L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

Legislators and environmentalists demand state release funds for study of south shore bays.

The bay shimmered in the late morning sun; its many shades of green were set against undulating patches of sea grasses and a blue horizon. 

It was a perfect first day of summer. People had gathered on Magnolia Pier in Long Beach to gaze at the water; others had come to fish, hoping to catch summer fluke.

“No good,” said one man named Rocco. “I’ve caught a few but they’re under 10 inches. Too small. I have to throw them back.”

His companion nodded. “Can’t catch much anymore. The bay, she’s just not right.”

That seems to be the popular consensus – the Western Bays, including Hempstead Bay and South Oyster Bay  are in trouble, deep trouble. Some go so far as to say that parts of the bay are dying.  Once a productive fishing and shellfishing ground, the Western Bays have been listed for over a decade on the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) list of impaired water bodies for pathogens and for excessive nutrients.

Last month local environmentalists and county legislators gathered to call upon New York state to release more than $500,000 in funding allocated in 2008 for a scientific study of the water quality in the Western Bays. The study, called Total Maximum Daily Load or TMDL, will help to determine what natural and man made impacts have caused the degrading water quality. 

“The water is not as healthy as it should be,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “We need to find out how to bring the marine life back here and we need to do it now.” 

Here are the facts: 64.5 million gallons of effluent are dumped into the Western Bays each day, from five sewage treatment plants including Bay Park in East Rockaway. There is excessive seaweed growth and an increase in shellfish harvesting closures. 

Environmentalists, including members of SPLASH (Stop Polluting Littering and Save our Harbors) and the Citizens Campaign for the Environment believe the degrading water quality is due to the amount of treated effluent in the bay thus causing a rise in pathogens. Excessive seaweed growth may be due to the stormwater runoff, including the fertilizers from our lawns that dumps excessive nutrients and nitrogen into the Bay. If nitrogen levels are too high, hypoxia can occur. Hypoxia causes oxygen depletion, killing off fish who cannot swim through the water.

A similar study was done in the Long Island Sound. That TMDL study  helped to limit nitrogen discharge. The Long Island Sound’s TMDL has targets for nitrogen removal that range from 58.5% to 10%. No such standards are in place for the Western Bays.

“We need this blueprint to restore the bays,” said Legislator David Dennenberg. “This will help to provide more stringent effluent requirements and help design the needed upgrades to the sewage treatment plants, including Bay Park.”

“We need to base our restoration plans on science, not conjecture,” said Ms. Esposito. In these tough economic times, can the state afford this study?

“This is environmental money that can only be used for this purpose,” said Legislator Denenberg.

“The money is there. It has been allocated and is sitting up in Albany. For three years the state has been telling us the money is coming. While the state stumbles, the bay is dying,” said Ms. Esposito. “The South Shore waterways have been infiltrated with so much effluent that our residents are no longer able to use the waters for recreational bathing and local fishing businesses are no longer able to harvest shellfish,” said Legislator Denise Ford.

The funds could be released this summer, if Albany is able to pass its budget. The fund would allow a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to go forward allowing Stony Brook University to begin research in conjunction with the TMDL study. The MOU is stalled in the state Division of the Budget.

For environmentalists like Rob Weltner, executive director of SPLASH, this has been a uphill battle. He has been calling for this study for years, spearheading an effort back to 2004. “Our once beautiful and bountiful bay needs our help. The study will do that. It’s a good first step. Let’s fix it and get people back to work,” he said. 

By Laura Schofer

Laura Schofer, staff writer for L&M Publications, has been recognized with several awards for many of her feature pieces published in Bellmore and Merrick Life, The Citizen and The Leader.