SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: New Faces Coming To The Legislature

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

There will be new faces on the Suffolk County Legislature next year and, if he is elected in November, a familiar face, Steven Englebright of Setauket, who was a leading environmental champion on the county’s governing panel from 1983 until his election to the State Assembly in 1992. 

However, Democrat Englebright after 30 years in the Assembly, in which on the state level he continued as an environmental leader including as chair of the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee, lost his Assembly seat in an upset last year to Republican Ed Flood, a lawyer from Port Jefferson.

Still, at 76, Englebright has decided to seek to return to the Suffolk Legislature. Long a professor at Stony Brook University, he will be facing Republican Anthony Figliola of East Setauket, a former deputy supervisor of the Town of Brookhaven.

However, his election is not assured. Republican candidates did very well in contests for the Suffolk County Legislature in the last election, in 2021, for positions on the county’s 18-member governing panel. It now has a Republican majority after years of Democratic majorities.  

Will that GOP muscle continue this year in the bi-annual election to the panel? 

Meanwhile, the legislature’s term limit for members of 12 years is resulting in two major Democratic figures on the panel having to leave: Kara Hahn of Setauket and Sarah Anker of Mount Sinai. 

Hahn served as the panel’s Democratic majority leader from 2016 through 2019 and was chosen its deputy presiding officer for 2020 and 2021. It is for what will be her open seat that Englebright and Figliola are now competing. 

The candidates for what will be Anker’s open seat are Mount Sinai Democrat Dorothy Cavalier, Anker’s chief of staff, and Rocky Point Republican Chad Lennon, an attorney who has been an aide to U.S. Representative Nick LaLota, a GOPer from Amityville.

LaLota was boosted in his win last year in the lst Congressional District by the vote for governor of Republican Lee Zeldin of Shirley in Brookhaven Town—a pivotal geographical component of the district. And likewise, the Englebright upset has been tied, in part, to the coattails of the vote in Brookhaven Town for Zeldin.

The most prominent race this year in Suffolk will be for county executive with the incumbent, Democrat Steve Bellone of North Babylon, needing to leave after 12 years also because of term limits.

The Republican candidate to replace Bellone is Ed Romaine, the supervisor of Brookhaven Town and previously a Suffolk County legislator and county clerk. Will a strong showing for Center Moriches resident Romaine in Brookhaven Town impact negatively on the votes for Englebright and Cavalier? Still, Romaine’s Democratic opponent, Dave Calone, a former chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission, is from East Setauket, also in Brookhaven Town. Might this affect Romaine’s Brookhaven showing?

There are many questions this year in Suffolk politics where geography has long been a big factor—with voters so often balloting for candidates from the towns where they reside.

In the meantime, on the East End, in surprise moves, two Democratic legislative incumbents have decided not to run for re-election.

Legislator Bridget Fleming, a Noyac Democrat and former member of the Southampton Town Board and an assistant Manhattan district attorney, is departing for what she describes as other opportunities. She told me last week that this will include legal activities. And Al Krupski, a Cutchogue Democrat, has decided to leave the legislature to run for Southold Town supervisor. 

Krupski has provided a unique perspective to the legislature as a fourth-generation North Fork farmer. Suffolk is still among the top agricultural counties in New York State. 

Running for what will be Fleming’s open seat is North Sea Democrat Ann Welker, a member of the Southampton Town Trustees. She is first woman elected as a member of that body, which has major jurisdiction over town waterways and wetlands since it was created in  1686, and an ardent environmentalist.

Welker is facing Springs Republican Manny Vilar, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee and a retired New York State Park Police officer.

The candidates for what will be Krupski’s open seat are Baiting Hollow Democrat Catherine Kent, a former Riverhead Town Board member, and Riverhead Republican Catherine Stark, an aide to Krupski and previously an aide to County Executive Robert Gaffney and also to Jay Schneiderman when he was a county legislator. Her father was the late Riverhead Town Supervisor Jim Stark.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : Part 2 LI Water Reuse Action Plan

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

“Water reuse has been increasingly recognized as an essential component in effective water resource management plans,” says the “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” unveiled last week. “The United Nations formally acknowledged the importance of water reuse in 2017,” it adds. 

“The benefits of water reuse have long been recognized and embraced in other parts of the world,” it continues. And now in the United States, “approximately 2.6 billion gallons of water is reused daily.”

But in New York State, “large-scale water reuse projects have been limited. There are a few projects in upstate New York and one on Long Island,” the “Riverhead reuse project” which started in 2016 “to redirect highly treated wastewater, as much as 260,000 gallons per day” from the Riverhead Sewage Treatment Plant to “irrigate the nearby Indian Island County Golf Course” instead of, as had been the practice, dumping it into Flanders Bay. 

“Reusing water, for some other valuable purpose, provides numerous benefits,” the “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” goes on. “These include protecting public wells and water supplies from salt water intrusion.” It calls for highly treated wastewater to be used for a variety of purposes here with additional irrigation of golf courses but also of sod farms and greenhouses, lawns and fields at educational and commercial sites and—highly important—to deal with “over-pumping.”

Indeed, a lesson for all of Long Island is how Brooklyn—on Long Island’s western end—lost its potable water supply more than a century ago: by over-pumping and consequent saltwater intrusion, along with pollution, notes John Turner, senior conservation policy advocate at the Seatuck Environmental Association. 

So, Brooklyn began getting its water from reservoirs built upstate. There has been talk in recent years of Nassau County buying water from those New York City-owned reservoirs. But they are near capacity, says Turner, so the city “has not been welcoming Nassau County with open arms.”

For Nassau and Suffolk Counties water reuse is critical.

The “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” was presented this week at an event at the treatment facility of the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District in Nassau County. Nassau is a case study of how the Brooklyn lesson has not been learned. In Nassau, which is 85% sewered, its sewage treatment plants dump wastewater through outfall pipes into nearby waterways and the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound—and as a result Nassau’s water table is dropping.

An announcement for the event said that it “serves as a kick-off for a new way of thinking that could revolutionize the way in which our community protects its most precious natural resource.”

The “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” charting a course for Long Island to reuse water from its underground water supply, its “sole source” of potable water, was created by Islip-based Seatuck working with the Greentree Foundation and Cameron Engineering & Associates, and a Water Reuse Technical Working Group of 28 members.

Suffolk County is about 25% sewered. Some water treatment plants in Suffolk recharge treated wastewater into the ground but plants also do what Nassau has been doing, sending wastewater out to adjacent waters or the ocean or Long Island Sound through outfall pipes.

There has been action through the years on pollutants in the water supply, on quality of drinking water, in Nassau and Suffolk. There must be a parallel emphasis on quantity.

“Major Action Plan Recommendations” in the new plan, include: “Develop Water Reuse Regulations/Guidelines…Convene a Long Island Water Reuse Workgroup to develop and implement strategies…Conduct engineering studies on the most feasible projects…Engage Long Island Golf Course Association in plan development…” 

The members of the “Water Reuse Technical Working Group” for the plan included: Anthony Caniano, hydrologist at the Suffolk County Department of Health Services; Christopher Gobler Ph.D. of the Stony Brook University School of Marine & Atmospheric Sciences; Chris Class, marine scientist at The Nature Conservancy; Joseph Gardner, president, Long Island Golf Course Superintendent’s Association; Christopher Schubert, program development specialist at the New York Water Science Center; Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment; Suffolk County Public Works Supervisor Madhav Sathe and Deputy Suffolk County Executive Peter Scully.  

Projects for water reuse considered in the Town of Smithtown in the plan include: Kings Park High School and Whisper Vineyard. Projects in neighboring Huntington Town include at: Kurt Weiss Greenhouses in Melville; White Post Farms in Melville; Deckers and Van Cott Nurseries in Greenlawn; Northport High School and Harborfields High School in Greenlawn; Holmes Farms in Huntington; and Del Vino Vineyard in Northport. 

For more information on the plan visit https://seatuck.org/water-reuse/

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP : "LI Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

Karl Grossman

Water reuse. It’s essential for Suffolk and Nassau Counties, dependent as they are on an underground water supply, a “sole source” aquifer below for water. A “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan” will be unveiled next week about making use—through reuse—of water from below.

For years, there’s been concern over the quality of the water in Suffolk and Nassau and steps have been taken to prevent and deal with contamination of water. But the issue of water quantity has been largely ignored.

Ancient Rome pioneered the building of sewers that dumped used water into nearby waterways. The centuries-old Roman system continues in Nassau. Some 85% of Nassau is sewered. And from those sewage treatment plants along Nassau’s north and south shores this so-called “wastewater” is sent via outfall pipes into nearby waterways and the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound.

As a result, the underground reservoir of Nassau is “shrinking,” explains John Turner, senior conservation policy advocate at Islip-based Seatuck Environmental Association. Previously he was legislative director of the state Legislative Commission on Water Resource Needs of New York State and Long Island, and also director of Brookhaven Town’s Division of Environmental Protection. 

Seatuck, working with the Greentree Foundation and Cameron Engineering & Associates and a Water Reuse Technical Working Group of 28 members, has put together the “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan.” 

It will be presented this coming Wednesday on what significantly is World Water Day. Several nations around the world now excel in water reuse, and so do a few states in the U.S., notably California and Florida.

Meanwhile, with wastewater just dumped by Nassau and its water table dropping, Hempstead Lake has become known as “Hempstead Puddle,” notes Turner. Valley Stream is “Valley No-Stream.” Also affected have been other streams and water bodies in Nassau, and wetlands have been seriously impacted, too. 

About 25% of Suffolk County is sewered. It does have smaller treatment plants that recharge treated wastewater into the ground, but most of its bigger sewage treatment plants follow the way of Nassau County—and ancient Rome—and discharge into nearby waterways, the Atlantic and Long Island Sound.

Suffolk’s largest sewage plant, its Bergen Point Treatment Plant in West Babylon, was built to send 30 million gallons of wastewater a day through an outfall pipe into the Atlantic. 

And Suffolk County government has been pushing for new sewer systems to also send what they process through the Bergen Point plant into the Atlantic—including from a gigantic commercial development proposed for Ronkonkoma miles away, in the middle of the Suffolk.

A breakthrough in Suffolk County was an upgrade of the Riverhead Sewage Treatment Plant and in 2016 its treated effluent sent to the adjacent Indian Island Golf Course where it fertilizes the turf rather than, as was the practice, dumped into Flanders Bay. That water reuse project is a model for the “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan.” 

The plan begins: “Over the past half century, water quality in Long Island’s groundwater aquifer—the sole source of drinking water for more than 2.5 million Nassau and Suffolk County residents—and both freshwater and coastal surface water has steadily declined. Notably among this water quality program is the detrimental impacts to human and ecosystem health associated with excess nitrogen.”

“During the same time period,” it continues, “Long Island’s water quantity problem has also come into focus. High rates of pumping have impacted Long Island’s vast aquifer resources, with water table levels significantly decreased in many places.”

“Water reuse or water recycling, as it is also known, is a complementary strategy that can meaningfully help Long Island address its water issues,” it explains. “It involves ‘reusing’ highly treated wastewater generated from sewage treatment plants for water-dependent purposes instead of discharging it into the ocean or local coastal waters.”

That highly treated wastewater can be used for, among other things, irrigation “at locations such as golf courses, sod farms and greenhouses, as well as for lawns and fields at educational and commercial campuses.” It can be used at “commercial centers, industrial parks and jobs sites” which have “considerable potential to utilize reclaimed water for a range of purposes, from cooling to cleaning to mixing non-consumptive products, e.g., concrete.” And treated “reclaimed water can be used to address hydrological or ecological needs, especially those associated with over-pumping, such as augmenting streamflow or restoring aquatic habitat.”

More next week on the visionary and much-needed “Long Island Water Reuse Road Map & Action Plan.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Moody's Analytics "Long Island At Risk"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Long Island is ranked fourth for “highest chronic physical risk among the 100 most populous areas” in the United States for the impacts of climate change in a just-issued report of Moody’s Analytics. The Number One area threatened is San Francisco, then Cape Coral, Florida, then New York City—and then Long Island. 

“The most at-risk metro areas are predominantly coastal,” says the 14-page report. “The New York City area and Florida are especially vulnerable, but too are other parts of the Eastern Seaboard and California.”

A section titled “Housing” is a main issue in the report by Moody’s Analytics, a subsidiary of the Moody’s Corporation, a business and financial services company. Moody’s Analytics does economic research including about risks and describes itself as providing “financial intelligence and analytical tools to help business leaders make better, faster decisions.”

“Rising temperatures mean more frequent and severe natural disasters that could destroy homes and spark out-migration from some areas,” says the report. “Similarly, enough disasters will eventually force insurers to abandon markets they deem too risky; this has already happened in some parts of the country, including much of Florida, forcing the public sector to step in. That practice, however, will be difficult to sustain and could eventually compel more people to move out of areas that become classified as uninsurable. Similarly, while there is a strong tendency today to rebuild after natural disasters, a lack of insurance and government funding could make that far less palatable in the future.”

States the report: “The importance of accounting for climate change will only grow for the banking system and corporate decision-makers.”

In an interview last week in Newsday, Adam Kamins, a Moody’s Analytics senior director and author of the report, said: “With sea level rise, Long Island is a lot more exposed than the rest of the country for obvious reasons.” He continued: “Combined with acute physical risk associated with hurricanes, which are expected—especially if climate change goes largely unmitigated—to grow stronger, most frequent and to make their way north,” this “puts Long Island in a vulnerable position.”

“Retreat is not an option,” declares a Floridian in a voice-over at the end of a TV documentary aired nationally in December titled “Brink of Disaster Miami Sinking.” A focus of the program, broadcast on the Science Channel, is how Miami and most of South Florida have been built on top of porous limestone. That’s a sponge for inundation and flooding, it says, and thus climate change and ensuing sea-level rise and storm surge could be put the area under water.

The finest book I know about what all the vulnerable coastal areas face from climate change is Retreat from a Rising Sea, Hard Decisions in an Age of Climate Change. It was published by Columbia University Press in 2016. Its three authors are Dr. Orrin H. Pilkey, a leading expert on coastal impacts of climate change—he’s been to Suffolk County to speak—and is professor emeritus in the Division of Ocean Sciences at Duke University, and his daughter, Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, a geologist, and son, Keith C. Pilkey, an attorney.

They state: “Our dependence on fossil fuels has in part brought us to this place, causing a chain of events that warms the atmosphere, which in turn warms and expands the oceans, melts glaciers and ice sheets, and consequently raises the seas.”

“The deniers of climate change and sea-level rise continue to have a voice that seems to grow weaker with each superstorm. But a closer look shows that the deniers provide a façade of credibility for a host of politicians who contrive to ignore the rising sea,” they say. “Deniers have vested interests most related to the fossil-fuel industries in confusing us and hereby delaying regulatory action.”

“Greed and selfishness are often part of decisions to protect property at the price of beach destruction. In Southampton, New York, several beachfront billionaires are building massive walls to protect their individual homes, despite the community’s opposition,” they write.

“Why move back? Why retreat?” To these questions they say: “As the sea level rises, the replenishment sand will become less stable, will erode faster, and will have to be replenished more frequently, and the cost will rise exponentially. Seawalls built on eroding beaches will eventually cause the loss of the beach…” 

The 212-page book concludes: “There is not the slightest doubt that beachfront development will retreat on a massive scale, although widespread recognition of this and serious planning for it are lacking. In the meantime, until the problem becomes so obvious that even the most dedicated denier must give in, more local actions can be taken. First and foremost, building density should not increase, and large buildings (high-rises) must be prohibited. Good planning could include preserving space on the mainland to which buildings could be moved. New roads and other infrastructure should be placed as high and far away from the shoreline as feasible. Disincentives to expand or stay in place must be applied….Neither time or tide is in our favor.”

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books. 

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Calone And Romaine Kick Off Campaign For County Executive

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The race this year for Suffolk County executive—the top position in Suffolk County government—is taking shape with a contest between Republican Edward Romaine and Democrat Dave Calone. 

Romaine was first elected Brookhaven Town’s 70th town supervisor in a special election in 2012, and re-elected with large margins since. He has extensive county experience. Romaine was a member of the Suffolk Legislature from 1986 through 1989 when he was elected Suffolk County clerk, a position he held for 16 years. In 2005, he returned to the legislature and was re-elected three times before running for and becoming Brookhaven Town supervisor.  

It was a family tragedy that caused him to depart the legislature and run for Brookhaven Town supervisor. It was after his son, Keith Romaine, a two-term Brookhaven Town councilman, seen as moving up and becoming town supervisor, died at just 36. The young Romaine, or Moriches, suddenly contracted pneumonia and passed away from complications caused by a virus that attacked his heart. Ed subsequently ran for town supervisor to do what his son “might have done.” As he explained: “If my son had lived, he would be supervisor.”

As a legislator and town supervisor, Ed Romaine, of Center Moriches, has been highly active especially on environmental issues and pressing for sound fiscal policies. He was a major legislative force in battling and stopping the operation of LILCO’s Shoreham nuclear power plant. As the top elected town official in Brookhaven, Suffolk’s largest town, bigger than Nassau County, Romaine’s major undertakings have encompassed protecting the Carmans River and promoting the use of renewable energy. “We have put up solar panels everywhere,” he has said.

Romaine started his professional life as an educator and taught history at Hauppauge High School. He initially began serving in government as Brookhaven’s first commissioner of Housing and Community Development and later director of Economic Development.

Calone is a lawyer and a former state and federal prosecutor. In the U.S. Department of Justice from 1999 until 2003, his focus included both terrorism and corporate fraud. He announced in July that he was seeking to be the Democratic candidate for county executive. 

Calone was chair of the Suffolk County Planning Commission for eight years, a trustee of the Long Island Power Authority and a board member of the Community Development Corp., an affordable housing nonprofit. In business, he is president and CEO of Jove Equity Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm. He serves as a director of several U.S. companies.

There was a “kick-off” in Stony Brook last month for the Calone campaign with 250 people in attendance. Also last month, Calone, of East Setauket, said contributions to his campaign had reached $1.7 million. 

Says Calone: “The county executive role is not about left or right—it’s about moving Suffolk forward. As a former prosecutor and businessman, I am ready to lead our county to become safer, more affordable, and with more opportunity for everybody.”

A wrinkle earlier in the Democratic Party’s process of choosing a candidate for county executive this year was that Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman considered running. “I’ll be a good candidate,” said Schneiderman in November. He was first elected Southampton supervisor in 2015 after being a Suffolk County legislator and is the only person to ever serve as supervisor of two Suffolk towns—first East Hampton and then, after being on the legislature, Southampton. However, last month he decided not to run saying that “for a variety of reasons, I have decided not to enter the county executive race at this juncture.” 

If he had gotten the nomination it would have been an interesting pairing considering that Romaine had been Schneiderman’s history teacher at Hauppauge High School

Suffolk Democratic Chair Rich Schaffer said following the Calone the kick-off: “As former prosecutor and as a business leader, Dave will lead a coalition to energize Democratic voters across the county.” That would be important if it happens because a key reason many Democratic candidates in Suffolk didn’t fare well in the 2022 election was the Democratic turn-out here—a 7.8 percent decrease from the 2018 election. Meanwhile, Republicans increased their turn-out from 2018 by 5.7 percent. 

And then there is how Suffolk’s huge number of independent voters will ballot. 

Regarding voter figures in Suffolk, the latest numbers from the New York State Board of Election (from November) show most are enrolled Democrats—380,756. The Republican total is 343,940. But then there are the independents, listed by the board as “Blank” voters—312,975. These independents are often the key in Suffolk elections

This year is the last for Steve Bellone as Suffolk County executive due to term limits. A Democrat from North Babylon and lawyer, he was a member of the Babylon Town Board and that town’s supervisor before his election as county executive in 2011.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.