Projects aimed at improving water quality in Peconic to be funded by county

Two local organizations’ projects were among seven recommended for county funding by the Suffolk County Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program, the county announced last week.

Peconic Green Growth and the Peconic Estuary Program would receive $128,400 and $25,000 respectively for projects that would address water pollution, if the Suffolk County Legislature approves the funding.

Three separate projects were recommended by the WQPRP Review Committee:

– $68,350 to Peconic Green Growth for a non-point nitrate removal pilot installation of a new technology that uses ion exchange to purify wastewater. The test project would be capable of serving an intermediate-sized system, but the technology is capable of being used for both sewage treatment plants and smaller installations.

– $60,050 to Peconic Green Growth for the development of an Orient decentralized wastewater treatment engineering report that would investigate the feasibility of treatment solutions for seven districts within Orient, potentially impacting 572 homes.

– $25,000 to the Peconic Estuary Program and the Suffolk County Department of Health Services to help establish an inter-municipality storm water organization that would promote watershed-based planning, projects and programs among the 12 municipalities within the Peconic Estuary watershed.

Glynis Berry of Art Sites is acting executive director of Peconic Green Growth. She said the nitrate removal technology is already being tested at the Northport sewage treatment plant, where nitrogen is being brought below 2 milligrams per liter. The Environmental Protection Agency sets 10 milligrams per liter as the maximum allowable level under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974.

Nitrates, most of which enter the water supply via lawn and garden fertilizers, pose serious health threats if ingested at too-high levels by infants, and have been blamed for the invasive algae blooms that have appeared in the Peconic Bay in recent years.

“This could be a cost-effective way of dealing with nitrogen mitigation,” Berry said.

A yacht club in Northport is being considered for the test site, she said.

The second project would examine different aspects of creating a system that could serve areas spanning seven different Orient water districts. 

Berry is already working with a grant for a decentralized wastewater planning study for the Peconic Estuary Program.

Peconic Baykeeper Kevin McAllister said the PEP’s project is important in that it features coordination between five East End towns.

“We share the same bathtub, that being the Peconic Bay. We should all be caring about what goes on on the other side of the pond,” he said.

The seven projects recommended for funding total $366,723, paid for by the county’s quarter percent sales tax collected for environmental preservation and water quality protection projects.

“The WQPRP gives us the flexibility to fund important water conservation and environmental stewardship projects that encourage inter-municipal cooperation and innovative approaches to protecting our waterways and sole-source aquifer,” County Executive Steve Bellone said in a statement. “It remains an important tool in our efforts to protect our environment and our quality of living.”

The WQPRP is administered by the Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning. The funding is available to all county departments and to other local municipalities and non-profit organizations on a 50 percent cost share basis.

RiverheadLOCAL file photo by Peter Blasl