A bipartisan coalition of elected officials, environmentalists, and business and labor leaders assembled Monday in Hauppauge to announce an “historic” plan aimed at protecting Suffolk’s water resources. The strategy calls for raising the county’s sales tax an eighth of a cent to fund new sewers and upgrade private cesspools.
“We have built a powerful coalition to support a plan that will protect our water for generations to come,” said County Executive Edward Romaine, who made putting the funding package together a top priority of his new administration. “The future of Suffolk starts with clean water.”
Joined by the county Legislature’s presiding officer, Kevin McCaffrey, and its minority leader, Jason Richberg, Romaine said a bipartisan Home Rule Message will be forwarded to Albany for state authorization to hold a public vote on the plan. The bill will be carried by Assemblyman Fred Thiele and Senator Monica Martinez. “We’re hopeful that the measure clears the state legislature and is signed by Gov. Hochul without delay,” the county executive said, pointing out that the coalition would like to see the referendum on the November ballot.
A public vote on raising the sales tax and creating a countywide sewer district to balance out sewer fees among all users was nixed by the legislature last fall because of the funding mix previously proposed by former county Executive Steve Bellone. The current plan calls for a 50-50 split between sewer funds and septic upgrades for homeowners, rather than only 25% for sewers, as championed by Bellone.
Kevin McDonald of the Nature Conservancy noted the “magnitude of the moment,” comparing the plan to legislation to protect the pine barrens passed 30 years ago. “This is a real big deal. Taking these steps to protect both our drinking water and our surface waters is quite profound.”
“There are 13 magical words in this bill that make it a thoughtful and holistic approach to our water quality program,” said John Turner of the Seatuck Environmental Association, pointing out that the plan also provides for water reuse efforts. According to Turner, a system at the county’s Indian Island golf course in Riverhead recycles treated wastewater to service its greens. “This system removes 1.4 tons of nitrogen a year from the environment,” Turner reported.
Nitrogen feeds the dreaded algae blooms that starve sea life of oxygen and colors local waterways with brown tides and other nasty hues. “We made a mess of our water, and now we have to clean it up,” said Adrienne Esposito of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “We’ve had brown tides, green tides, even pink tides. This investment will increase our home values and preserve the waterways that are so important to our tourism.”
“Anytime you can bring all of these stakeholders together in support of something so vital to our future, it’s a home run,” said Charles Lefkowitz, chairman of the Suffolk County Water Authority board of directors. “We’re taking a giant step toward making sure many generations to come will have the Long Island that we enjoyed.”
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Speaking for the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, President Matthew Aracich noted the jobs and economic opportunities the program will create. “This was an outstanding bipartisan effort to get this over the finish line. We’ve desperately needed this for decades,” he said, noting that Suffolk’s sewer needs were first detailed in a 1961 report by former county Executive H. Lee Dennison.
“If l had my way, more decisions like these would be done by referendum to give voters more of a voice,” Romaine said, adding that public-supported projects have a better chance of netting monies from the $1 trillion federal infrastructure bill and the state’s $4.2 billion environmental bond act. “Moving this forward is a great day for our environment.”
Presiding officer McCaffrey expressed confidence that Suffolk’s voters will get behind the plan. “They’ve supported environmental initiatives in the past in large numbers,” he said, noting the success of the votes to raise the sales tax a quarter percent for water quality protection and the state bond act.
Other groups represented at the press conference who had a hand in bringing the plan forward and have pledged to help garner support for the referendum were the Group for the East End, Peconic Bay Keeper, Setauket Harbor Task Force, Save the Great South Bay, Clean Water Advisors, New York League of Conservation Voters, Long Island Federation of Labor, and the Long Island Contractors Association.