Opinion | It makes more sense to use treated sewage than to pour it into watercourses

John Turner, who with his Seatuck Environmental Association has spearheaded an effort to reintroduce highly treated sewage into the groundwater that Suffolk County depends on, is optimistic that if a water conservation referendum is passed in November, that goal could largely be achieved here.

A significant factor is the presence of Suffolk County’s new chief executive, Ed Romaine, who as a county councillor and city manager had long advocated for wastewater reuse.

Romaine, at an event earlier this month where he signed a water conservation bill that included a referendum on funding for sewers and “innovative/advanced” I/A septic systems, criticized the fact that many of Suffolk’s existing sewer systems “pour” sewage into coastal waterways — bays and reservoirs, including Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

If approved in a referendum on Election Day this year, November 5, the county’s current sales tax of 8.625 percent would be increased by 1/8^t cents to raise money for sewer and high-tech I/A septic systems. That would be in addition to the existing quarter-cent sales tax, which includes support for water conservation. If the referendum passes, both would continue through 2060, which Turner notes would allow for a “very significant” amount of funding.

The key to the boost funding: 13 words in the Water Quality Restoration Act that provide funds for sewer and I/A systems, continued watershed land acquisitions in the Pine Barrens — “and projects for the reuse of treated wastewater from such treatment plants.”

Earlier, a “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” was developed that deeply involved Turner and Seatuck. Turner is a senior environmental policy advocate for Islip-based Seatuck. The plan highlights the Riverhead project as a model. The “Riverhead Reuse Project,” it says, began in 2016 to “redirect highly treated wastewater, as much as 260,000 gallons per day” from the Riverhead Wastewater Treatment Plant to “irrigate the nearby Indian Island County Golf Course,” as an alternative to discharging it into Flanders Bay.

“Reusing water for other valuable purposes provides numerous benefits,” the plan says, “including protecting public wells and water supplies from saltwater intrusion.” It calls for highly treated wastewater to be used for a variety of purposes, including golf course irrigation, greenhouses, lawns, and educational and commercial fields. It identifies locations for that purpose.

Turner, a former legislative director for the New York State Water Resources Commission and director of the Brookhaven Department of Environmental Protection, says he is “excited” about the water replenishment projects that could receive funding under the approved, amended Water Quality Restoration Act.

“We are ready,” he commented.

That includes, he said, Sag Harbor sending treated sewage to irrigate the Sag Harbor State Golf Course in Barcelona Neck, south of the village’s wastewater treatment plant, which currently discharges into Sag Harbor Bay. That includes “diverting” sewage from the Port Jefferson treatment plant, which currently discharges into Long Island Sound, to the St. George’s Golf Course in nearby Setauket, where he lives. It also includes sending sewage from the Shelter Island Heights treatment plant, which currently discharges into Shelter Island Sound, to golf courses on Shelter Island.

For decades, some Suffolk County officials apparently failed to realize the consequences of discharging wastewater from wastewater treatment plants into coastal waters, the Long Island Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean.

And that’s despite the serious negative impacts of such discharge in neighboring Nassau County, which is 85 percent sewered and where all of its sewage treatment plants “discharge into coastal waters,” Turner notes. As a result, he says, Nassau’s lakes, ponds and streams—“the ultimate expression of the aquifer system” that Nassau, like Suffolk, depends on for its only source of drinking water—“have declined significantly.” Lake Hempstead, for example, “is now Hempstead Pond,” he says. In addition, the lowering of Nassau’s water table has caused saltwater intrusion.

Currently, 25 percent of Suffolk County has sewer access.

Suffolk County’s last executive, Steve Bellone, during his term pushed a project called the Ronkonkoma Hub that would include 1,450 apartments and a slew of offices and retail stores — and send sewage to the Bergen Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in West Babylon, which was built to funnel 30 million gallons of sewage per day through an outlet pipe into the Atlantic Ocean.

“I am so opposed to this,” Romaine said at the time. He was Brookhaven Town Supervisor. “Pumping sewage miles and miles and sending it to the ocean is a terrible mistake. It will affect the water table. The level of Lake Ronkonkoma will go down. People talk about water quality, but we also have to talk about water quantity.” Instead, he pushed for a sewage treatment plant for the Hub, which would include power.

Fortunately, having saved Suffolk County’s only source of drinking water, Romaine is now the county executive. Turner says, “Ed has been a big supporter of restoration for a long time.”