The Calverton Restoration Advisory Board has announced plans to host its own public meeting where the Suffolk County Health Department can present its independent testing data of private wells at the former Grumman site to the residents, after the U.S. Navy declined to have county officials present its findings.
Patchogue Village is getting closer to collecting your organic food scraps for compost purposes.
They will be picked up at specific locations in the village, then sent to an anaerobic digester in Yaphank.
“This will be the first program of its kind,” said Patchogue’s Business Improvement District Director David Kennedy. “The digester takes the food scraps and converts them into energy,” said Kennedy. “Right now, it would be a pilot program.”
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.
Larger issue, supe says, is what comes after the closure
On Jan. 8, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, extended the deadline for completion of the Corrective Measures Assessment period and Report submission to ensure a complete assessment and adequate public engagement for the Town of Brookhaven’s landfill closure.
According to the DEC, the town must host a public meeting and conclude their assessment by April 15, 2026, and submit the Corrective Measures Assessment Report by May 1, 2026, a three-month extension from previous requirements.
Long Island developers hope a proposal to expedite an often lengthy environmental review process will make it easier to build in the region, where low supply has led to sky-high prices for homes in recent years.
While housing advocates have lauded the move, the reforms have drawn mixed feedback from Long Island lawmakers and advocates worried about the weakening of a strong legal tool to protect the environment.
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.
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.
Low-oxygen areas in Long Island Sound dropped last summer to the smallest footprint recorded in nearly 40 years, according to data from Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
"This is great news," said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment in Farmingdale. "This is what happens when you have reliable funding, meaningful collaboration, strong public support, and good science — all working together."
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.
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.
Great Lakes Cheese often polluted Ischua Creek, data shows
It has been nearly a month since the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation began investigating wastewater discharge from Great Lakes Cheese that likely killed tens of thousands of fish and countless other aquatic species in Ischua Creek.
You flush and forget about it. But what goes down doesn’t just disappear. On Long Island, where it ends up has been a problem for decades. Outdated septic systems and cesspools leak pollutants into the groundwater. As a result, these aging systems pose serious threats to drinking water, the environment, public health, and the local economy. It’s been a long fight for change, but on July 23rd, Suffolk County took a huge step toward cleaner water.
Suffolk County homeowners will soon be able to upgrade to enhanced septic systems that reduce dangerous nitrogen pollution at a higher discounted rate, thanks to a surge of state funding announced Wednesday.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill Wednesday morning at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood that increases the reimbursement rate for installation of an enhanced septic system to 75%, or up to $25,000. The governor also announced Suffolk County will receive $20 million in new grant funding it can use toward its Septic Improvement Program that provides homeowners $10,000 grants for the upgrade.
