Suffolk Closeup: Keeping our water drug free

Tom McAbee will be meeting next week with Jeff Szabo, the chief executive officer of the Suffolk County Water Authority, as Mr. McAbee continues his work to keep medications out of our drinking water. Mr McAbee’s efforts also involve preventing medications from getting into the hands of teens and others who would use them for non-medical use.

Currently, the Shelter Island Police Department participates in the Group for the East End’s “East End Medication Disposal Program” by taking your old drugs and properly transporting them to an East Northport facility where they can be incinerated. But so much more must be done.

Mr. McAbee began his initiative after moving to Suffolk in 2012 from Horse­heads, New York. He came here with his wife, Dr. Olga McAbee, when she took a position as a neurologist at Southampton Hospital.

A retired banker, Mr. McAbee could have simply enjoyed the warmer climes here compared to upstate New York. But after arriving in Southampton he learned that a Suffolk County Water Authority well in Montauk had just been closed after five different types of medications were found in it.

“It got me concerned and wanting to do something about it,” he said.

Mr. McAbee did a Google search and found the name of a pioneer in Suffolk crusading for the proper handling of medications, pharmacist Bob Grisnik, the owner of Southrifty Drug in Southampton.

The result of their meeting was the formation of a non-profit organization, Lloyd Magothy Water Trust, its name taken from the names of two of the three aquifer layers in our underground water table. Mr. Grisnik became the chairman of the board, Mr. McAbee is its executive director.
Suffolk and neighboring Nassau County constitute two of the very few centers of population in the United States dependent on underground water for all their potable water.

What’s dumped on the ground can easily leach into this “sole source” water table below. What’s flushed down a toilet, like unneeded, expired or unwanted medications, can even more easily migrate to the water table.

The medications found in that well in Montauk? They included carbamazepine, which is used to treat bi-polar mental illness; gemfibrozil used to reduce cholesterol; meprobamate, a psychotropic drug to deal with anxiety; and naproxen and ibuprofen used for dealing with inflammation and pain.

That’s not the kind of stuff you want to have mixed in with water you drink or cook with.
What’s to be done?

The Lloyd Magothy Water Trust is seeking to have “pharmaceutical collection receptacles,” a design developed by Mr. McAbee based on new U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration regulations and being called the “Big Red Box,” installed in all 325 pharmacies as well as police stations and in hospitals and long-term care facilities throughout Suffolk County. Several have already been installed.

This would be a major extension of the effort begun in Suffolk by Mr. Grisnik in 2010. The National Community Pharmacists Association, Mr. Griskink relates, had just begun a program titled “Dispose My Meds.” His pharmacy, Southrifty Drug, and one upstate “were the two in New York State to get involved.” Since then, twice a year, the “Dispose My Meds” program has involved many pharmacies in Suffolk including the Shelter Island Heights Pharmacy.

“All our drinking water comes from our underground water supply and we need to keep it clean,” emphasizes Mr. Grisnik. And prescription medication has become “the most abused” form of drugs.

The Lloyd Magothy Water Trust has been reaching out to public officials, civic organizations and police departments in Suffolk as well as drug distributors and manufacturers.

In a recent letter to Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, Mr. McAbee wrote: “I am asking for your administration’s support to create a coalition of private/nonprofit entities to achieve a goal of keeping pharmaceutical medications out of our drinking water and out of the hands of those individuals who seek to divert medications for non-medical purposes.”

Mr. Bellone promptly set up a meeting with Mr. McAbee, Mr. Grisnik and members of his staff, also attended by an official of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

If you or your organization would like to assist in the efforts of the Lloyd Magothy Trust, you can get in touch with Mr. McAbee at [email protected] or by calling him at 353-3435.