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U Baldwin Schools Chief Speaks
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Thursday. August 26, 2004
ATKINSON students learn about our founding fathers. -
Keeping our water clean
by Laura Schofer
"How we use the land is directly linked to water quality," said Eileen Keenan, who testified before the Nassau County Legislative Committee on Planning, Development and Environment Committee, on Tuesday, August 17.
Ms. Keenan, a water quality educator with SEA Grant, a state and federally-funded program that provides science-based information om water related issues, was one of a number of speakers before the legislative committee to discuss the effects of stormwater runoff and the county's stormwater management program.
Legislator Dave Derienberg agreed. "What's in our streets ends up in the water. Stormwater management is so important to Long Island because discharge is a major cause of contamination of our drinking water supply, fresh water ponds, wetlands, canals, harbors and our bays."
Look no further than our own backyards to see the effects of stormwater runoff. On August 14 the heavy rains caused the closure of 11 Nassau beaches because of high bacteria counts.
"I believe we see this problem everyday when we see our canals, ponds, bays and beaches filled with sediment and garbage and when our drinking water supply is threatened," said Mr. Denenberg.
Ms. Keenan explained that impervious man made surfaces create a barrier to rainfall,, thus increasing runoff. "Storm water runoff picks up gasoline, oil, debris, fertilizer, that flows into our bays, beaches harbors and wetlands."
What can be done?
In March of 2003 the federal government passed legislation regulating stormwater as part of the Clean Water Act. Here in New York State, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) expanded its permitting program to require all stormwater discharges from individual municipal storm sewer systems called MS4s, to develop, implement and enforce a stormwater management program to reduce the discharge of pollutants. Six minimum measures must be put into place by 2008. They are: programs for public education and outreach; public involvement and participation; illicit discharge detection and elimination program;
construction site runoff control; post-construction runoff control and pollution prevention and good housekeeping techniques.
The public education program and the public involvement and participation program work hand-in-hand to disseminate information about stormwater and get the community to actively participate in cleaning up the waters. The illicit dumping program includes a plan to deal with household hazardous waste and recycling projects, water quality sampling and pipeline inspections as well as enforcement.
Construction site runoff control and the post construction runoff control programs will reduce pollutants at construction sites of one or more acres and includes site plan review, maintain and monitor
mitigation measures, enforcement and pubhc input. Education and training will be made available for construction site operators. Finally, pollution prevention and good housekeeping refers to the maintenance program to prevent and reduce contaminated runoff. It will also evaluate day to day municipal operations. Ken Arnold, sanitary engineer who oversees the Nassau County Storm Water Management Plan, presented an annual report to legislators. He said the county either has programs in place or is putting these programs into place to meet the six minimimi measures before the 2008 deadline. "We're pro-active. We've organized this program to include personnel from hydrology as well as habitat management. We are working with 54 of the 69 municipalities in Nassau County [including the (continued on page ?2)
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Freeport School Boaid page 2
New Bayview Pifnclpal page 6
leneis To The Editor. page 10
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | The-Leader_2004-08-26 |
| Subject | Newspaper |
| Description | This is a Newspaper distributed locally within the Village of Freeport and Baldwin. |
| Creator | Linda Toscano |
| Publisher | L & M Publications, Inc. |
| Contributors | Scanned by Imaging & Microfilm Access, Inc. (Bohemia, NY 11716) |
| Date | 2004 |
| Type | Periodical |
| Format | PDF; TIFF |
| Source | Freeport Memorial Library |
| Language | English |
| Coverage | United States |
| Rights | This digital image may be freely used for educational uses, as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this image is permitted without written permission of the Freeport Memorial Library, 144 W. Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520 or email: frreference@freeportlibrary.info |
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