Forge River Suffolk County NY

Suffolk [County, NY] to just go with the flow

Posted on March 14th, 2007

BY JENNIFER SMITH
jennifer.smith@newsday.com

March 13, 2007

Citing the expense and probable community opposition, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said yesterday it was unlikely sewers would be built in the cesspool-dense neighborhoods near Mastic’s polluted Forge River.

Excessive nitrogen levels in the water there have led to blooms of algae and fish kills over the past two summers. Scientists and county health officials
say wastewater from local cesspools is probably a major source of the nitrogen fouling the river. Sewering has been one option suggested to reduce the amount of nitrogen flooding the Forge River watershed from backyard sanitary systems and fertilizer runoff.

Levy acknowledged the role cesspools are thought to have played in the river’s decline, saying the density of housing in unsewered areas such as Mastic and Shirley “is a recipe for effluent seeping into rivers and increasing nitrogen content.”

Still, he said, “it’s very expensive and difficult to retroactively implement a sewer system in these areas.”

Some places, such as Massachusetts, have responded to similar water quality problems by tightening septic system regulations. But Levy said it was
doubtful that Suffolk would mimic approaches that ask homeowners to spend thousands of dollars to update their [un]sanitary systems.

Any regulatory changes would probably be put in place only after “intense internal review” by the health department, he said.

As outlined by Levy, Suffolk’s sanitary policy focuses more on future planning decisions than [not] on undoing past mistakes. Future development corridors should be concentrated in areas already served by sewers, such as Yaphank, Gabreski Airport in Westhampton, and Stony Brook, he said. And Levy said the county will continue to push for reductions in the use of fertilizers that contribute to nitrogen pollution in groundwater and local bays and rivers.

That approach is unlikely to satisfy Ron Lupski of Mastic, who heads the citizen action group Save the Forge River.

“The bottom line is, we need sewers,” Lupski said yesterday. A vocal advocate for faster action to clean up the polluted waterway, Lupski has also been pushing Levy and the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge Moriches Inlet.

That would open up tidal flow and help staunch existing damage to marine life in the Forge River and Moriches Bay, he said, adding, “Everything that
feeds the bay estuary is dying.”

Levy said Moriches Inlet could be dredged next year, pending the proper state and federal permits. Scientists evaluating the Forge’s condition said more study is needed to determine what effect dredging might have on the river.