Sewer Fund Should Not Be An ATM
By Maureen Rossi
Suffolk County needs sewers; nitrogen run-off is detrimental to our drinking water.
Sewers were the cause de jour and a popular theme last election season in Smithtown and every single candidate addressed it. As a matter of fact in 2013 County Executive Steve Bellone launched a campaign and addressed the issue of sewers. He called it a critical issue. He announced grant and loan applications for construction-ready municipal and private sewer infrastructure expansion projects with the county. Bellone said investing in sewers makes both environmental and economic sense. He also said sewer expansion projects were essential to creating jobs in Suffolk County in a sustainable way.
That’s why Proposition Five is counterintuitive. Every Suffolk County Voter will see Propositions Five is on the ballot this Tuesday alongside a few others. The language is verbose and can be very confusing to the average eye, critics would call it disingenuous. The entire language of the Proposition appears below but let’s examines how it ends: authorizes the County to issue $29.4 million in serial bonds for a 2014 Enhanced Suffolk County Water Quality Protection Program.
So the language gives the allusion that the County will be issuing bonds to enhance water quality right? However, there is currently more than $100 million in this fund. If Proposition Five gets approved, this referendum will allow the County to borrow money from this fund. Yes borrow money from it, not enhance water quality with it.
In addition, it would authorize $30 million of additional borrowing for open space when we already spend tens of millions of dollars each year on open space preservation. More borrowing is unnecessary and irresponsible. Suffolk County at present has over 2.2 billion in BONDED debt. On what planet does a balanced budget come from borrowing?
What’s makes the concept of borrowing money from the sewer fund most egregious? EVERYTHING when we are a county in desperate need of sewers. It’s Bad Environmental Practice, it’s a Bad Way to Balance a Budget and it’s a BAD GOVERNMENT.
The need for sewers within Suffolk County was also brought front and center in 2013 by the Long Island Clean Water Partnership. The group consists of environmental powerhouses like Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Group for the East End, Long Island Pine Barrens Society, and Bortman’s group The Nature Conservancy. They joined forces to come up with viable solutions to the high levels of nitrogen in our waterways and to address the fact that it’s leaching into the water we drink. They say Long Island needs updated water quality standards to reduce the amount of sewage pollution in our local waters and improve, upgrade and modernize existing sewer and septic systems.
With only twenty-five percent of Suffolk County being served by sewer treatment facilities our drinking supply is something that should concern everyone. The Conservancy has been working tirelessly for years to restore estuaries; they acquired 13,500 acres of underwater land and transplanted over 7 million clams in over 100 sanctuaries on our Island. They support the science and policy to protect and restore critical sea grass because we have the data and it tells us that nitrogen loading or excess nitrogen is the number one cause of marsh loss.
Marshes are breeding ground for mollusks which clean our water and critical to the environment. With sea levels rising and super storms like Sandy pounding our shores they have created another precarious situation; over 15,000 of our septic systems on Long Island are presently in areas where the water table is less than five feet deep.
What must be done to keep nitrogen out of our aquifers, our bays and estuaries? The experts – the newly formed ecological dream team, The Long Island Clean Water Partnership make several recommendations; they say sewers and updated waste treatment plants in Suffolk County would be a crucial start.
Clean drinking water just makes common sense; it’s incumbent for all of us to stand up and demand this.
According to a blog written by Marci Bortman, Director of Conservation Programs for the The Nature Conservancy in Long Island; nitrogen in some areas of Long Island are consistent with levels correlated with colon cancer, bladder cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The scariest part of this data is that the levels are still below the federal safe drinking water standard. I checked the Smithtown nitrogen levels, for 2013 we showed 2.0 – 3.3 mgl with the federal regulatory limited being 10 mgl. Should we be concerned? Maybe we need to go back five years and see if our nitrogen levels have risen, forgetting what federal regulatory limits are. The Nature Conservancy says addressing nitrogen pollution and its underlying causes is by far the greatest challenge they’ve had to face since the inception of their organization.
We need sewers; we need Suffolk County Government to keep their hands off the money for sewers. Vote No to Prop Five.
As if the deceit embedded in this proposal isn’t enough, as a final slap to voters, the legislature has been asked to circumvent Election Day and pre-authorize the $30 million in borrowing.
A fund established to protect taxpayers and our environment should not be turned into an ATM.