Friday Night Dialogues: Water woes and solutions
Would you drink your laundry detergent? Or your shampoo? How about drain cleaner, fertilizer, pesticides or any other toxic or potentially carcinogenic substance that goes down your drain or is applied to your lawn?
Didn’t think so. Fact is, trace amounts of all of the above make their way through the soil and down to guess where? That’s right, our water table, home to our most precious resource.
Environmentalists, farmers, ecologists and now local government officials have ramped up the awareness about what is happening not only to our aquifer, but also to our creeks, bays and estuaries. One of the chief concerns is the amount of nitrogen in our local waters, claimed to be responsible for algae blooms, fish kills, the destruction of eel grass beds and a host of other problems that threaten marine life and water quality.
Carl LoBue, a marine biologist for The Nature Conservancy, will be the featured speaker at the first of two “Friday Night Dialogues” at the Shelter Island Library that deal with this pressing issue of water quality. The first will be held Friday, September 16, and the second on Friday, September 23.
Mr. LoBue applauds, and is indeed part of, the effort to re-seed our waters with clams, scallops and oysters, but warns that without addressing the nitrogen problem the long-term success of these programs will be limited.
As worrisome and seemingly intractable as the threat to the health and future of our marine life seems to be, an even more dire alarm has been sounded about our antiquated waste water systems, and their contribution to nitrogen levels and the overall quality and future of our drinking water.
Encouragingly, environmental engineers and scientists are working together with local governments and private citizens to address the concerns and, more importantly, offer solutions to the issues.
On September 23, Sara Gordon from the Planning and Conservation program at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm will showcase the first-in-Suffolk County “vegetated wastewater treatment system,” which will be installed on the Manor grounds this fall and has the potential to reduce nitrogen input by 85 to 90 percent
The vegetative treatment solution is considered an important step in Suffolk County’s efforts to meaningfully address the nitrogen problem in our ground water and bays. The County is seeking to implement this type of technology for general use and Sylvester Manor is working with the departments of health, environment and economic planning to facilitate this. Support has also been provided from New York State, private donors and environmental partners. Ms. Gordon will be joined at the presentation by Town Engineer John Cronin and Jennifer Garvey from the NYS Center for Clean Water Technology and Stony Brook University.
These two Friday nights at the Shelter Island Library will be an excellent way for you to find out both the scope of the problems we face and the encouraging solutions already underway. Both presentations begin at 7 p.m. and are free, though donations are always appreciated.
Next up: October 7 at 5 p.m., the Friends of the Library day planner reveal celebration.
