Clean Water Video Series: Progress and Challenges in New York
On World Water Day, we look at what protecting clean water looks like in New York State
March 22nd is World Water Day, and to celebrate, we are releasing a video series on the progress and challenges associated with protecting NY’s water resources. From Long Island to the Finger Lakes to the Great Lakes, significant efforts have been made to protect and restore our treasured waters, and this video series provides a glimpse into our progress.
New York has an abundance of water resources that we rely on for drinking water, recreation, tourism, and a heathy environment. Major investments have been made in successful efforts to restore our waterbodies, combat harmful algal blooms, address emerging contaminants, and so much more.
We’ve produced six short videos that highlight what successful water quality protection projects look like and the many benefits they provide to New York. Learn more about the work that has been done to protect New York’s treasured waters, the work left to do, and why we need continued state and federal investments in protecting clean water in New York!
Videos in this series include:
The Big Picture on Clean Water: Progress and Challenges in New York
Great Lakes Success Story: Green Infrastructure in the City of Buffalo
Great Lakes Success Story: Upgrading Erie County’s Southtowns Wastewater Treatment Plant
Great Lakes Success Story: Nature Based Solutions to Protect Lake Ontario
You can view the entire video series and more on CCE’s YouTube channel. If you enjoy these videos and others on our channel, please subscribe!
Sincerely,
Your Friends at CCE
Reduce Waste and Increase Recycling in New York
Hold manufacturers, not taxpayers, responsible for their waste. NYS must take action in the state budget—due April 1!
New York State is suffering from a solid waste and recycling crisis—recycling costs for municipalities and taxpayers have skyrocketed, recycling rates are abysmal, and our environment and health are suffering from pollution caused by excessive plastic packaging. Currently, corporate brand owners bear no responsibility in managing the product packaging waste they have created.
To help address this solid waste crisis, the Governor has included a Waste Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act in her executive budget proposal, while the NYS Senate has included an even stronger policy in their budget proposal. Both will require product manufacturers—not taxpayers—to be responsible for the cost of collecting and recycling the packaging and paper they create. Now the Governor, Senate, and Assembly must come together and agree on a strong waste reduction policy in the final budget that is due April 1!
A strong, effective waste reduction policy negotiated in the final state budget will:
Reduce packaging waste by at least 50%
Increase recycling rates up to 70%-80% (currently at 17%)
Eliminate toxic chemicals in packaging, including PFAS and heavy metals
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change
Provide agency staff to ensure the law is implemented and enforced
Save local governments/taxpayers across the state upwards of $1 billion annually!
Thank you for taking action!
Sincerely,
Your friends at CCE
Whale Tales and Whale Facts
Join us for an educational forum on whale protection: learn from the experts about threats to whales off NY’s coast and what we can do to protect these endangered species
Since 2016, we have witnessed an increase in whale strandings and whale deaths off of America’s shores. These endangered species are under threat from several sources, including ship strikes, fishing gear, plastic pollution, and climate change. Unfortunately, misinformation about whale deaths and an association with offshore wind development has led to concerns about transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy. These local wind projects are crucial to combat climate change, which is not only a threat to whales but also a threat to marine mammals, fisheries, and our communities.
Join us for this virtual educational forum to hear from experts and learn more about the recent whale strandings and deaths, and what is being done on the local, state, and federal level to protect whales. Presentations will be followed by Q&A.
When: Tuesday, April 4, 2023, from 12:00pm – 1:00pm zoom
Where: Via Zoom—register here
Who: Speakers include:
Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment
Julie Tighe, President, New York League of Conservation Voters
Fred Zalcman, Director, New York Offshore Wind Alliance
Dr. Jill Lewandowski, Director, Division of Environmental Assessment and Center for Marine Acoustics, US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Robert DiGiovanni, Founder and Chief Scientist, Atlantic Marine Conservation Society
Meghan Rickard, Marine Zoologist, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Thank you for joining us!
Sincerely,
Your friends at CCE
EPA Proposes New Drinking Water Standards Against 'Forever Chemicals'
The proposed regulations focus on "forever chemicals" - chemicals that do not break down - found in drinking water.
FARMINGDALE, NY — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday proposed new enforceable drinking water standards, known as maximum contaminant levels, for two chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, found in drinking water, the agency announced.
Community offshore wind invests in youth STEM education
One month after submitting a proposal to the state government for clean energy investment, Community Offshore Wind is already starting to invest.
The joint venture between RWE Renewables and National Grid has put over $100,000 into youth STEM education programs for the future workforce, collaborating with multiple community partners in downstate New York to provide access to museums, outdoor spaces, and environmental and marine education for hands-on learning experiences.
Nearly 100 people attend Adirondack Park Lobby Day in Albany
Suffolk Water Authority tells residents drinking water is safe following MacArthur Airport's Superfund classification
Commentary: Corporations, not communities, should be responsible for recycling packaging waste
The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act will reduce waste and ease the burden on municipalities.
New York state generates more than 17 million tons of municipal solid waste each year, with a lackluster recycling rate below 20 percent. Instead of being recycled, much of our waste is going to landfills, being burned in incinerators, or ending up as plastic pollution in our communities and waterways. Each year companies ship billions of products, exacerbating the paper and plastic waste crisis, yet they bear no responsibility for managing the packaging waste they create.
A real bus stop
The general aggravation of bad weather became very specific for 30 Long Islanders gathered Tuesday morning at the Melville park ‘n’ ride on the Long Island Expressway. It was 6 a.m., and members of the Long Island Lobby Coalition were waiting in the cold and slush for the bus that would take them to Albany for their annual Long Island Lobbying Day — a bus that never came.
Long Island fourth nationally in potential risks due to climate change, Moody's report says
Join us! 2023 Long Island Sound Summit: Funding & Strategies to Tackle Local Water Pollution
There has been significant progress cleaning up the Sound – and there is still more work to be done! Learn more from expert speakers from NY and CT.
CCE has partnered with The Nature Conservancy and Save the Sound to host the 2023 Long Island Sound Summit: Funding & Strategies to Tackle Local Water Pollution. Join us at this Long Island Sound summit to:
Connect with clean water professionals from across the Sound
Learn about Sound resources for clean water project design and implementation
Discover new collaboration opportunities to advance key projects
The summit will include a plenary panel featuring presentations from NY and CT speakers and will include a panel discussion moderated by Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. Learn about local water quality projects, their successes and challenges, and available resources.
The deadline to register for the Summit is March 23, 2023, at 5pm EST. There is a $25 registration fee which covers lunch for attendees. Scholarships to waive registration fees and attend the Long Island Sound Summit are available. Learn more about Summit scholarships here.
Date:
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Time:
10:00 am – 2:45pm
Location:
The Port Jefferson Village Center
101 E Broadway
Port Jefferson, NY 11777
Thank you for joining us!
Sincerely,
Your friends at CCE
Local officials adamant public drinking water near MacArthur Airport is safe, but some homeowners with private wells are concerned
At environmental forum, officials discuss host of issues including waste management, housing needs
Great Lakes Restoration Success Stories – Video Series Premiere!
Join Us on March 6th as we premiere short videos that demonstrate what successful Great Lakes restoration looks like in New York
To kick off Great Lakes Week*, CCE and our partners at Audubon NY are hosting a virtual premiere of our video series on Great Lakes restoration success stories in New York State.
New York's Great Lakes waters, including Lake Erie, the Niagara River, Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River, provide drinking water to 6.2 million New Yorkers. The Great Lakes basin covers 40% of the entire surface area of the state! Major investments have been made in successful efforts to restore the lakes in NY, but what does “Great Lakes restoration” actually look like? We’ve produced four short videos that highlight what successful projects look like and the many benefits they provide to New York.
Video Premiere Details:
Date: Monday, March 6, 2023
Time: 11:00am – 12:00pm
Where: Zoom (register here)
The videos highlight the following projects:
Protecting clean water and providing job opportunities with green infrastructure in the City of Buffalo
Upgrading a wastewater treatment plant to stop sewage overflows in Lake Erie
Using “nature-based solutions” to protect the health of Lake Ontario
Fighting harmful algal blooms in Cayuga Lake (Finger Lake located within the Great Lakes watershed)
Learn more about the work that has been done to restore and protect New York’s treasured Great Lakes, the work left to do, and why we need continued state and federal investment in protecting clean water in New York!
*March 6th kicks off Great Lakes week in Washington DC. That week, CCE and our partners at the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition will be in DC to meet with members of Congress on the importance of protecting our Great Lakes!
Sincerely,
Your Friends at CCE
Reduce Waste and Increase Recycling in New York
Photo by Tom Fisk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bird-s-eye-view-of-landfill-during-daytime-3174345/
Hold manufacturers—not taxpayers—responsible for their waste!
New York State is suffering from a solid waste and recycling crisis—recycling costs for municipalities and taxpayers have skyrocketed, recycling rates have declined, and our environment and health are suffering from pollution caused by excessive plastic packaging. Currently, corporate brand owners bear no responsibility in managing the product packaging waste they have created.
To help address this solid waste crisis, Governor Hochul included the Waste Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act in her 2023-24 budget proposal, while Senator Harckham has proposed even stronger legislation in the NYS Senate (S.4246-Harckham). The policy requires product manufacturers—not taxpayers—to be responsible for the cost of collecting and recycling the packaging and paper they create. A strong, effective policy will reduce packaging waste, increase recycling, eliminate toxic chemicals in packaging, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save local governments across the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually!
BACKGROUND
Plastic packaging and paper recycling are in crisis: New York generates more than 17 million tons of municipal solid waste annually. An estimated 40 percent of that waste is composed of product packaging and paper products, such as plastic containers, steel cans, plastic film, glass bottles, paper, and cardboard. Unfortunately, less than 20% of this waste is being recycled properly. Instead of being recycled, much of this waste ends up as litter in our communities, shipped to landfills, or burned in trash incinerators.
Costs to local governments—and taxpayers—have skyrocketed: Municipalities were once getting paid for recyclables, but now they must pay to recycle. Instead of generating revenue from recyclables, many municipalities face recycling costs in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per year. The solid waste and recycling crisis is estimated to cost New York’s local governments $180 - 230 million annually. Local officials are now forced to consider raising fees on residents and/or reducing the recycling services provided to their communities.
New York’s waterways are suffering from increased plastic pollution: All too often, plastic packaging is littering our communities, ultimately making its way into our treasured rivers, lakes, bays, and ocean. Plastics do not biodegrade once they enter the environment—instead they break down into tiny pieces known as microplastics, which are frequently mistaken for food and ingested by fish and other aquatic wildlife. Recent research indicates that Lake Erie contains 381 metric tons of plastic—more than 50 times greater than the previous estimates at the surface. In NY/NJ Harbor Estuary, there are an estimated 165 million plastic particles floating in the water at any given time. In Long Island Sound coastal communities, voluntary clean ups report finding over 110,000 pounds of marine debris on beaches over the last 8 years.
Large Brands are Failing to Take Responsibility: Currently, manufacturers bear no responsibility for disposing of packaging waste they create. Large brands have externalized the cost of disposing of packaging onto our municipal recycling programs and local taxpayers. For example, an estimated 165 billion packages are shipped in the U.S. every year, and yet companies currently bear no responsibility for managing any of this packaging waste that their businesses create. Instead, taxpayers are shouldering the financial burden for disposal.
The Solution to Reducing Waste and Saving Taxpayers Money: Hold Manufacturers Responsible for their Waste! The Waste Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (often referred to as Extended Producer Responsibility or EPR) would require manufacturers to take responsibility for their products throughout their entire product life cycle, by bearing the cost of properly recycling their packaging and printed paper. Not only does this provide relief to taxpayers, but it also drives producers to minimize packaging materials, improve recyclability, and reduce the toxicity of their products. These policies have existed in Canada and the EU for decades and resulted in recycling rates upwards of 80%.
Thank you for taking action. Together we make a difference!
Sincerely,
Your friends at CCE
Bill shifts reducing plastic and paper waste in New York to manufacturers
Harckham introduces bill to reduce packaging and increase recycling
Highlights and Happenings: January 2023
Image by planet_fox from Pixabay
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Highlights
Pushing for our Environmental Priorities in the NYS Budget
We were in Albany for Governor Hochul’s 2023 State of the State address and were thrilled to see some of our top priorities for the year highlighted and included in the Governor’s budget proposal. We’ll be in Albany for the next few months urging our Assembly and Senate members to include some of our key priorities in the final budget, including:
Waste Reduction and Recycling: Ensures that manufacturers, not taxpayers, pay for the cost of recycling product packaging. This will help to cut plastic pollution, increase recycling, and save local governments money.
PFAS Cleanup: Provides $60 million to local governments to clean up toxic “forever chemicals” and protect drinking water.
Environmental Protection Fund (EPF): We are pushing for at least $400 million in the EPF, including robust funding to support protection of our ocean, Great Lakes, and estuaries.
Clean Water Funding: We are pushing for a billion dollar investment in much-needed clean water infrastructure improvements, including upgrading sewer systems, treating drinking water for emerging contaminants, replacing lead pipes, and more.
Happenings
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. January saw some more big milestones for offshore wind:
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Sunrise Wind. This project, located approximately 30 miles off Montauk, will generate 924 MW of energy and power nearly 600,000 Long Island homes via a cable connection to the Holbrook substation. We attended a series of public hearings in January; thanks to all who joined and spoke up for wind!
BOEM hosted three public meetings on the DEIS for the Empire Wind project, which will power over a million homes throughout NYC and Nassau County. Thanks to all who joined and spoke up in favor of wind, and everyone who submitted written comments in January.
NYS hosted public meetings last month on the Beacon Wind project as part of their Article VII permitting process. The Beacon Wind project will be located approximately 60 miles off the coast of Montauk and will generate 1,230MW of energy, enough to power over 600,000 homes in NYC. If you missed it, you can submit written comments until February 17th.
Move School Away from the Brookhaven Landfill
Last month we stood with Javien Coleman’s mother as she announced a lawsuit against South Country Central School District and the Town of Brookhaven. Her son sadly passed away at age 13 from cancer after being exposed to toxics, such as TCE and benzene. Javien went to Frank P. Long Intermediate School, which is adjacent to the landfill and has a history of air quality and health issues in the community. We are strongly urging the school board to move the school in order to protect students and teachers. The school has been featured in the documentary “Sick School” on Netflix.
Protecting Pollinators from Toxic Pesticides
We are working to protect our pollinators from toxic neonicotinoid (neonics) pesticides throughout New York. Neonics decimate pollinator populations, contaminate water resources, and harm human health. In January, we joined our partners for a statewide virtual lobby day in support of the Birds and Bees Protection Act. We met with New York elected officials to discuss the importance of banning certain uses of neonics which pose the highest risks to pollinators. This is one of our top priorities for 2023 and we’ll be in Albany in the following months fighting to get this crucial bill passed this year.
Patchogue Gets a Living Shoreline
We had a great time with our partners at the Protecting the Environment in Patchogue (PEP) committee, Suffolk County Executive Bellone, and Secretary of State Rodriguez celebrating the groundbreaking of the largest “living shoreline” on the south shore of Long Island. This $5 million project will help to protect the coast from flooding as it acts as a buffer and reef for different species. We hope to see more projects like this on Long Island and across the state!
Kicking off the LI Sound High School Summit
We were busy in January providing presentations to participating students for this year’s Long Island Sound High School Summit. We have 8 Long Island schools participating and are currently developing projects that they will present at the Summit in May. Students’ projects aim to advance protection and restoration of Long Island Sound and this year include researching how light pollution impacts crabs, conducting water quality monitoring in local embayments, studying the impacts of plastic pollution on local beaches, and more. We are excited to see all the great projects! Thank you to the Long Island Sound Study and the Long Island Sound Futures Funding for their generous support of this program.
Step by step, ridding East Meadow’s water of chemicals
There are 13 ongoing water remediation projects for the Town of Hempstead’s Water Department including three related to water in East Meadow.
The East Meadow project includes wells 1 and 3 on Prospect Avenue West, wells 5 and 11 on Prospect Avenue East, and East Meadow Site II with wells 6 and 8.
The town’s water department pumps 18 million gallons of water each day to over 120,000 customers. The East Meadow Water District, within the town’s water department, serves 40,000 customers, including several schools, Nassau University Medical Center, and Eisenhower Park.
