Taking Risks With the Island's Water Supply

While committees in Washington and Albany are closely examining the water-supply problems of Long Island, some local officials are behaving as if they don’t even know what a “sole source aquifer” is.

It’s the technical term for the underground reservoir that provides water for Nassau and Suffolk. And according to the latest report of the State Legislative Commission on Water Resource Needs of Long Island, the aquifer’s quality has been deteriorating. The commission urged the development of rigid land-use controls to protect critical watershed areas.

Shielding vulnerable land from unwise development is also the goal of an amendment to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act that would help local governments plan aquifer protection and buy land to head off development in areas that are crucial to the water supply. The amendment is sponsored by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) and Rep. William Carney (R-Hauppauge).

Among those who testified in its favor was East Hampton Supervisor Mary Fallon, whose town board voted recently to impose a 90-day moratorium on residential development. The town is under enormous pressure from developers, and the moratorium is a good idea. But aside from supporting the Moynihan-Carney amendment, its officials have shown little appreciation of the importance of land-use planning. Earlier this year, the town board voted to disband the town planning department and hire an outside consultant.

Smithtown also abolished its planning department, ostensibly to save money. But the cost of outside consultants has been so high that citizens are suing in an effort to force the reinstatement of the planners.

In Brookhaven, the town fired its environmental protection director earlier this year. Subsequently, members of the town board decided informally to keep using the town landfill until the end of the century instead of building a proposed high-temperature incinerator. Yet Assemb. May Newburger (D-Great Neck), the co-chairman of the water resources commission, says Long Island’s landfills are so menacing to the water supply that they should be treated as hazardous waste disposal sites. According to Donald Middleton, regional director of the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Brookhaven town fathers were proceeding on unrealistic assumptions. “We’ve only approved one new landfill on Long Island in seven years,” he said. “I really can’t understand how they can simply act to stop moving toward resource recovery and expect to get our continued approval to bury garbage.”

The Nassau-Suffolk area needs a coordinated aquifer protection program, and that means officials in all 13 towns must be prepared to make tough decisions. Town boards that fire their planners or environmental advisers are ill equipped to do that.