Tell the Suffolk County Legislature we deserve the right to vote for clean water!
The Suffolk County Legislature failed to pass legislation that would simply allow the public to vote on a clean water ballot referendum this November. After 10 years of crafting a bi-partisan clean water restoration plan, this is a tragic disappointment for our environment and public health!
Untreated sewage is polluting our drinking and coastal waters. Nitrogen pollution from sewage is responsible for massive fish kills, turtle die offs, toxic algae blooms, and beach closings across Suffolk County. The science is clear; the majority of the nitrogen pollution in our waterways comes from outdated sewage and septic systems. Upgrading our sewage and septic infrastructure is necessary to restore the health of our bays, harbors and drinking water!
This year, the New York State budget included language allowing Suffolk County to create a unified wastewater management district and to hold a ballot referendum which would allow residents to vote on clean water funding. We needed the Suffolk Legislature to vote yes to put this issue on the ballot so that Suffolk residents could decide this November if an increase of 1/8 of a penny in sales tax should be dedicated to protecting water resources. Funding would be used only for expanding sewers and installing upgraded nitrogen-removing septic systems.
Despite a decade 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 deadline to pass the legislation that would let us vote on clean water this year has passed.
Here is how Suffolk Legislators voted on whether they would allow a clean water ballot initiative in November:
1. Al Krupski - Yes
2. Bridget Fleming - Yes
3. James Mazzarella - Absent
4. Nick Caracappa - No
6. Sarah Anker - Yes
7. Dominick Thorne - No
8. Anthony Piccirillo - No
9. Samuel Gonzalez - Yes
10. Trish Bergin - No
11. Steven Flotteron – No
12. Leslie Kennedy – No
13. Rob Trotta – No
14. Kevin McCaffrey – No
15. Jason Richberg – Yes
16. Manuel Esteban – No
17. Tom Donnelly – Yes
18. Stephanie Bontempi - No
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. Let members of the Suffolk Legislature know that you demand the right to vote for clean water and urge him to move forward with a referendum as soon as possible.
Background
Suffolk is 74% unsewered, with 360,000 homes relying on antiquated septic and cesspool technology to treat wastewater. The impacts of nitrogen pollution from inadequately treated sewage are appearing in virtually every bay, harbor, freshwater lake, and pond in the county.
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) cites algal blooms and nitrogen from sewage as the primary reasons many LI water bodies are impaired. The numerous fish and turtle die-offs in our estuaries over the last decade were found to be caused mainly by nitrogen pollution from sewage. Moreover, some toxic algal blooms constitute a serious threat to human health, such as Blue-Green Algae in lakes and ponds. Long Island has the greatest frequency of Blue-Green Algae in the entire state.
After years of study, Suffolk County released a plan which details the sources of nitrogen pollution entering all 191 subwatersheds in the county and provides a pathway to restoring our waterways to a healthy condition. The study found the primary cause of nitrogen pollution in our waterways to be sewage from antiquated sewers and septic systems. The Subwatersheds Plan provides a pathway to replace outdated cesspools and septic systems with advanced on-site systems and, where appropriate, improving and expanding sewer systems. The longer we wait to implement these changes, the more expensive and difficult our water quality problems will be to fix. In order to fully implement this plan, we will need a unified wastewater management district and dedicated funding stream to implement these clean water projects.
Thank you for taking action.
Sincerely,
All of us at CCE