Woodbury, NY — More than 75 Long Islanders, joined by advocates from Food & Water Watch and several Long Island community groups, rallied Friday morning outside a private event featuring EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to demand strong federal protections for clean drinking water and public health. The demonstration took place at the Crest Hollow Country Club, where Zeldin was headlining an event hosted by the Long Island Association.

As Zeldin’s EPA prepares to make decisions in the coming weeks on critical regulations — including rules to limit toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” and replace dangerous lead pipes — demonstrators called on the former Long Island Congressman to defend, not dismantle, the safeguards that protect local communities from water contamination and other pollution threats.

“EPA Administrator Zeldin has abandoned Long Islanders in favor of Trump’s polluter-first agenda. His capitulation to the most anti-environmental administration in history is a betrayal of the communities he once claimed to represent,” said Eric Weltman, New York Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch. “New Yorkers deserve an EPA that protects our health and environment, not one that does the bidding of corporate polluters. It’s time for Zeldin to remember where he came from — and who’s paying the steepest price for his reckless actions.”

“The Environmental Protection Agency is integral to Long Island’s future,” said Joe Sackman, Executive Director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. “Lee Zeldin, now the head of the EPA and being from Long Island himself, must know for our very survival we need strong regulations to protect our families from the effects of forever chemicals, such as PFAS, which are harmful to our health. We also have a dire need to deal with the climate crisis threatening our very homes and future. Today, as Lee Zeldin speaks to members of Long Island’s business community, we ask him to not forget the most vulnerable of our communities and center his leadership at the EPA around the needs of the people, not corporate profits.”