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Highlights
Tell Governor Hochul to Save the Bees!
After years of hard work and advocacy, the NYS Legislature recently passed the Birds and Bees Protection Act! If signed into law, it would ban the most harmful and unnecessary uses of toxic neonicotinoid (“neonic”) pesticides. Neonic pesticides not only kill bees at an alarming rate, but they also pollute our water, kill wildlife, and threaten public health. Our Executive Director released this brief statement in support of the bill. Now we need YOUR help to urge Governor Hochul to sign this monumental legislation into law! Join us in calling on the Governor to sign the bill by sending an email today!
Weighing in on the Future of the Great Lakes
The EPA is currently developing a plan to guide Great Lakes restoration efforts over the next five years—helping determine how billions of dollars in federal investments will be allocated. At an engagement session held in Rochester in July, we urged the EPA to continue progress on existing priorities (cleaning up toxic hot spots, restoring habitat, and more) while also focusing on protecting coastal communities from climate change and supporting restoration projects in underserved communities. Please take a moment and use our template to submit a comment to the EPA via email!
Happenings
Pushing for Stronger PFAS Standards
Last year, the EPA proposed new federal drinking water standards of 4 parts per trillion (ppt) for the toxic “forever chemicals” PFOA and PFOS, which is significantly stronger than the NYS standard of 10 ppt. EPA has found that there is virtually no safe level of PFAS exposure, making stronger standards essential. While these standards are a necessary step to tackle existing water contamination, we must also prevent additional PFAS chemicals from entering our waterways. In July, we joined U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to call for passage of the Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act of 2023, which would prevent manufacturing facilities from discharging PFAS chemicals into our waterways in the first place.
Fighting for Clean Water in Suffolk County
Nitrogen pollution impacts every waterway in Suffolk County. We fought for state legislation that would allow Suffolk residents to vote on a clean water ballot initiative this November. We needed the Suffolk County Legislature to put the issue on the ballot and let the public decide if an increase of 1/8 cent in the county sales tax should be dedicated to protecting water resources by fixing sewer and septic infrastructure. Despite years of work to get here and a large coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, chambers of commerce, civic organizations, and local businesses coming together in support, the Suffolk Majority voted no in July. The public was denied the right to vote on clean water this year. This was a huge disappointment, but we’re never done fighting for clean water.
LI Water Quality at an All-Time Low
Bad news for water quality on Long Island. We joined Dr. Gobler from Stony Brook University and The Nature Conservancy to unveil new data showing that the summer of 2023 is tracking as the worst water quality on record for Long Island. Excessive nitrogen from sewage is the main culprit—causing declining water quality, toxic algal blooms, fish kills, and turtle kills. Some of our harmful algal blooms are not only the worst in Long Island’s history but some of the most intense on record in the world. If you missed it, you can watch the press conference here. Suffolk’s clean water referendum would have helped leverage state and federal funding and solve some of our nitrogen pollution issues, which is why we and our partners are continuing to fight for funding to upgrade our sewage and septic systems.
Restoration Project Spotlight: Using Rain Gardens to Protect Lake Erie
Rain gardens play an important role in capturing polluted runoff, reducing flooding, preventing sewage overflows, and supporting biodiversity. In July, we joined with the Erie County Water Quality Committee to tour rain gardens in the Town of Evans, NY. These rain gardens in Evans Town Park not only look beautiful and support numerous pollinators, but they also prevent contaminated water from urban and rural roadway runoff from reaching Lake Erie (located just across the street)!
Suffolk County Executive Candidate Forum
Last month, we co-hosted the Suffolk County Executive Environmental Candidate Forum with the NY League of Conservation Voters Environmental Fund at Stony Brook University. There were hundreds of people in attendance to hear from candidates Ed Romaine (R) and Dave Calone (D) about their plan to protect our environment, public health, and our communities if they are elected. Thanks to NYLCV for organizing this important and very informative event.
Celebrating Solar Energy
The Calverton Solar Energy Center on Long Island celebrated its one-year anniversary in July. The 23 megawatt facility is currently providing clean, renewable solar energy to 4,000 homes. We joined National Grid US Ventures, the Long Island Power Authority, and NextEra Energy for a press conference and visit to the solar farm, which is helping NY meet its ambitious climate goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Suffolk County.
Understanding the Health Risks of 1,4-Dioxane on Long Island
Yale Superfund Research Center has crafted a study to better understand the impact of 1,4-dioxane exposure on Long Island residents. This spring, we launched our partnership with Yale to provide education and outreach to inform Long Islanders about this new, exciting program. If you live on Long Island and are interested in participating and finding out if you have been exposed to 1,4-dioxane, you can find out more here. We will also be joining Senator Palumbo on August 9th at Riverhead Library for a community meeting to discuss the impacts of 1,4-dioxane on Long Island and this important health study. Register for the meeting here.
Sea Turtle Release
In July our team attended the sea turtle release of eight turtles that were being taken care of by the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society. It was an exciting evening as we watched these creatures return to their ocean homes. We had the pleasure of releasing one of the eight sea turtles. Thanks to AMSEAS for this incredible experience! Watch a video of the turtle release here.
Transitioning to Offshore Wind
New York is poised to be a national leader in offshore wind, with five wind farms already selected and a mandate of 9,000MW of offshore wind by 2035. This will not only bring environmental and health benefits to our communities but will also create thousands of jobs and make NY a hub of offshore wind development. In July, we continued our work to support offshore wind:
What’s Brewin’ Offshore. We had a fun educational evening networking and discussing offshore wind at Six Harbors Brewing Company in Huntington, LI with New York League of Conservation Voters, Climate Jobs NY, the Long Island Association and many of our Wind Works LI partners. Thanks to Anabaric for sponsoring the event!
Our Offshore Wind Future, LI Herald. In July we continued to educate the public on the south shore of Nassau County, where the Empire Wind 2 cable connection will be powering 600,000 homes. We placed an 8-page educational piece, “Our Offshore Wind Future,” in the Long Island Herald – if you missed it you can check out the piece here.