’t been proven that this disposal site is the right place for Long Island Sound, and that it can be handled in an environmentally friendly way,” Malloy said Wednesday morning, speaking at a news conference at City Pier attended by Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, several state lawmakers, mayors of New London and Groton City, marina owners and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection officials.

Malloy, noting the location on the Thames River across from Electric Boat and just downriver from the Naval Submarine Base, the Coast Guard Academy and State Pier, with the Orient Point and Block Island ferries docking as he spoke, said keeping navigation channels, harbors and marinas cleared of accumulated sand and silt, then disposing of the material in an “efficient and cost-effective way,” is needed to keep the region’s entire marine economy viable. The maritime economy, he said, supports about 30,000 jobs per year.

The news conference is a response to an announcement Aug. 4 by New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that his state will take legal action to prevent the EPA from designating a new open water disposal site. Earlier this summer, the EPA announced plans to finalize the 1.5-square-mile eastern Long Island Sound site, located between the mouth of the Thames River and the southeastern tip of Fishers Island, as the approved site for depositing dredge material once permits for the existing sites in the eastern Sound expire Dec. 23.

Cuomo’s office said the letter, signed by more than 30 federal, state and local elected officials, provided notice to President Obama and EPA officials that New York believes the EPA has failed to show that there is need for an additional disposal site, and that the disposal site would threaten the eastern Sound as a popular tourist destination and ecologically vital area. Cuomo said his action continues the state’s goal of eliminating all open water disposal in the Sound.

About 23 million cubic yards of sand, silt, rocks and mud not suitable for beach rebuilding and other upland uses will need to be disposed in the open-water site over the next 30 years, the EPA estimates.

During Wednesday’s news conference, Malloy said that if New York sues the EPA, Connecticut would join the EPA in defending the proposal.

“But I’m hoping this can be resolved” before a lawsuit, he said. Malloy said his office has not talked directly with Gov. Cuomo’s office about the issue, but that “our environmental folks are having discussions.”

The EPA plans to finalize the proposal by October, possibly with modifications, the EPA said last week.

Courtney said the EPA made its proposal after a "painstaking" eight-year process that incorporated input from stakeholders on both sides of the Sound. The proposal “is not just a rubber stamp of past practices,” Courtney said, because it favors upland disposal whenever possible, and would create a Regional Disposal Team of experts who “would have a voice whenever there is a real concern.” Permits must be obtained for each individual dredging project disposal, and contaminated material cannot be dumped in open-water sites.

Both he and Scott Bates, chairman of the Connecticut Port Authority, emphasized that the eastern disposal site is needed to preserve both the Groton Navy base and EB.

Two marina owners, Rives Potts of Brewer Yacht Yards, which has docks on both sides of the Sound, and Ron Helbig of Noank Village Boatyard, also an officer in the Connecticut Marine Trades Association, also spoke in favor of the proposed disposal site.

“Not opening this site would unfairly burden eastern Connecticut waterfront businesses,” Helbig said, causing many to incur prohibitive dredge disposal costs to transport the material to sites in the central and western Sound.

Potts said the plan simply allows sand and silt flowing into channels and harbors upstream to be relocated.

“God is bringing the sediment down, and we’re giving it back,” he said.

Malloy conceded that he understood why some in New York object to open water disposal in the shared waters of the Sound, since about 75 percent of the material that will need to be scooped out comes from Connecticut waterways.

“But we’ll damage the economy of the entire area, not just Connecticut but also Rhode Island and New York” if the eastern Sound site is not available.

“This is a shared resource needed to keep Long Island Sound harbors safe,” he said.

Cuomo’s announcement came after the EPA’s deadline for comments on its proposal. On July 18, before the deadline, the New York Department of State said in a letter to the EPA that it “is fully supportive of dredging for maintaining” water-dependent uses and navigation infrastructure, and is “committed to working with all partners to secure a path forward for achievable, measurable reductions in open water disposal over time.”

The agency said that while it did not support the EPA’s chosen site, which is in Connecticut waters but near the boundary between the two states, it would support designating a site in Niantic Bay as the long-term disposal site. Connecticut and EPA officials say that location is unsuitable because it is too small, among other reasons.

The New York agency also took issue with the EPA’s analysis of the amount of dredge material that would need to be disposed of in open-water areas over the next 30 years, and argued that two existing open sites in the central and western Sound have sufficient capacity for this material. It advocated for greater use of methods to expand on-land disposal, and faulted the EPA for its analysis of the effects of the new dredge site on sensitive habitats near Fishers Island.

In a statement Wednesday, New York said it “maintains its steadfast opposition” to the EPA’s plan.

“The EPA’s plan to establish a new disposal site not only poses a major threat to this ecologically vital habitat, but impedes our progress in ending open water dumping in Long Island’s waters once and for all,” the statement said. “This State is committed to ensuring the Sound remains a viable source of economic and tourist activity and we will continue to take any action necessary to preserve this precious jewel for generations to come.”

j.benson@theday.com