We Need Clean Water: Help Restore Suffolk County’s Beaches, Bays, Lakes, and Estuaries!

Tell the Suffolk County Legislature to let the public vote on a Clean Water Ballot Referendum this November

Nitrogen pollution from sewage is responsible for massive fish kills, turtle die-offs, toxic algal blooms, and beach closings across Suffolk County. Long Island's clean waters create jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year for our regional economy. Nitrogen pollution is adversely impacting our environment, health, economy, and quality of life. The science is clear; the majority of the nitrogen pollution in our local waterways come from outdated sewer and septic systems. Upgrading our sewer and septic infrastructure is necessary to restore the health of Suffolk County’s waterways and protect our drinking water.

In May, Governor Hochul signed legislation allowing Suffolk County to hold a ballot referendum that will create a unified wastewater management district throughout the County. This would allow sales tax to be increased by 1/8 of one penny to create a reliable funding stream dedicated to protecting water resources by expanding and upgrading sewers and installing upgraded nitrogen-removing septic systems. 

We need the Suffolk County Legislature to pass legislation that will let the public vote in support of clean water this November. Join us at the upcoming public hearing:

Date: Tuesday, June 4th
Time: Public Hearing at 2pm
Location: Suffolk County Legislature, William J. Lindsay County Complex, William H. Rogers Building, 725 Veterans Memorial Highway, Smithtown, NY

If you cannot attend the meeting, you can still make your voice heard. Email your Suffolk County Legislator today. Urge them to vote yes and let the public vote on clean water this November.

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

Reduce Packaging Waste, Increase Recycling, and Save Taxpayers Money in New York

Photo by Tom Fisk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bird-s-eye-view-of-landfill-3181031/

The New York State Legislature has just two weeks remaining to take action to help solve our solid waste crisis!

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.

The NYS Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246B/A.5322B) would help address our solid waste crisis. The policy requires product manufacturers—not taxpayers—to be responsible for the cost of collecting and recycling the packaging they create. If passed into law, this legislation 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. The NYS legislature must pass this bill before the legislative session ends on June 6.

Email Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. As leaders of the Senate and Assembly, urge them to bring the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act to the floor for a vote this legislative session!

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, 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 over $400 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 course of 8 years.

Large Brands are Failing to Take Responsibility: Currently, manufacturers bear no responsibility for recycling the packaging waste they create. Large brands have externalized the cost of disposing of and recycling 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 and local governments are shouldering the financial burden of packaging disposal and recycling—the cost to New York State’s local governments is estimated at over $400 million annually.

The Solution to Reducing Waste and Saving Taxpayers Money: Hold Manufacturers Responsible for their Waste! The Packaging 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. Not only does this provide relief to taxpayers, but it also requires 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

Long Island Clean Water Symposium: Global Challenges and Local Solutions

Join us for this informative and free event to hear from global and local water experts!

Citizens Campaign for the Environment, North Shore Land Alliance, and The Nature Conservancy are co-hosting a conference that will bring together leaders in the field of water science. Leading experts will update attendees about the condition of local water, including surface water and drinking water. There will also be a robust panel discussion that will focus on solutions that both municipalities and homeowners can use to address the protection of this critical natural resource. This event is free, but advanced registration is required! Register today.

• Raingardens and native plants 

• Low-nitrogen septic systems

• Better lawn fertilizers

Topics include: 

• Innovations in water technology 

• Drinking and surface water quality 

• Land conservation and water quantity 

Date: Thursday, May 16, 2024
Time: 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: Long Island University Student Center Auditorium 
720 Northern Boulevard, Brookville, NY 11548

Keynote Speaker: David L. Sedlak, Author and Professor of Environmental Engineering at University of California, Berkeley

David Sedlak is a Vice Chair for Graduate Studies and Plato Malozemoff Professor of Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. Sedlak’s research focuses on the fate of chemical contaminants, with the long-term goal of developing cost-effective, safe, and sustainable systems to manage water resources. Sedlak’s research has addressed water reuse—the practice of using municipal wastewater effluent to sustain aquatic ecosystems and augment drinking water supplies—as well as the treatment and use of urban runoff to contaminated groundwater from contaminated industrial sites as water supplies. 

Sedlak also received the Fulbright Specialist Award for New Zealand in 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2016, one of the highest honors given to an engineer, among other notable achievements. Sedlak is also the author of "Water 4.0", a book that examines the ways we can gain insight into current water issues by analyzing the history of urban water systems.

Featured Speakers:
Dr. Christopher Gobler, Director, Center for Clean Water Technology, Stony Brook University
Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment

Expert Panelists:
Brian Schneider, Program Development Specialist, U.S. Geological Survey
Lisa W. Ott, President & CEO, North Shore Land Alliance
Kevin McDonald, Long Island Senior Policy Advisor, The Nature Conservancy
Patti Wood, Executive Director, Grassroots Environmental Education
Nancy Seligson, former Town Supervisor for the Town of Mamaroneck
Derek Betts, District Manager, Nassau County Soil & Water Conservation District
Justin Jobin, Environmental Scientist at Coastal Wastewater Solutions
Thomas Murphy, Building Inspector and Code Enforcement, Village of East Hills
Rusty Schmidt, Landscape Architect at Nelson Pope and Voorhis

Thank you for joining us!

Sincerely,
All of us at CCE

Turn Off the Tap to Dangerous PFAS Chemicals Now!

New York State Must Ban PFAS “Forever Chemicals” in Everyday Products

In recent years, communities across NY and the nation have discovered their drinking water sources are contaminated with harmful PFAS chemicals. PFAS are referred to as “forever chemicals” because they are very persistent, meaning they build up in our bodies and don’t break down in the environment. New science indicates that there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS in our drinking water and we must do more to protect public health from this growing threat.

New York State is considering legislation that will ban the use of PFAS chemicals in a host of everyday products. The use of PFAS in these products is unnecessary, contributes to harmful PFAS pollution, and threatens public health. Take action today and urge your elected representatives to support passage of this critical legislation today!  

Background

What is PFAS and where does it come from?
Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of thousands of manufactured chemicals that have been used in industry and consumer products for many decades, due to their non-stick, grease-resistant and waterproof properties. PFAS is used in cookware, packaging, textiles, furniture, adhesives, paint, and numerous other products. According to the U.S. EPA, there are 3,500 industrial sites across New York State that may be handling or using PFAS chemicals.

PFAS Threatens our Health
Studies show that human exposure to PFAS is widespread—it’s estimated that 98% of people in the U.S. have PFAS compounds in their blood. Exposure to PFAS can lead to higher rates of kidney and testicular cancer, higher cholesterol levels, thyroid problems, adverse developmental effects and decreased immune response in children, and other adverse health impacts.

PFAS Pollutes our Environment and Drinking Water
Due to widespread use of PFAS chemicals in numerous products and industries, PFAS chemicals have become ubiquitous in the environment, including our soil, air, and drinking water. Testing has revealed some levels of PFAS in approximately 50% of public water systems across NYS, with about 250 water systems exceeding NY’s drinking water standards for two PFAS chemicals—PFOA and PFOS. EPA recently adopted stronger drinking water standards for several PFAS chemicals, which will cause an estimated 296 additional communities across NYS to exceed standards and have to treat drinking water for these harmful chemicals.

It’s Time to Turn Off the Tap to PFAS!
As we make important progress to remove PFAS from our drinking water, it does not make sense to continue using more PFAS and allow more contamination to occur! New York must get serious about limiting further PFAS contamination by banning unnecessary uses of PFAS in products. New York has already enacted laws to limit PFAS in firefighting foam, food packaging, carpets, and apparel; however, there are numerous other products that continue to use PFAS unnecessarily.

Legislation has been introduced in New York State (A.3556C/S.5648C) that bans the sale of PFAS in a host of everyday products—textile articles, rugs, fabric treatments, cookware, ski waxes, architectural paints, children’s products, anti-fogging sprays and wipes, dental floss, and cleaning products, beginning in 2026. This bill targets products in common use for which there are ample alternatives, and in most cases, restrictions already exist in other states or countries. Email your elected representatives and urge them to support a ban on PFAS in everyday products now!

Thank you for taking action!

Sincerely, 
All of us at CCE