THE DIRTY TRUTH:
Sewers Are Critical to Long Island’s Future
STORY BY SARAH LANSDALE AND AMY HAGEDORN

The Romans thought sewers were so important that they worshipped a deity called Cloacina as protector of the city’s sewer system. The shrine they erected in her name is only a ruin today, but sewers are as critical now as they were thousands of years ago.

Why? Because Long Island—Suffolk County in particular—has become a living laboratory for the impact sewer systems can have on economic growth, the environment, and equity for Long Islanders. Who should care about this? All of us.

We aren’t doing a great job of installing sanitation systems to protect us from our own waste.

If you’re a homeowner who is blessed with a sewer connection, you may find the troubles of others plagued with cesspool and plumbing problems irrelevant. Here’s the bad news: we’re all drawing from the same well, literally, for our drinking water. Long Island has what is called a sole source aquifer, which means that if harmful materials poured down drains seep into the ground, and/or waste water treatment is inadequate, the water we all depend on can be contaminated.

If you’re a business owner who wants to expand or relocate, your ability to do so is governed by codes which may limit the size of your business or even whether you can operate it in a given location, depending on the sewer situation there. For the consumer––and who isn’t a consumer?–– the result is limited choice of shops and services in many locations, and often, dull downtowns.

Amazingly, only 30% of Suffolk County is sewered, so 70% percent of residents use cesspools or septic systems. Nassau County is mostly sewered, so the figure for Long overall is 59%. This compares poorly with neighboring regions. Westchester and Rockland Counties, for example, are 88% sewered; New York City, including the boroughs, is 99% sewered.

How was Suffolk left behind? Our timing was off. A lot of Suffolk’s growth happened after the federal government and state government stopped paying for “infrastructure,” like roads and sewers. Over the years the cost of installing sewers and treatment plants has become huge. Now the county possesses sanitation systems as fragmented as the governments, mostly very small and not always efficient, owned variously by the county, towns, villages or private entities.
The omissions and lack of centralized planning of the past continue to haunt us. Today every plan to improve Long Island’s environment, provide for sustainable growth, advance economically and in terms of social equity is challenged by this lowly-seeming problem—a lack of sewers.

We’ve worked with Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy on planning issues and we know how high a priority he accords to sewering. On March 20, Levy assembled a Sewer Summit to call attention to the problem and issued an open invitation. About 50 to 60 people were expected. Instead, 270 showed up, mostly businesspeople and civic leaders.

To protect our drinking water, Deputy County Executive Jim Morgo explained, we need to limit the amount of contaminants going into the ground, and thus, density. Restrictions against density combined with the escalating costs of land in Suffolk County, means “we can’t grow in any kind of sustainable way.”

Sustainable Long Island supports Levy’s Destination: Downtown program--revitalizing downtowns and making them attractive––and the ability to increase density is critical to success. Thus five towns have been identified, which are sewered and thus able to support development. This follows the historical pattern: wherever there’s been smart growth and sustainable development, it’s in areas that had the foresight to build sewers.

What if more communities were sewered? While noting a few exceptions, like the Pine Barrens, Morgo says “sewers would improve the economy and improve the environment.” We’d be better prepared for population growth–– an additional 400,000 people are expected to be living on Long Island in the next 20 years.

Morgo cited some specifics. Without sewer connections, builders can only put up one or two houses per acre to comply with density codes. There’s an exception––they can buy extra land that will remain permanently unbuilt, and transfer the development rights to the first property. Either way, the high cost of land makes it almost impossible to build affordable homes.

In Bayport, a successful restaurant wanted to expand. But Bayport has no sewers, and the Health Department formula for how many gallons of effluent the larger restaurant would produce precluded expansion. The owner was able to buy part of a next-door lot and transfer the development rights—but if the location had been in Bay Shore, he could have simply expanded.

So where’s the hope for building sewer systems—which are “amazingly expensive,” in Morgo’s words?

There was a time when the federal and state governments covered 87.5% of the costs of sewering as essential infrastructure. “But that help has slowed to a trickle.” Now the outlook for government funding is affected by the general economy and other government commitments. Even so, Morgo says, the case can be made; the investment is a wise one that will pay off in future years via growth and production of tax revenue, as has been the case in Greenport, for example.

“Representatives from the state and federal government were at the summit and we know they got the message,” Morgo says. “They were impressed that the critical mass is developing on awareness of the need.”

What can concerned people do? Perhaps, rally support the way the Romans did and build a statue of Cloacina. We recommend you log onto www.sustainableli.org/epetition/to sign our petition advocating for the development of sewers.

Whatever our personal focus––a healthy environment, affordable housing for young people, sustainable growth, equity for Long Islanders in every community––we can support this infrastructure development, unglamorous as it may be. If there’s a chance to vote for a clean water bond act, consider it. And let elected representatives on every level know that this is really important to us and we count on them to solve this problem.

Guest columnists Amy Hagedorn, president, board of directors and Sarah Lansdale, executive director, Sustainable Long Island