SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: Suffolk County Environmental Executive Forum

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The environment has long been a leading concern in Suffolk County and thus having a Suffolk County Environmental Executive Forum early in the contest for Suffolk’s highest county government position, county executive, was a natural.

Held last week at Stony Brook University, sponsored by the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, Julie Tighe, president of the fund and also the league itself, opened the forum by saying “this election season is critical to the environment.”

The environment is not only on the “top of the minds” of people, but “permeating into their daily existence,” Tighe said. She addressed how in recent weeks “we’ve seen apocalyptic orange skies” and there have been “multiple torrential rainstorms” including, she noted, four inches of rain in Suffolk the day before the forum last Monday evening. Further, globally there was a series of days that had “the hottest temperatures the Earth has ever seen.”

The extreme weather events—drought in Canada resulting in massive wildfires and orange skies in the U.S., severe rainstorms especially in Vermont and upstate New York, and the globe’s hottest weather in 120,000 years—are being attributed to climate change caused largely by the burning of fossil fuels.

Tighe urged people to make the environment a “top priority” in the coming election.

On the ballot in November as candidates for Suffolk County executive will be Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine, the Republican nominee who before becoming supervisor of Long Island’s largest town was a long-time Suffolk legislator, and David Calone, the Democratic nominee, an attorney, an ex-prosecutor including for the U.S. Department of Justice, and also formerly chairman of the Suffolk County Planning Commission and a trustee of the Long Island Power Authority.

Each spoke for the several minutes allotted for opening and closing statements and were separately questioned for more than a half-hour apiece by Tighe. Before becoming leader of the league, she was chief of staff of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for 11 years. There were about 200 people in attendance at the forum. 

Calone, of East Setauket, was the first to appear on the stage. In his opening remarks, he said: “I am the candidate with the broadest environmental experience of any candidate we have ever seen run before for Suffolk County executive.” And he referred to actions he has taken on environmental and energy matters in various positions he has held.

Calone said “we have significant issues facing our county” and cited two. One was how Romaine, he charged, “failed to deal with the landfill in Brookhaven Town” which has been “poisoning the community and putting our entire economy at risk.” The second was the rejection by the Republican majority on the Suffolk Legislature on having a referendum on the November election ballot on a measure increasing the sales tax in the county 1/8^th percent to raise money to replace cesspools on which most of Suffolk depends with sewers and what are termed Innovative/Alternative Septic Treatment System.

However, when it came his turn, Romaine, of Center Moriches, said prior to his taking office as Brookhaven supervisor there was a push by the then Democratic town administration to increase the size of the landfill. Instead, said Romaine, he called for closing the landfill, and that has been happening while he seeks reducing waste with a “circular system” concentrating “on recycling.” As for a referendum increasing the sales tax for money for sewers and new high-tech septic systems, he said the plan developed is “far from perfect” and “I don’t believe legislators were involved in drafting this legislation,” but “I am not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” He said: “I hope it goes through and if it doesn’t, you have an ironclad commitment from me that another plan will be forthcoming as soon as possible and that plan will include consultation with all 18 county legislators and not be drafted in secret.”

About climate change, Calone and Romaine had similar positions—both advocating the elimination of fossil fuels especially through the use of solar and wind power and electric vehicles. Romaine said “we can substitute green, non-polluting power” for energy to replace the burning of fossil fuels.

Romaine pointed to repeated endorsements he has received from environmental groups that he has received as a candidate for the legislature and town supervisor “because of the work I’ve done for the environment.” He spoke of endorsements by the Sierra Club, Long Island Environmental Voters Forum and the league. He said that as a legislator “I preserved more land in my district”—which, he noted, included Shelter Island, Riverhead and Southold towns and eastern Brookhaven—“than the other 17 county legislators together.” 

To hear all of what was said in the hour-and-a-half forum, a video of it is on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0agp2ALNfY&t=3s This can also be linked to by inputting on Google or YouTube the words Suffolk County Environmental Executive Forum. 

The incumbent Suffolk County executive, Democrat Steve Bellone of West Babylon, after three four-year terms is term-limited and will leave office at the end of this year. 

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: Journalism In A Changing Media Environment

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The Local Journalism Sustainability Act was not acted upon by the New York State Legislature in its past session, but a co-sponsor of the measure, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr. of Sag Harbor, is looking for action in the legislature’s next session which starts with the new year.

“I think it’s an important bill,” said Thiele last week. “Community newspapers are such a critical part of democracy. They are checks on the system.” 

But through the nation and in New York State, community newspapers have in recent times been unable to survive because of economic problems and “a changing media environment,” said Thiele. 

Indeed, said the long-time assemblyman, “a lot of places in the state are now media deserts”—communities with no community newspapers.

The act would be implemented by providing state tax credits to media companies that hire more local journalists, and a personal income tax credit of up to $250 annually to those who support local media companies as subscribers.

The measure is non-partisan. Its two other co-sponsors from Suffolk County besides Thiele are Assemblywoman Jodi Giglio of Riverhead and Senator Anthony Palumbo of New Suffolk, both Republicans. Thiele is a Democrat. 

“We the undersigned lead newsrooms, unions and other organizations working to strengthen local news in the state of New York. We do not, as a rule, write letters to elected officials, but we believe that the dramatic loss of community journalism is grievously harming communities—and that the legislation being considered in New York State is a First Amendment-friendly way of addressing this crisis,” wrote an array of publishers and editors, representatives of press unions and others earlier this year in a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul and leaders of the state legislature.

“The scale of the problem is hard to overstate,” declared this coalition, Rebuild Local News. “The number of weekly newspapers in New York plunged from 439 in 2004 to 249 in 2019.”

“Nationally we’ve seen about a 57% decline in the number of reporters in less than two decades. On average, two newspapers are closing each week,” it said.

It noted: “Studies have shown that communities with less local news have more waste, corruption and polarization—and less civic engagement.”

“We are all working hard to quickly adapt our business models, better engage readers, and draw in support from the philanthropic sector. But these steps will not be nearly big enough or fast enough. And the vacuums that are being created by the shrinking of local news are being rapidly filled by social media, national partisan news, counterfeit local websites (funded by political activists of both parties) and conspiracy theories. The communities harmed are rural and urban, large and small, red and blue. Time is of the essence.”

“This nonpartisan legislation also has firewalls to prevent elected officials from rewarding or punishing particular news outlets,” it continued. “No government body decides to give a grant to this newsroom or that. It’s a tax provision. You qualify or you don’t. That provides great insulation.”

“We’ll end on a note that may seem unusual in a letter like this. Part of why we need a strong local press is to hold elected officials accountable. Passing this will not make us do less of that. In fact, it will help us do more,” it said. “But the benefits go beyond that. Community news helps residents make choices for their families, gives communities the information they need to tackle their problems, and enables neighbors to better understand each other. It strengthens communities.”

I’ve mentioned in this space how I was inspired to go into journalism by a college internship at the Cleveland Press which had emblazoned above its entrance its motto: “Give light and the people will find their own way.” Regularly I saw those words become reality especially because of the newspaper’s investigative reporting. The Cleveland Press no longer exists.

I later spent years at the daily Long Island Press. It no longer exists.

Thiele says the tax credit plan in the bill is similar to “the incentives provided to so many industries to improve their health.” And, in this case so needed, as he says, to “insure the state of democracy on the local level.”

Issues involving housing and crime dominated the past session of the state legislature which ended last month. Thiele relates that when tax issues—including tax credit matters—are involved, typically the legislative process is slow.

Helping the local press be sustainable is vital for local democracy. 

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: Long Island And Climate Change

                                                 SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

                                                By Karl Grossman

The lead story this spring in Newsday brought dismal information about the impact of climate change on this area. Starting on the newspaper’s front page and running for three pages, the April 23^rd piece, headlined “LI’s Future And Climate Change,” declared: “In 2080, the historic Montauk lighthouse and Orient Point may be their own islands, cut off from the rest of Long Island by newly formed rivers.”

“At the end of the century, Fire Island may be little more than a sandbar separating the Atlantic from the Great South Bay. And South Shore coastal neighborhoods from Freeport to Hampton Bays could be uninhabitable.”

The article, by Carl MacGowan, continued: “These are some of the likely scenarios for Long Island’s 1,600 miles of vulnerable shorelines, according to climate scientists and environmentalists, who, citing numerous studies, said rising ocean and bay tides will alter how Long Islanders live, work and play. The pace and severity of nature’s makeover is uncertain, and most of the Island—especially inland areas far from the coasts—will be spared the worst of it, experts said. But there is broad agreement that climate change will impact the Island—and residents and public officials must start planning for a flood-filled future.”

It’s not just an area issue, of course. The climate crisis is a rapidly growing global calamity—and last week the world hit a meteorological historical record. “Earth’s hottest day? July 4 set a record, scientists say,” was the headline of a piece by Doyle Rice in USA Today. “Tuesday was Earth’s hottest day on record,” it began. “It comes as scientists say the planet is the hottest it has been in roughly 125,000 years. Experts believe more heat records will fall this summer.”

In the Newsday story, Alison Branco, with the title of climate adaption director at The Nature Conservancy office in Cold Spring Harbor, is quoted as saying: “It’s really hard to accept, but the ocean is going to make that decision for us. It doesn’t mean we can’t live here. It’s just going to look really different.”

An array of studies and experts are cited.  Over the next couple of decades, Long Island’s fish-shaped geography—with the North and South forks as the tail—likely will be dramatically reconfigured. Rising tides could turn Southold’s Hashamomuck Pond into a river stretching from Long Island Sound to Shelter Island Sound, severing Greenport and Orient from the rest of the town…On the South Fork, Napeague and Shinnecock bays could overwhelm the narrow strips of land that connect communities such as Hampton Bays, Amagansett and Montauk”—is Branco’s assessment. “It’s really going to be a series of islands as opposed to the long peninsulas that we have now.”

Kevin McAllister, president of the Sag Harbor-based organization Defend H20, relates how “some coastal communities such as Lindenhurst and Long Beach may simply become inhospitable for human habitation. These are locations that we just have to move back from.”

What’s to be done? Regarding this area, Newsday reported: “Experts say local officials should start planning to raise roads, build bridges and possibly bar development in some coastal areas.” Adaption, resilience—and retreat—have become key words.

But this is a global disaster. In medicine the strategy is dealing with the cause of illness not just the symptoms.

“We are hurtling towards disaster, eyes wide open,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last month. “It’s time to wake up and step up.” At a conference at UN headquarters in New York, Guterres, previously prime minister of Portugal, emphasized that central to the climate crisis is the burning of fossil fuels and he repeated the call he and others have made over and over again: the burning of fossil fuels—coal, oil and gas—must be eliminated with a rapid transition to green, renewable energy.

The technologies are here now to do that.

“No Miracles Needed” is the title of a brilliant just-published book by Dr. Mark Z. Jacobson, director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program and an engineering professor at Stanford University. It’s subtitle: “How Today’s Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air.”

He writes: “The world needs to switch away from using fossil fuels to using clean, renewable sources of energy as soon as possible. Failure to do so will lead to accelerated and catastrophic climate damage, loss of biodiversity, and economic, social, and political stability.” He explains how we can “solve the climate crisis, and at the same time eliminate air pollution and safely secure energy supplies for all — without using ‘miracle’ technology.” Dr. Jacobson details the use of “existing technologies to harness, store and transmit energy from wind, water, and solar sources to ensure reliable electricity and heat supplies.” And he discusses “which technologies are not needed”—including gas, carbon capture and nuclear power (the nuclear fuel cycle is carbon-intensive and nuclear plants themselves emit carbon, radioactive carbon).

To see my TV interview with Dr. Jacobson, go to www.envirovideo.com

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: Suffolk County's Immigrant Predicament

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Recent headlines tell the story of Suffolk County and migrants being bussed to New York City, largely from Texas and mainly Latinos, and the city pursuing help from other areas of the state.  

These include: 

“Counties Snub Adams Plan To Put Migrants in Suburbs”

“Suffolk seeks plan to block migrants”

“New York Mayor Sues Suffolk, Riverhead for Action on Immigration”

“New York City and Suburbs: A Rift Widens”

“Migrant Crisis Highlights Political Divide”

A majority of members of the Suffolk County Legislature last month voted to hire an attorney to explore what can be done to block migrants sent to the city from being placed in Suffolk. That followed the Town of Riverhead declaring a state of emergency mandating that “all hotels, motels, bed and breakfast facilities, inns, cottages, campgrounds or any other transient lodging units and/or facilities allowing short term rentals do not accept said migrants and/or asylum seekers for housing.”

The chair of the Suffolk County Human Rights Commission, Lynda Perdoma-Ayala, meanwhile, has called on “lawmakers and other community leaders to work together to seek fair and reasonable solutions that do not encourage bias and discrimination toward immigrants. We know that when members of our communities are marginalized, hate and violence can result.”

She said: “Providing for people in need can be complicated, but protecting the vulnerable is a U.S. obligation. Despite the words on the Statute of Liberty, our country in the past has failed to be a refuge. We are haunted by memories of failures such as the St. Louis, which in 1939 was not permitted to dock in the United States and had to return to Europe, sending a quarter of the nearly 1,000 passengers [trying to escape from Nazi Germany] to their death.” 

“The county Human Rights Commission reminds legislators and County Executive Steve Bellone that seeking asylum is protected by international law,” said Perdoma-Ayala. “Those who’ve fled countries seeking refuge from war and violence have the right to ask for protection. Asylum seekers are not illegal immigrants but humans seeking a better life no different than many of our ancestors did many years ago. Safety is a human right.”

But Suffolk County Legislator Nick Caracappa, the legislature’s Republican majority leader, says: “This is mismanagement at the top level of government. They made false promises to these individuals and encouraged them to keep coming here to America with Sanctuary Cities and other policies. We simply cannot provide for them.”

“We are having enough trouble providing for our own tax-paying citizens, our veterans and people that have mental health issues,” said Caracappa of Selden. “They’re walking the streets right now. We have people starving, families, children, begging on roadways. There are just simply not enough jobs, there’s not enough housing, there’s not enough food, there’s not enough of everything to sustain such an influx of people.”

“I’m not a racist for doing my due diligence,” said Caracappa. “They’re allowing people to cross the border, unvetted, unchecked, unhoused, unfed, unclothed, unvaccinated. It is quite frankly a huge mistake.” 

As to the city’s lawsuit against Suffolk and Riverhead, he said: “We should sue them right back.”

Most interestingly, amid the intense differences on immigration—reflective of the polarities on so many issues in the U.S. today—the front-page headline of the just-published edition of this area’s leading business publication, Long Island Business News, is: “Immigrant Island.”

Its extensive article begins: “Unless you’re a Native American, you or your ancestors came here from somewhere else, making most of us either immigrants or a product of immigrants. Today there are some 550,000 foreign-born people living on Long Island, making up about a fifth of the population. And now, a new comprehensive study from the Immigration Research Institute examines how immigrants impact the Island’s economy, highlighting their contributions, career choices, compensation and challenges, while exploring their importance in the growth and development of communities throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties.”

It says: “The report, titled ‘Immigrants in the Long Island Economy: Overcoming Hurdles, Yet Still Facing Barriers,’ offers a detailed vocational accounting of those who have come to this region from other nations.” The research by the non-profit, non-partisan organization was funded by the Long Island Community Foundation. 

Long Island Business News quotes the report’s co-author and director of the group, David Dyssegaard Kallick, saying: “Immigration has been such a controversial issue that we often miss the forest for the trees. Long Island has been a place where immigrants come and much of the time thrive and it’s also been good for the communities where they live.”

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: Will There Be A Public Vote To Increase Suffolk's Sales Tax

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

A referendum on the November election ballot approving a Suffolk charter law increasing the sales tax in the county by 1/8^th of a percent for “water quality improvement projects” may or may not happen after two public hearings last week. Mainly along party lines, a legislative majority of 10 voted not to close the hearings, a move which could have triggered the referendum.

It remains to be seen whether on July 25, when the legislature next meets, there is a majority vote for closure of the hearings and then enough time then to set the proposed referendum.

The sales tax jump would be predicated on a legislative declaration that Suffolk County “still relies on for disposal of wastewater more than 380,000 cesspools and systems which are not designed to actively treat wastewater” and “this has been widely recognized as a significant obstacle to sustainable economic growth.”

The objective is to deal with nitrogen pollution from cesspool use with a transition to conventional sewers and also a high-tech approach developed in recent decades called an Innovative/Alternative Septic Treatment System that can be installed at a single home or business. The raising of $4 billion over 50 years is sought. 

If there is a sales tax increase, the sales tax rate in Suffolk County would be the second highest in New York State exceeded only by that in New York City.

A companion resolution also under consideration at the hearings was the creation of one countywide sewer district to include a consolidation of the now 27 separate sewer districts. 

The problem cited by Kevin McCaffrey, a Lindenhurst Republican and presiding officer of the legislature, for not closing the hearings involved what he cited as a difference between state legislation authorizing the county’s actions and what the county would like. The state legislation, he said, provided mostly for financial support of Innovative/Alternative Septic Treatment Systems rather than conventional sewage systems.

Steven Flotterson, a Bay Shore Republican and deputy presiding officer of the legislature, said: “We want to maximize sewers” and a “much larger amount needs to go for sewers.”

Democratic legislators, meanwhile, pressed to close the hearings, 

As for conventional sewage systems, they are “not an answer to water quality,” testified Doug DiLillo of Huntington Station, urging the legislators to consider neighboring Nassau County, which is 85 percent sewered, and also “look to Nassau County in terms of quantity.” DiLillo noted his having served on panels in Suffolk for a Groundwater Protection Plan and a Pine Barrens Protection Plan. In Nassau, he said, saltwater intrusion has come to the underground water table, which it shares with Suffolk, because instead of treating wastewater and recharging it back into the ground, Nassau’s many sewage treatment plants send wastewater through outfall pipes into adjacent waterways depleting the “sole source” aquifer.

Regarding having a countywide sewer district, Maryann Johnston, long president of Affiliated Brookhaven Civic Organizations, testified that she was “concerned” about that considering Suffolk County’s record with its Southwest Sewer District. This was a $1 billion undertaking in which in the 1970s the county built a sewer system in its the southwest portion, a project mired in scandal. Also, she scored the Southwest district’s treatment plant, at Bergen Point in West Babylon, built to dump 30 million gallons of wastewater a day through an outfall pipe into the Atlantic Ocean, an amount in recent years raised to 40 million gallons.

Suffolk County is now 25 percent sewered. 

There were more than 40 speakers at the June 21^th back-to-back hearings in Riverhead.

Representatives of construction and labor interests stressed that sewers encourage economic activity, facilitate more residents and create jobs. Matthew Aracich, president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau & Suffolk Counties, testified that sewers are important “if you want to get economic activity” and “are crucial to attract people.”

Elisa Kyle, a director for Northport-based Vision Long Island, said “sewers are critical for downtown revitalization.”

Among representatives of environmental organizations testifying, John Turner, senior 

conservation policy advocate for Islip-based Seatuck Environmental Association, called the initiative “incredibly significant.” He said that “the degradation of our water supply” is a critical problem and the legislators would “never cast a more important and consequential vote.”

Kevin McAllister, president of Sag Harbor-based Defend H20, said: “I think Suffolk County has constructed an excellent program. Good science has been applied.”

And Bob DeLuca, president of the Southold-based Group for the East End, said a referendum “simply places the decision in the hands of the electorate.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone in his nearly 12 years in office—he departs at the end of the year because of term limits—has made sewering in Suffolk a signature goal of his administration. In 2015, Bellone, a West Babylon Democrat, appointed Peter Scully a deputy county executive, to be the county’s “sewer czar.”  Scully spoke extensively at both hearings saying the proposed program was the “culmination of a 10-year effort.” 

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.