SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Suffolk County Needs A Water Reuse Policy

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

photo Aquifer.org“If we look to western Long Island, there are a lot of lessons that should be applied to us—how a lot of mistakes were made regarding water,” environmentalist John Turner was saying. 

Turner was speaking about far-western Long Island—Brooklyn—and how it blew its underground water supply more than a century ago. 

Brooklyn then tried to tap into the aquifers under the Pine Barrens of Suffolk County for potable water but was rebuffed. So, it needed to look for water from reservoirs built upstate.

These days, the 2.6 million residents of Suffolk and Nassau Counties won’t be able to tap into those reservoirs if they blow their underground water supply because they’re functioning at their maximum, notes Turner. “Suffolk and Nassau will not be able to turn to New York City simply because there’s just not excess or surplus water that the city could provide to those two counties because of the water supply needs of New York City. Plus the cost of trying to interconnect, even if there were excess capacity, would be cost-prohibitive,” he said last week.

Thus, he emphasizes, it’s critical we preserve the water supply we have—the aquifers below our feet—our “sole source” of potable water.

Turner is senior conservation policy advocate at Seatuck Environmental Association in Islip and former legislative director of the New York Legislative Commission on Water Resources Needs of New York State and Long Island. He is also former director of Brookhaven Town’s Division of Environmental Protection.

He has been a leader in the effort to have wastewater purified and returned to the underground water table on Long Island rather than it being discharged into surrounding bays, the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound—as most sewer systems on Long Island do.

Nassau County is 85 percent sewered and as a result of its releasing wastewater in this way, “the uppermost expression of the aquifer system” in Nassau has “dropped considerably,” notes Turner. Hempstead Lake now “is Hempstead Pond.”

What Turner has been warning about is not new.  

Dr. Jeffrey A. Kroessler, a historian and professor and chief librarian at John Jay College in Manhattan, wrote and lectured about the Brooklyn and Long Island water story years ago. He lived in Sunnyside, Queens and died in 2023. In 2011, in the “Long Island History Journal,” published by Stony Brook University, there was an extensive article by Kroessler titled “Brooklyn’s Thirst, Long Island’s Water: Consolidation, Local Control, And The Aquifer.”

“In the 1850s…Brooklyn tapped ponds and streams on the south side of Queens County, and in the 1880s dug wells for additional supply,” he related. “This lowered the water table and caused problems for farmers and oystermen, many of whom sued…for damages. Ultimately, salt water seeped into some wells from over-pumping. By 1896, Brooklyn’s system had reached its limit.”

“Brooklyn had to find additional sources for its increasing population,” said Kroessler. “Wary of those intentions, as early as 1884 the supervisors of Suffolk County resolved to oppose ‘the enactment of any measure which, under the plea of supplying water to…Brookyn, may presently or prospectively take from any part of Suffolk County water needed for the use of its own population.’” That legislation was enacted by the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors.

Brooklyn “was casting a covetous eye on the Pine Barrens in Suffolk County.”

“As one writer explained in 1899,” related Kroessler, “In considering the subject of the water supply of Long Island, we must first of all leave out the idea that we receive water from any other source than which falls directly from the sky.” Kroessler said: “The aquifer, therefore, can only be replenished by rainfall filtered through many layers of sand and soil. That slow process accounts for Long Island’s particularly fine water, but also points to the vulnerability of that limited resource.”

The action by the Suffolk County Board of Supervisors was buttressed by New York State. As Kroessler wrote, “Governor Levi P. Morton…signed a law sponsored by Assemblyman Carll S. Burr of Commack that prevented Brooklyn from drawing off Suffolk’s water without the approval of a majority of the county supervisors.”

Meanwhile, New York City “built a new system of reservoirs and aqueducts to deliver water from the Catskills” and “Brooklyn’s old water system was transferred to the City of New York.” 

“Only in 1993 did the state legislature pass the Pine Barrens Protection Act to conserve the valuable and irreplaceable resource” as “Suffolk approached the limit of its precious water supply, just as Brooklyn had a century before. But while Brooklyn could look to additional water from New York’s system,” concluded Kroessler in his “Long Island History Journal” article, “Suffolk has no option other than reforming its own practices and policies.”

That is truer than ever today. 

Turner is excited about the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act proposed to be  on the November election ballot providing for county funding for “projects for the reuse of treated effluent”—notably for utilization on golf courses, sod farms and similar sites—to help  preserve the quantity in the underground water table in Suffolk. Turner says it “behooves all levels of government to focus on 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.   

Recreation Department Announces Fall Horseshoe Tournament Winners

On Saturday, Saturday 27^th, 2024, the Smithtown Recreation Department held its annual Singles and Doubles Fall Horseshoe Tournament at Gibbs Pond Park.

The winner of the Singles Tournament was John Kassay with a record of 4 - 1. Justin Flores finished 2^nd with a 5 – 2 record. Ed Riss finished in 3^rd place with a 4 – 2 record. John Kassay beat Justin Flores in the final 22 – 20.

John Kassay and Deb Kassay were the winners of the Doubles tournament with a 4-0 record. Andy Kassay and Paul Williams finished in 2^nd place with a record of 3 – 2. John Kassay and Deb Kassay beat Andy Kassay and Paul Williams in the final 23 – 18.

Congratulations to all the winners and to everyone who helped make this event so successful.

We hope to see everyone at the Fall Horseshoe Tournament in October.

Contact the Smithtown Recreation Department 631 – 360 – 7644 for more information.

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Support Historic Tesla Lab With "Metals for Tesla" And "Bricks For Nik"

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The historic laboratory in Suffolk County in which genius inventor Nikola Tesla did important, breakthrough work in a building designed by his friend, famed architect Stanford White, suffered a fire last year as restoration was beginning to turn the lab into a museum.

But the project of creating the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe very much continues—with its leadership working hard on it.

“Terrible,” Jane Alcorn, a driving force behind the Tesla Science Center project in Shoreham, said last week about the damage from the blaze in November. But there is “momentum to bring back Tesla’s laboratory to its former glory,” said Alcorn, a center director. 

As it declares on the opening page of its website: “Mission: Rebuild. Keep the momentum going. Donate today to see Tesla’s dream come to fruition.”

Marc Alessi, executive director of Tesla Science Center, said of the blaze: “It was heartbreaking.” He spoke last week of how firefighters from 13 departments who battled it “took it personally. It means a lot to everybody.” In 2018 Tesla’s lab in Suffolk was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The fire was “a gut punch,” said Alessi, a former New York State assemblyman and Shoreham resident. It was originally estimated to cost $3 million to repair the damage. Now, said Alessi, that’s projected at $4 million, bringing the Tesla Science Center’s total cost to $24 million which includes restoration of the lab and also building a visitor’s center on the 16.5 acre site. 

Fundraising is in high gear with grant applications being sent to foundations and the seeking of government support and donations from contributors. Since the inception of the Tesla Science Center project, some $14 million has been raised including from the state and local governments, foundations and contributors “large and small,” said Alessi.

A “Metals for Tesla” effort has begun. This month, on April 20^th, in honor of Earth Day, or any day earlier, metal that can be recycled—including metal furniture, vehicles and pipes—can be dropped off at the lab site. Details are on the Tesla Science Center website at https://teslasciencecenter.org/ 

There is “Bricks for Nik” initiative in which individuals and businesses can buy commemorative bricks. They would be placed at the base of the statue to Nikola Tesla donated by the Serbian government (Tesla’s parents were Serbs) or other paved areas on the site. In addition to names, they could include quotes and dedications. The statue was unveiled in 2003 by then Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic who called Tesla a man whose “ideas were larger than his time.” More information on this is at: https://donate.brickmarkers.com/tsc

As the book “Tesla, Inventor of the Electrical Age,” published by Princeton University Press, relates: “Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life…His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity and contributed to radio and television.” Its author is Dr. W. Bernard Carlson, a University of Virginia professor of science, technology, and society. 

Most of the world would adopt AC or alternating current. And Tesla was responsible for many more inventions, among them hydroelectric energy technology, remote control through electricity, fluorescent lighting and the bladeless turbine, notes the book. Regarding radio, Guglielmo Marconi is usually credited with originating radio but, the book points out that the U.S. Supreme Court, after Tesla’s death in 1943, determined that much of Marconi’s work was based on 17 Tesla patents. 

He went to Shoreham in 1901 to pursue his vision of providing wireless electricity. “Tesla was convinced that he could set up stationary waves in the Earth and transmit power and messages,” writes Carlson. He received a $150,000 loan from “the most powerful man on Wall Street, J.P. Morgan…to support his wireless work.” 

He had been “approached by James S. Warden, a lawyer and banker from Ohio who had relocated to Suffolk County,” purchased farmland and “christened his property Wardenclyffe.” 

He offered Tesla land. On it, the laboratory was built along with a tower 187-feet tall. Below the tower a deep “ground connection” was dug. “In many ways, Wardenclyffe was the fulfillment of Tesla’s dreams. For nearly a decade he had been planning in his imagination a system for broadcasting power around the world, and now that system was taking shape in the real world,” says Carlson. But then Morgan pulled out of the undertaking and Tesla faced huge financial problems. The tower was demolished in 1917.

        As Alcorn, a retired teacher and librarian from Shoreham, explained in a presentation at the Suffolk County Historical Society, Tesla’s “plan and dream was to…provide wireless electricity to people around the world.” He was a “visionary” with ideas that would revolutionize the world. He envisioned that not only radio signals but electricity could be sent far distances by linking into the resonance of the Earth. She said Tesla believed that if electricity could be “wirelessly” transmitted, people all over the world “would be able to tap into it”—for free.

I wrote and presented a TV program about Wardenclyffe for WVVH-TV in 2011. You can view it on YouTube by inputting “Saving Nikola Tesla’s Laboratory” and my name or by going to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H-UBvdPtag 

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.   

A History Lesson For Today And Everyday

History Lesson

By June Capossela Kempf

I was sitting on the front porch waiting for the school bus with my granddaughter, G G. (Gorgeous Granddaughter). My attention was split between the time and the street corner; hoping the bus would come before she drives me crazier than I already am for signing up for this detail in the first place – really?  I cherish these precious moments, sharing and bonding with her.

Today, she started off by asking; “How old are you?  When I answered, she swung into gear with a slew of questions.

“Do you remember Martin Luther King?”  

 ‘Sure do.”

“When he was alive? You remember his march in Washington. You were living – then? 

“Yeah, I watched it from a distance. I had a dream,” I quoted. Then, reflected how I wished I did more to support that dream - how I admired the people who marched for freedom back then.  As she struggled with the idea that her grandma witnessed her recent history lesson, the words to Aretha Franklin’s R_E_S_P_E_C_T’ tumbled around my head, along with freedom songs of the sixties. ‘If I Had a Hammer’, I softly sang out loud.

“How did you feel when he got killed?”

“So scared. I thought his dream for freedom would be lost forever and there would be rioting - everywhere.”

“.. But that didn’t happen, right?”

“His message got through. Laws were passed that not only inspired racial tolerance but protected the poor and disabled throughout the country – but we can’t forget how easily we can fall backwards.”

 G G carefully studied me like I was a talking relic resurrected from an archeological dig. 

“Did you go to Woodstock?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

I explained that I was a little older than most of the people who went.  I was married with a child, a house; and I didn’t approve the drugs and the wild crowds, but was there in spirit.”  Blah. Blah, Blah. 

 “Were you a Dove or a Hawk?” she said. 

Luckily, the bus arrived which enabled me to dodge the question. “I’ll tell you later,” I said.  

“Never mind, Grandma… You were no Hawk. “

How could she know? Especially since in the beginning I thought we were fighting the good war in Vietnam. Once I saw the destruction and realized the privileged could avoid the draft and we were losing, at a terrible cost, I leaned towards the bird of peace. But I stayed on the fence. Did I get out and march - face the fire hoses or write one letter of protest? 

I decided to talk to her tomorrow and tell her how during those days; I didn’t speak out for fear of offending my ‘friends and neighbors’ - that the bird I was most closely associated with was a chicken.

Perhaps tomorrow, I’ll tell GG that it is never too late to take a stand for your values.  We see now, as history repeats itself; that freedom can’t be taken for granted or expected to endure if we don’t fight like our forefathers to preserve liberty and justice “– all over this land.”

Thank you Dr. King – Peter,Paul and Mary, Aretha . And thank Heaven for G.G.

Suffolk Closeup: Ed Romaine Is Sworn In As Suffolk County's 9th County Executive

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

If only Washington would be this way.

Ed Romaine is sworn in as Suffolk County’s 9th County ExecutiveThe inauguration last week of Ed Romaine as the ninth county executive of Suffolk County was a celebration of non-partisanship in government. 

And it was a big salute to Romaine.

“He never let partisanship get in his way,” declared U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, in a presentation effusively praising Republican Romaine.

There were loads of Republican public officials, leaders and just plain GOP rank-and-filers among the hundreds of people packed into the auditorium at the Eastport South Manor Junior-Senior High School on January 1. This included the two members of the U.S. House of Representatives who represent Suffolk, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino, and many state, county and town Republican officials including District Attorney Ray Tierney, and, of course, Suffolk Republican Chairman Jesse Garcia. Romaine is the first Republican Suffolk County executive in two decades.

But there were also plenty of Democrats. Those in attendance besides Schumer included New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, Suffolk Democratic Chairman and Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer, Suffolk County Legislators Steve Englebright and Ann Welker, Suffolk Sheriff Errol Toulon, and the new Southampton town supervisor, Maria Moore.

Suffolk County Conservative Party Chairman Mike Torres was there, too.

I’ve covered Suffolk County executives since 1962 and regularly wrote about the first person to hold that office, H. Lee Dennison, a Democrat who crusaded for governmental reform, and then his successor, John V. N. Klein, a Republican who championed environmental initiatives including the first-of-its-kind Suffolk County Farmland Preservation Program and was a leader in challenging oil-drilling off Suffolk’s coast.

Senator Chuck Schumer Republican Dan Panico, who now follows Romaine as Brookhaven Town supervisor, said in his presentation at the inauguration: “Ed will be one of the best county executives this county has ever seen.” 

I agree with Panico having covered Romaine since 1985 after he left being a history teacher at Hauppauge High School and began putting into practice the ideals about which he taught. I’ve regularly written about his leading in numerous environmental and good-government initiatives as a long-time member of the Suffolk Legislature, innovations as county clerk, and as supervisor of Brookhaven, Suffolk’s largest town in size and population. Through many decades, he’s among the finest officials in Suffolk I have known. 

Panico spoke of Romaine’s “impeccable character” and his having “dedicated his life to make the lives of people better.”

That view was mirrored in the remarks of Schumer. “It’s a great day for Suffolk,” said Schumer. “You are getting a great representative for your county executive.”

Romaine, said Schumer, “will always put community first.”

“Suffolk County is a bastion of the middle class,” said Schumer, who hails from Brooklyn. He spoke of Suffolk being composed of “people who don’t ask for much, who just want a decent life for them and maybe have a better life for their kids….Ed understands that instinctively.”

Schumer listed many accomplishments of Romaine in government. Among these, he noted, was a pioneering federal law they worked on together “to regulate helicopter traffic” triggered by the “racket” of helicopters delivering visitors from the city to the Hamptons.

The inauguration began with Paige Patterson of Port Jefferson Station singing the opening lines of the tune “Feeling Good”—“It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day….And I’m feeling good.” The master of ceremonies, former State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, a Republican, opened with: “This is a good day.”

Romaine began his “Inaugural Address” with: “It is a new day in Suffolk County.”

“I have a long list of to-do’s,” he said. 

“This administration will be rooted in the values and traditions of hard work, personal initiative and accountability, so we can build a future that is safe and more affordable, and provides hope and opportunity to our citizens,” he continued. He outlined many of the areas he will focus upon including creation of affordable housing so people “can live here,” the environment, fighting crime, solid waste, and the highway system. He singled out the ordeal of driving “on Sunrise Highway and County Road 39 in Southampton clogged by “the ‘trade parade.’” 

The county “legislature and county executive must work together,” he said. The legislature’s presiding officer, Kevin McCaffrey, a Republican, had a front-row seat. And he said he wants “to work with our [town] supervisors.” 

“I want to start the work of building a better Suffolk County,” said Romaine.

The Rev. Patrick Riegger of St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Center Moriches—where Romaine and his wife Diane reside—gave the opening invocation. The priest spoke of building a “society founded on the principles of truth, peace and love.”  The closing benediction was offered by Rabbi Aaron Benson of the North Shore Jewish Center in Port Jefferson Station who said “today is a day of new beginnings” and of “hope and promise.” 

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.