SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : "13 Magic Words" In Water Quality Restoration Act

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Environmentalist John Turner calls them “13 magic words.”

They are 13 words that have been added to a measure likely to be voted on in a countywide referendum in November that would amend the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act. The words are in a section of state legislation on what the fund for the act would finance. 

The 13 words are: “and projects for the reuse of treated effluent from such wastewater treatment facilities.”

Turner has long worked to have wastewater purified and returned to Long Island’s underground water table rather than being discharged into surrounding bays, the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound.

Long Island is dependent on its underground water table, what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1978 designated as the “sole source aquifer” for potable water for people here.

In Nassau County, the water table has lowered because 85 percent of the county is sewered and all its sewage treatment plants send wastewater into surrounding waterways. In Nassau, lakes, ponds, and streams that are the “uppermost expression of the aquifer system, have dropped considerably,” says Turner, former legislative director of the New York Legislative Commission on Water Resource Needs of New York State and Long Island and director of Brookhaven Town’s Division of Environmental Protection. He is senior conservation policy advocate at Seatuck Environmental Association based in Islip. 

Hempstead Lake now “is Hempstead Pond,” says Turner.

Suffolk is 25 percent sewered with—until recent years—all its larger sewage treatment plants sending wastewater into surrounding waterways. The biggest, the Southwest Sewer District’s Bergen Point Sewage Treatment Plant in West Babylon, was built to send up to 30 million gallons a day of wastewater through an outfall pipe into the Atlantic.

However, in 2016, providing a model for change, the Riverhead Sewage Treatment Plant began sending treated effluent to the county’s adjoining Indian Island Golf Course. This has provided irrigation and fertilization for the golf course and an alternative to the discharging of wastewater into Flanders Bay.

A revised Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act was first advanced last year with a referendum proposed for Election Day 2023. But the Republican majority on the Suffolk Legislature voted against it because the enabling state legislation then earmarked 25 percent of the funding for sewers and 75 percent for high-tech nitrogen-reducing “innovative/advanced” septic systems. The GOP majority sought a larger percentage for sewers.

In the new revision the split is 50 percent for sewers and 50 percent for “innovative/advanced” septic systems. It now will go before the Suffolk Legislature and State Legislature, where its sponsor in the Assembly is Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor and sponsor in the Senate Monica Martinez of Brentwood, and, if approved, be subject to a referendum in Suffolk on Election Day 2024.

Other than for the change to a 50-50 division and those “13 magic words,” the measure remains otherwise as it had been last year. The funding for the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act would, as proposed last year, increase the current 8.625 percent sales tax in the county to 8.75 percent, or l/8^th of a penny on each dollar spent on purchases.

If the new revised act gets legislative and voter approval, funds for projects for reuse of treated effluent could be used to implement the “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” issued last year. The plan was created by Seatuck, the Greentree Foundation, Cameron Engineering & Associates and a Water Reuse Technical Working Group of 28 members. It proposes that treated wastewater to be utilized for a variety of purposes, notably on golf courses, but also on sod farms, lawns and fields at educational and commercial sites. It lists treatment facilities and sites that could be used including in Smithtown. 

It declares: “The benefits of water reuse have long been recognized and embraced in other parts of the world,” and currently in the U.S. “approximately 2.6 billion gallons of water is reused daily.” But, it says, in New York “large-scale water reuse projects have been limited. There are a few projects in upstate New York and one on Long Island,” the “Riverhead reuse project.”

At a press conference last month announcing the new revision, Suffolk’s new county executive, Ed Romaine, repeated what he had emphasized as Brookhaven Town supervisor and a county legislator, that in building sewers in Suffolk “let’s not pump the effluent out to the ocean or the Sound.” Romaine, like Turner and other environmentalists, stresses a need for not only water quality but quantity. 

The sales tax increase is expected to raise in its first year $26.5 million for sewers and $26.5 million for “innovative/advanced” septic systems, said the legislature’s presiding officer, Kevin McCaffrey, at the press conference. The I/A systems have an average cost of $22,000 and, as of 2021, have been required by Suffolk County for new construction of a house in a non-sewered area or major expansion of an existing house. 

SUFFFOLK CLOSEUP: "Priced Out...Unable To Buy Homes"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County isn’t alone in facing an affordable housing crisis.

Last month, The New York Times ran an article that included in its headline: “Ireland’s Housing Crisis.” It began by relating how a teacher in Dublin needs to live with family an hour-and-a-half from work because, she says, “There’s very little housing available, and what is available is way out of my reach. I’m never going to afford a house or an apartment on my own up in Dublin.”

The article reported how so many are “priced out…unable to buy homes.”

Sound familiar?

“While a major issue across Ireland, the housing shortage is felt most acutely in the Dublin region, home to around a quarter of the country’s population of just over five million,” The Times piece said. “Two-thirds of Irish people 18 to 34 still live with their parents…” 

It said “recent…riots in Dublin capitalized on the grievances of people struggling to cover their housing costs and exposed to the world the deep fractures that the crisis has created. But the issue is decades in the making, experts say, and has become the driving force in Irish politics.” 

There have been no riots in Suffolk County involving housing costs. But here—and elsewhere in the U.S.—the affordable housing crisis is terribly severe. 

That’s why New York Governor Kathy Hochul has put a focus on expanding affordable housing. In 2023, in her “State of the State” address, she announced a “New York Housing Compact” requiring cities, towns and villages in the state to add housing every three years by 3% downstate and 1% upstate with the state able to override local zoning decisions if localities didn’t meet targets. However, the program, supported by housing advocates, faced strong opposition from some local government officials and state representatives—including from Suffolk—as an infringement on “home rule” and was shelved by the governor.

At the start of 2024 in her “State of the State” address, Hochul was focusing on incentives and a variety of other strategies to increase affordable housing in the state.

A key Hochul strategy involves “Accessory Dwelling Units” or ADUs. She is earmarking $85 million for the initiative. In her “Plus One ADU Program” state grants would be offered local governments and non-profit organizations to develop community-specific programs in which single-family homeowners would be able to construct “a new ADU on their property or upgrading existing units to comply with local and state code requirements,” said the governor. ADUs could range from basement apartments and garage conversions to standalone units like cottages. Participating homeowners could receive up to $125,000 in a “forgivable” loan.  

The incoming Brookhaven Town supervisor, Dan Panico, in his inaugural address, announced he wants to streamline ADUs in the town by eliminating its Accessory Apartment Review Board in favor of the town Building Department making decisions.

New programs also proposed by Hochul would be a tax incentive on conversion of commercial buildings or offices for affordable housing and use of state-owned land for housing. And the governor also wants to set aside $650 million from “discretionary” state funds to go to “pro-housing communities” developing affordable housing programs.  

The obstacle for affordable housing in Ireland as described in The Times piece has been a lack of government action. An obstacle to government action notably here and in much of the U.S. has been the single-family house as the standard dwelling unit and zoning which enforces that. 

Michael Daly, founder of the group East End YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) points to the Community Housing Fund, passed by referendum in Southold, Shelter Island, East Hampton and Southampton towns in 2022—adding a half-percent to the existing real estate transfer fee to go for affordable housing—and how in those towns “the advisory boards and town boards are searching for effective ways to use the funds to preserve and create more community housing. But the stubborn issue of restrictive, single-family-only zoning continues to be a blockade to many of the best solutions.”

 “Now that we have figured out how to create sustainable, environmentally sound, and attractive multi-family properties…it’s restrictive zoning and the minority of loud and vocal opponents who are the only ones standing in the way,” said Daly last week.

“The good news is that village, town, county, and state officials all throughout the nation are figuring out that the loud and vocal minority is just that—a minority in our communities,” said Daly of Sag Harbor. “Studies on Long Island and across the nation consistently show that 60-75% of community members see the need for more community housing and support zoning changes to accomplish that. The Housing Compact, put forth by New York State last year, would have done the ‘hard part’ for local officials, but they rejected it. Now they’re going to have to do that ‘hard part’ themselves.”

A motto of those crusading for affordable housing is: “Housing Is A Human Right.” 

That’s right. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: With Climate Change "Resilience" Is Not Enough

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“We know this is the result of climate change,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul after Tropical Storm Ophelia struck this region in September with eight inches of rain in Suffolk County and more than nine in New York City where cars floated in streets and rail and subway service was crippled. “This event was historic. In some areas, it was recording-shattering.”

Late October provided an encore of hot weather. On October 28 in Suffolk the temperature hit 83. In many U.S. cities during the summer, temperatures exceeded 100 degrees. It was 110 in Phoenix for 54 days, a record.

The summer of 2023 was the Earth’s hottest since global records began in 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute. 

And then last week, the temperature in Suffolk dived into the lower 30s—a reminder of how climate change delivers extreme weather.

In Canada, the opposite of torrential rain and flooding occurred in 2023. Drought fueled intense wildfires—the worst in Canada’s history—sending smoke south, impacting the air here.

Meanwhile, in Mexico there was a happening last month that represented an especially ominous trend for Suffolk and many coastal areas. In 12 hours wind speeds in what had been a mild storm increased by 115 mph. And Category 5 hurricane named Otis, with winds of 165 mph, struck and wrecked Acapulco with its million people. It was the first Category 5 hurricane ever to hit the Pacific coasts of North or South America. 

“In a single day, Hurricane Otis went from a nuisance to a monster,” reported NBC News, noting how the U.S. National Hurricane Center described it as having “explosively intensified” in a “nightmare scenario.” 

The cause: warmer waters all over the planet for hurricanes and typhoons to feed on, a result of climate change. 

What does this portend for this area with ocean waters off Suffolk increasingly warmer—and forecast to become yet warmer if climate change isn’t stopped? A recent study in the journal Science Reports concluded that “rapid intensification” of storms is becoming more common and, said Dr. Andra J. Garner, a climate scientist who directed it, “increased chances of storms intensifying most quickly in regions that include,” yes, “a region along the U.S. East Coast.”

What’s to be done? What can be done?

In Suffolk, the big word these days regarding climate change is “resilience.” Indeed, there are steps that need to be taken such as restoring and expanding wetlands along our shores to soften the impact of storms. 

Still, the causes of climate change or global warming must be tackled—and widely—not just trying to deal with effects. The main cause: the burning of fossil fuels.

Pope Francis thoroughly understands this as do virtually all scientists. Last month he issued a 28-page statement addressed “To All People of Good Will on the Climate Crisis.”

“Despite all attempts to deny, conceal, gloss over or relativize the issue, the signs of climate change are here and increasingly evident,” wrote the leader of the Catholic Church. “No one can ignore the fact that in recent years we have witnessed extreme weather phenomena, frequent periods of unusual heat, drought and other cries of protest on the part of the earth that are only a few palpable expressions of a silent disease that affects everyone.”

He detailed the series of international conferences seeking to limit greenhouse gas emissions. But, “Despite the many negotiations and agreements, global emissions continue to increase” and “the necessary transition towards clean energy sources such as wind and solar energy, and the abandonment of fossil fuels, is not progressing at the necessary speed.”

Pope Francis protested that “gas and oil companies are planning new projects.”

Indeed, in October—as The New York Times reported—“Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the two largest U.S. oil companies, this month committed to spending more than $50 billion each to buy smaller companies in deals that would let them produce more oil and natural gas for decades to come. But a day after Chevron announced its acquisition, the International Energy Agency released an exhaustive report concluding that demand for oil, gas and other fossil fuels would peak by 2030 as sales of electric cars and use of renewable energy surged. The disconnect between what oil companies and many energy experts think will happen in the coming years has never been quite this stark. But oil companies are doubling down on drilling for oil and gas and processing it into fuels for use in engines, power plants and industrial machinery.”

As for government leaders, Governor Hochul just announced new New York green energy initiatives in a statement headed: “Nation’s Largest-Ever State Investment in Renewable Energy.”

But the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, flatly denies climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels. He’s from Louisiana, a top state in the nation for drilling and processing oil and gas. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.