Suffolk Closeup: Protecting what we can’t live without

As a professor for 47 years, I’ve had thousands of students. Among the many whom I am proud of is Jeffrey Szabo. He’s chief executive officer of the Suffolk County Water Authority and a leader in Suffolk and nationally in preserving what we can’t live without — water.

On Shelter Island, the authority manages the West Neck Water District. Of water and the Island, in an interview last week, Jeff commented that the Island “most definitely has challenges in reference to water availability.”

Jeff was my student at Southampton College where I taught part-time for decades until, sadly, it was closed. Also, from the late 1970s to my retirement last year as a full professor of journalism, I taught full-time at SUNY at Old Westbury. At both schools, I taught courses titled Investigative Reporting and Environmental Journalism.

Jeff is a Suffolk native, raised in Bohemia. He became CEO of the authority in 2010. Before that he was a deputy Suffolk County executive. He has also been chairman of the Central Pine Barrens Advisory Committee, president of the board of directors of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and a member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Drinking Water Advisory Council. 

An example of his visionary and important leadership is creation of the Long Island Commission for Aquifer Protection, a bi-county initiative to identify threats to the water table and provide a blueprint for its regional management. 

In his introduction to a LICAP report last year, Jeff wrote: “This report is … a significant moment for me personally. Over a decade ago I had an idea for a regional organization that would take a holistic approach to managing the most precious natural resource we have — our aquifer.”

“That idea,” he continued, “became LICAP and since its inception it has produced these State of the Aquifer reports, completed the Groundwater Resources Management Plan with more than 100 actionable policy recommendations, launched WaterTraq as the first unified regional water quality reporting tool, built the Sentinel Monitoring program and developed the ‘Our Water Our Lives’ campaign. These efforts have increased transparency, informed policy discussions and elevated groundwater protection across Long Island.” 

He’s served as LICAP chairman.

Jeff in the interview discussed the authority’s “record on PFAS — being out front of just about every agency in the country.” The authority has been installing granular activated carbon systems in wells to filter out PFAS, which don’t easily break down and thus are called “forever chemicals.” It is actively continuing with this program, he said.

Last year, Jeff and other leaders of the authority, along with Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, announced it is six years ahead of a 2031 EPA target of a limit of 4 parts per trillion of PFAS in public drinking water. Long-term exposure to PFAS has been linked to health impacts including cancer. The authority’s goal is to supply water without any detectable levels of PFAS. “We’ve been working for years to build a treatment program that protects our customers,” said Jeff at the event.  

Romaine said, “This is about protecting public health” and praised the authority “for acting early and doing what’s necessary to provide residents with some of the cleanest drinking water in the country.”

Jeff has been strong at public outreach. An OpEd by Jeff this summer was about micro-plastics — the “tiny plastic fragments and fibers showing up in the human body. As the CEO of the Suffolk County Water Authority I’m focused on addressing this issue proactively,” he wrote. “Microplastics are everywhere … They’ve been found in oceans, in rain, in the food we eat and in some water supplies … There are currently no federal regulatory limits for microplastics in drinking water.” 

The EPA, he said, “is considering requiring public water systems to test for them … SCWA didn’t wait to be told to act. At the end of 2025, we completed one of the first voluntary microplastics assessments of a groundwater based public water system in the United States … We didn’t do this study because a regulation required it. We did it because our customers deserve clear and accurate information about their drinking water, and because staying ahead of emerging issues is what responsible water management looks like … And that brings me to a broader point. Microplastics are not solely a drinking water problem. Just as we’ve seen with PFAS … and other contaminants in recent years, drinking water is one of several possible exposure pathways … Food packaging, synthetic textiles and consumer products are all sources. A serious, evidence-based response to microplastics must account for all these vectors.”

The authority’s Strategic Plan 2030 is available online and has a section on “Challenges.” Under “Sustainability,” it states: “Due to climate change, hotter and dryer summers with prolonged periods of drought are expected to be the norm in the years ahead. With these conditions will come increased demand for water.” 

Jeff, the father of four, is also an elected trustee of Babylon Village.  

He said last week: “I believe in public service. You can make a difference.” He has.