All Long Islanders agree about the need for clean water [“Clean-water funding is crucial in state budget,” Opinion, March 24]. Nitrogen pollution from sewage is causing water quality impairments, fish kills and harmful algal blooms. Contaminants poses a significant threat to our drinking water and health. The good news is that we know how to solve these problems, but we need money.
Today, U.S. Representatives Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Dave Joyce (R-OH), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and members of the bipartisan Great Lakes Task Force introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Act of 2024. The bipartisan bill will reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which is set to expire at the end of FY 2026, for another five years through FY 2031. The bill increases the current authorization level from $475 million to $500 million in FY 2026.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $479 million in grants for critical water infrastructure projects, including the first funding awarded through the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022, which was passed by voters after Hochul pushed to increase the total amount by $1 billion upon taking office.
Scientists at Stony Brook University have completed their assessment of water quality in Long Island’s surface waters for 2023 and the news was not good –the announcement was made today at a press conference on the shores of Great South Bay. During the months of April through September, every major bay and estuary across Long Island was afflicted by harmful algal blooms (HABs), oxygen-starved, dead zones, and fish and turtles kills. Excessive delivery of nitrogen from onsite wastewater has been cited as the root cause of these disturbing events.
“You could see the bottom of the water,” Montefusco recalled Thursday as he stood on the dock with several friends including Marty Lange, 86.
“Now, you can take a bright yellow, a chartreuse piece of line, drop it 2 inches into the water and you can’t see the line anymore,” Lange said.
Just a few feet away, Christopher Gobler, a professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, stood with local environmentalists and unveiled troubling data that showed water quality hitting an “all-time low” on Long Island since he started monitoring it about a decade ago.
The Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act was designed to establish a countywide sewer district and water quality fund, and extend an existing fund intended to improve resident drinking water. If approved by the county legislature, it will be subject to a mandatory referendum in the November election, but there’s only one more chance to garner majority support before the July 25 general meeting.
New County Project Will Connect Lake Avenue in Saint James to County Sewer District
Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone today joined Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim, State and County elected officials, and local business leaders to announce a new County project to provide a connection to sewers for Lake Avenue businesses, and a new $10 million grant award to help advance the long-awaited Smithtown Business District sewer project to construction.
Lake Erie rebounded after being declared dead in the 1960s because of pollution controls that were put in place in the Clean Water Act.
But today, the assessment of the ecosystem for Erie, one of the smallest of the Great Lakes, is poor. And the State of the Great Lakes Report by the U.S. and Canadian governments deems Ontario fair, but improving.
New York State updated its plan to protect the Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve, which stretches from the Hamptons to Nassau County, to factor in climate change, water quality and habitat restoration.
BABYLON, N.Y. -- Long Island has more than 70 miles of South Shore bays often teeming with boats. However, water quality has been declining for years, impacting fishing and recreation.
