County safe water fund in bookeeping tangle

Follow the money.

Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk), and his colleagues did just that and found that a safe water law was getting the short end of the stick when it came to funds.

In an attempt to further safeguard funding for Suffolk County’s Drinking Water Protection Program (DWPP), county legislators have proposed a new law to ensure that certain federal reimbursements for fund expenditures are deposited back into the program.

According to Mr. Schneiderman, who represents the Island, a portion of the water protection money goes toward paying the salaries of certain county employees, positions that are also eligible for state and federal reimbursements.

Mr. Schneiderman said that when reimbursed, those monies are now deposited into the county’s general fund — not into the portion of the DWPP that funded them, which is known as Fund 477.

“I found out that when we’re getting the money back, that it was going to the general fund,” he said. “I felt as a matter of principle, if a position was funded with water quality money, any benefit that came back should go back into that initiative.”

The proposal was introduced at last Wednesday’s Legislature meeting, one day after voters passed a referendum ending a more than three-year legal battle between county lawmakers and environmental advocates looking to restore $30 million that had been taken from the DWPP to help balance the county’s budget.

Mr. Schneiderman said certain positions are eligible for salary reimbursements of up to 37 percent through state and federal grants, which nets the county an estimated $300,000 a year that should be put back into the fund.

“It is a significant amount of money that could fund all kinds of projects — reducing pollutants entering storm drains, helping fund updated septic systems or funding scientific studies,” he said. “In my mind, the fund is entitled to the reimbursement.”

Robert DeLuca, president of Group for the East End, said, “One of the things we really want to take a better look at is what’s going on with the Fund 477.”

Mr. DeLuca said the majority of monies in the fund are used to pay for the salaries of county workers, many of whom are helping to manage water quality through testing and infrastructure maintenance.

Those positions, according to the proposal, are in the departments of health services, public works and parks, recreation and conservation.

“Anything that we can do to restore the integrity of that fund makes sense,” said Mr. DeLuca, who sits on the Fund 477 advisory committee. “What’s important for people to realize is how far that funding can go.”

He used the nonprofit’s East End Medication Disposal Program as an example.

With $45,000 provided through the county program, Group for the East End was able to install prescription drop-off containers at seven East End police stations, including Shelter Island .

In the past year, those seven stations collected just over a ton of medications, helping to cut down on groundwater contamination and improve the safety of the community, according to a release from the nonprofit.

“In terms of the potential, that is a fairly small project that did a lot of good,” Mr. DeLuca said.

If passed, the law would take effect at the start of 2016, so it would not disrupt budget appropriations for 2015, Mr. Schneiderman said.

A public hearing on the legislation is scheduled for Tuesday, November 18.