SOURCE:
https://patch.com/new-york/northport/sanitary-system-upgrades-installed-vanderbilt-museum
By Michael DeSantis - October 30, 2019
The upgrades at Vanderbilt Museum County Park were announced Wednesday.
CENTERPORT, NY — Two new Innovative Alternative On-Site Wastewater Treatment Systems (I/A OWTS) were installed at the Vanderbilt Museum, located on Northport Bay. Suffolk County Legislator William Spencer joined County Executive Steve Bellone, environmental advocates, and local leaders to announce the news on Wednesday.
The technology builds on the body of work done in recent years to significantly reduce the harmful impacts of nitrogen pollution in the bay, once the epicenter of red tide in the region. With more than 115,000 people visiting the park each year, this upgrade will benefit Long Island's waterways by decreasing nitrogen discharge at the site by around 164 pounds annually.
"The installation of these new innovative systems allow us to address the major contributor to water quality issues- nitrogen discharge, emanating from 360,000-plus antiquated cesspools in Suffolk County," Spencer said. "I am so pleased to see this technology brought to our county parks, specifically the Vanderbilt Museum, which sits directly beside a water body that we have worked so hard to restore.
Spencer said that over the years, infrastructure investments with upgrades to Northport's sewage treatment plant have yielded positive results. A huge reduction in nitrogen discharge, causing benefits such as the absence of red tide, is among them.
"Now, with this investment at the Vanderbilt, we continue our progress to improve and protect our priceless natural resources," Spencer said.
To date, the County has installed two advanced wastewater treatment systems at other County Parks — Lake Ronkonkoma and Meschutt — and is currently installing 13 more systems at various County Parks.
"We have a 6.1 billion dollar tourism economy that is underpinned by water," stated Bellone. "With strong support from academia, business leaders and the environmental community, our region is no longer kicking the can down the road but is taking aggressive action to reverse the water quality crisis to better protect our waterways for future generations. The science is clear and the solution has been established; we need to replace outdated technologies that do not reduce nitrogen pollution with new technologies that do."
Officials announced that during October alone, over 100 residents have applied for grants through the County's Septic Improvement Program, and that in 2020, the county plans to install 1,200 nitrogen reducing wastewater treatment systems, doubling the amount currently installed.
"Treating our sewage here in the year 2019 is not a luxury we can't afford, but rather it is a necessity that we can't afford not to do," Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said. "This is what change looks like, one installation at a time."