Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The Mathews Land Conservancy has applied for a permit to construct a huge, two-story multi-use facility over more than 7,000 square feet of tidal wetlands at Williams Wharf on the East River. This facility would be a major expansion of 389 percent over the footprint of the old Armistead oil building demolished in August 2011, which covered approximately 1,800 square feet of tidal wetlands.

In addition to the facility, some of the Conservancy’s proposed projects on the wharf, such as wind turbines to generate electrical power, are disconcerting. Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute wrote in a Jan. 19, 2012 Wall Street Journal article, "Small is Beautiful—So Go Nuclear," that "Wind turbines have a proven density of about one watt per square meter." Therefore, the benefits of the low power the wind turbines would generate (approximately 13 percent) will not exceed the detriments of noise pollution and endangerment to birds and waterfowl. For t...