WASHINGTON — As a four-term congressman, Republican Lee Zeldin played a key role in the yearslong bipartisan push to save Plum Island, off Long Island’s North Fork, from potential commercial development. He helped secure funding for clean water projects in his Suffolk district. And he spoke out against a 2018 proposal to permit offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
Improved wastewater infrastructure and healthy shellfish populations are the keys to improving the water quality of Stony Brook Harbor. On Tuesday, Feb. 3, environmental activists and scientists gathered at the Stony Brook Yacht Club for a water quality forum, specifically focusing on Stony Brook Harbor.
Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation and Distinguished Professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences Christopher J. Gobler spent the last two years monitoring water quality and shellfish populations in locations throughout the Stony Brook Harbor watershed. “We wanted to understand, what is controlling the growth of algae in Stony Brook Harbor?” he said.
Long Island’s drinking water supply is solely dependent on aquifers. Sarah Meyland, a retired professor at the New York Institute of Technology, spoke about the impacts of chronic water depletion on the region’s water supply.
State environmental conservation officials have given Brookhaven Town an additional three months to recommend cleanup plans for a miles-long toxic plume emanating from the town landfill.
The Department of Environmental Conservation set a new May 1 deadline for finishing the report, which is expected to outline plans for cleaning up the landfill after groundwater testing in 2023 discovered so-called "forever chemicals" in the plume, which extends about 4 miles from Brookhaven hamlet south toward Bellport Bay.
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the State’s $3.8 billion investment in local water infrastructure projects during State Fiscal Year 2025. A newly released New York State Clean Water Funding Report shows that New York delivered $1.1 billion in water quality grants in a single fiscal year, significantly reducing costs for local governments, families and businesses. Governor Hochul’s administration is providing unprecedented support to advance drinking water, wastewater and stormwater upgrades that are protecting public health and the environment, building community resiliency, improving quality of life and creating good-paying jobs.
Cleanup remedies at five Long Island hazardous waste sites "continue to be effective in protecting human health," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said this week, though some of the toxic areas need continued monitoring.
The agency conducted the federally mandated reviews at Superfund sites located in Glen Cove, Port Jefferson Station, Franklin Square and East Farmingdale. Across New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico, 32 federal Superfund sites were appraised, which happen every five years, the EPA said.
New data from the New York State Department of Health shows that dozens of Long Island school districts have tested positive for lead in their drinking water, prompting concerns among parents and advocates and requiring districts to take corrective action.
Suffolk County Legislator Steven Englebright (D-Setauket) invited Citizens Campaign for the Environment co-founder Adrienne Esposito and CCE board and staff members to the Suffolk County Legislature’s Nov. 25th General Meeting to honor them for 40 years of advocacy. Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst) joined Englebright at the podium, where the CCE team received a proclamation along with flowers and balloons.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Amanda Lefton today announced the release of the finalized Long Island Watershed Action Agenda (PDF). The Action Agenda is a clear-cut blueprint for water quality improvements, aquatic habitat conservation, groundwater protection, and the public engagement necessary to ensure success for the surface, coastal, and ground waters of Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Brookhaven officials have been ordered by state environmental authorities to prepare a landfill cleanup plan that could include closing the 51-year-old facility after an inspection earlier this year found elevated levels of so-called "forever chemicals" in a miles-long plume emanating from the dump.
No place could be more impacted than Nassau County by the EPA’s decision to postpone by two years the deadline for water utilities to comply with new federal water standards for PFAS until 2031.
These chemicals are dangerous, having been linked to a large number of illnesses – kidney cancer, testicular cancer, high cholesterol, immune suppression, thyroid disease, and pregnancy complications.
Attorney General Letitia James is right when she states: “Every New Yorker deserves clean, safe water.”
But it takes more than an assertion to make clean water happen. Fighting the pollution that continues to threaten the water we drink and area waterways that support wildlife and recreation takes leadership and aggressive measures from the state. It doesn’t look like we’re getting enough of either from New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
After the discovery of chemical drums at Bethpage Community Park last year, Oyster Bay officials worried about the presence of hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxin, in the soil near the drums, federal court records show.
They were concerned by what they saw: yellow and green sludge, a sign of chromium contamination, according to a filing in the town's lawsuit against Northrop Grumman, which seeks to accelerate and widen the scope of the plan to clean up the 18-acre property Grumman Aerospace used as a toxic dumping grounds for decades.
