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Spitzer picks city’s green watchdog
by Patrick Arden / Metro New York
APR 27, 2007
MANHATTAN. Former Gov. George Pataki once said the ideal candidate for the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation would be responsive to both business and the environment. This week, Gov.
Eliot Spitzer appointed a pure environmentalist to oversee the New York City region for the state DEC.
Attorney Suzanne Mattei has a 26-year career in environmental advocacy and is currently the executive director of the Sierra Club’s national office here, where she authored a critical report on the government’s lax environmental response to the World Trade Center collapse. Last year she organized opposition to the proposed NASCAR racetrack on Staten Island.
She has worked in city government, first as an adviser to ex- Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman, then as a deputy under former Public Advocate Mark Green.
Mattei starts May 17 in her new job as head of DEC Region 2, which includes all of the city. She’ll be dealing with air pollution enforcement as well as “big issues” like water quality and sewage treatment, problems with leaking under-ground storage tanks and vapor intrusion in buildings.
“I’m excited to be involved in the real implementation of programs,”
she told Metro yesterday. “When I was working for the comptroller and the public advocate, I was involved in oversight. This is much more hands-on.”
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