U.S. Army Corps of Engineers move to New Jersey will delay New York projects, lawmakers say

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to vacate its office in lower Manhattan, which a bipartisan group of lawmakers said would delay pollution cleanups, storm protection projects and other infrastructure on Long Island and throughout the region. The agency said there would be no impact.

The office at 26 Federal Plaza is the headquarters for roughly 385 employees who work on the Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point mitigation projects, the Sylvania-Corning cleanup in Hicksville and construction at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, as well as programs in Staten Island, the Hudson Valley and the Connecticut side of Long Island Sound.

The Army Corps has maintained an office in Manhattan for more than 100 years, according to Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents many corps employees. Staff members working there today include engineers, procurement specialists and administrative workers.

The corps posted a notice on the website SAM.gov on March 18, seeking 70,000 square feet of office space in Hoboken, Jersey City or Newark, starting no later than Aug. 1.

Staff members are angry about the sudden decision, Biggs told Newsday. As many as 60% of those surveyed by the union declared they would seriously consider quitting rather than commuting to New Jersey.

"This is a huge disruption in their work lives and their careers," Biggs said.

The Army Corps said the relocation would not affect its ability to manage its projects across the region. "There will be no impact on mission execution," Kenneth Wells, a spokesman for the Corps New York district, wrote to Newsday.

"We deeply value our dedicated civilian workforce," Wells added, "and we are developing a robust set of mitigation strategies to support them through this transition and maximize retention."

Five members of New York’s congressional delegation — Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer and Reps. Dan Goldman (D-Brooklyn/Manhattan), Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island), and Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) — signed a letter to administrators opposing the move out of Manhattan.

The members’ letter to the corps and the General Services Administration, from whom the corps leases the space, said losing large numbers of experienced staff "will inevitably degrade the Corps ability to continue its critical activities in the region."

"Moving out of the New York office will be a wasteful distraction," Suozzi said in a statement to Newsday. "I hope the Administration will pay attention to our bipartisan concerns.” 

Briggs noted that many of the affected employees have developed years of specialized expertise. "If you lose this kind of talent, really skilled talent," Biggs noted, "they’re not easily replaced."

In addition, he pointed out, the Department of Defense, which oversees the Army Corps of Engineers, has instituted a hiring freeze. So those workers would not, in fact, be replaced any time soon.

The corps' Long Island projects include cleaning up the site where Sylvania Corning manufactured materials for nuclear power plants in the 1950s and 1960s, now contaminated with radioactive uranium and thorium, and the Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point coastal resilience program. 

The Manhattan Army Corps, along with the city and state environment agencies, also oversees the South Shore Staten Island projects, which include building levees, stormwater drains and sewers. The program is intended "as a blueprint for coastal projects nationwide," Biggs said, "to prevent billions of dollars of storm damage."

"This is just one example of a project that will face huge disruptions if this goes through," with consequences for coastal regions like Long Island and across the country, he warned.

The letter from lawmakers, dated March 27, said the Manhattan location allows staff to collaborate with other federal agencies as well as state and local officials whose offices are in the same building or nearby. And they argued that relocating was not likely to save money and could instead cost taxpayers more over the long run.

The corps’ request for lease notice posted last month was targeted to the private sector, Biggs pointed out, so rather than paying rent to the GSA, another federal agency, the corps would be paying a private landlord.