In response to increased collisions between boats and marine mammals off New York’s coast, state lawmakers want better training for boaters to protect dolphins and whales. We discuss this issue with Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
A U.S. Navy official made a stunning admission last month, one that residents and Suffolk County officials had already suspected. For over a year the Navy withheld from the public test results that found dangerously high levels of the chemical PFOS in fish and the waters in Swan Pond near the former Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant in Calverton.
In the wake of pressure from Suffolk County to clean up numerous environmental issues emanating from the former Grumman plant in Calverton, consultants for the U.S. Navy have unveiled a plan to capture a groundwater plume of the emerging contaminants PFAS that is believed to be spreading toward a nearby lake and the Peconic River.
The Environmental Protection Agency has come under fire for staff firings, climate and deregulation controversies, but Administrator Lee Zeldin, who is from Long Island, returned to his home turf Friday to spread the word on what is right with the EPA.
New York’s energy debate is often framed as a question of transition. But for many experts, environmental advocates, labor leaders and utility officials, the more immediate issue is one of necessity.
Electric demand is rising. Infrastructure is aging. Customers are grappling with utility costs. The need to combat climate change has long been discussed. And the state must determine how to add new power while reducing pollution and preparing for future growth.
This is a tale about unintended consequences in science, governmental malfunction affecting Suffolk County, and a mammoth spread, globally, of poison.
It began in 1938. As the website Health Brief related last week: “A chemist at the DuPont company accidentally discovered an exciting new polymer. It repelled water, it was chemically stable and nonreactive, and nothing stuck to it. The material — brand name: Teflon — has been used in countless consumer products since then to reduce friction between surfaces. Among its best-known applications is in nonstick cookware. … In the past few decades, however, the chemicals that go into nonstick surfaces have been linked to certain health issues and environmental pollution.”
Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine fired a shot across the U.S. Navy's bow last week.
At a community meeting in Calverton, Romaine threatened to sue because two toxic plumes at the former Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant are spreading forever chemicals, or PFAS, and endangering the region's water. The Navy has delayed cleanup, Romaine said.
Suffolk County officials are pointing to the Navy’s cleanup of the Bethpage plume as a precedent — and warning they expect the same urgency in Calverton, where county testing shows contamination from the former Navy-owned Grumman manufacturing site continues to move through groundwater, surface water and fish habitat while federal cleanup efforts remain largely in the study phase.
After the U.S. Navy refused to allow the Suffolk County Health Department to present the results of its testing of wells surrounding plumes of contaminated groundwater from the former Navy-owned Grumman plant in Calverton at the February meeting of the Calverton Restoration Advisory Board (RAB), county representatives and members of the RAB took matters into their own hands Tuesday evening.
Long Island waters are threatened by runoff from hundreds of thousands of cesspools, harmful algae and even flesh-eating bacteria, but opportunities for cleanup are "unprecedented," a prominent ecologist will tell residents, advocates and elected officials in an address Friday.
Stony Brook University Professor Christopher Gobler, whose laboratory monitors water quality across the region, will host the annual State of the Bays symposium at the Stony Brook Southampton Avram Theater on Friday at 7 p.m. He gave a preview at a news conference Tuesday in Riverhead.
The South Fork Wind project is marking its first full year of operation, and new data released this week shows the nation’s first utility‑scale offshore wind farm is performing even better than expected. Leaders from LIPA, labor unions, environmental groups and the offshore wind industry gathered on Long Island to highlight the results, which show the 12‑turbine project generated electricity on 99% of days last year and reached a 50% capacity factor—a level comparable to traditional power plants during key demand periods.
The Town of Brookhaven held a public meeting on March 27 to present its corrective measures plan for a toxic plume emanating from the town landfill in Yaphank, but community advocates say the proposal falls far short of what’s needed.
In 2023, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ordered the town to investigate and plan to remediate the plume, which now extends 1.7 miles from the portions of the landfill constructed between 1971 and 1989 south toward Bellport Bay. Groundwater testing detected PFAS (so-called “forever chemicals”) and 1,4-dioxane in the plume. Both contaminants have been linked to a range of health issues, including cancer.
Off the coast of Long Island, a new chapter in the region’s energy future is already spinning.
The South Fork Wind project — the first utility-scale offshore wind farm serving New York — is now delivering electricity to the East End, demonstrating that offshore wind is no longer theoretical. It’s operating infrastructure.
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.
