Press Conference To Announce Alarming Findings on Region’s Water Quality

Bellone, Environmental Leaders, to Announce Alarming Findings on Region’s Water Quality and its Impact on Public Health and Safety

Study Updated Since Sandy Demonstrates Decline in Water Quality has Weakened Natural Defenses Against Storms 

County Executive Steve Bellone will release an executive summary of Suffolk County’s Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan, the first update since 1987. The summary will outline the number one threat to public health and safety in the region: Nitrogen pollution of ground and surface waters. According to the report, nitrogen has reached critically high levels, impacting drinking water, recreational waterways and reducing wetlands, which act as Long Island’s last line of natural defense against disasters such as Superstorm Sandy.  County Executive Bellone will also announce new criteria developed to identify priority areas for advanced wastewater infrastructure which are having the greatest impact on water quality and wetlands degradation.

 Thursday, January 23^rd, 2014 at 11:00 am

H. Lee Dennison Building, 100 Veterans Memorial Highway,  Hauppauge, New York

In attendance will be:          Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone,  Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory, Legislator Kara Hahn, Chairwoman, Committee on Environment, Planning and Agriculture, Professor Christopher Gobler, Ph.D, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Walter Dawydiak, Acting Director of Suffolk County Office of Environmental Quality, Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine, Jeff Szabo, Chief Executive Officer, Suffolk County Water Authority (invited), Kevin Law, President and CEO, Long Island Association (invited), Kevin McDonald, Project Director, The Nature Conservancy, Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Richard Amper, President, Long Island Pine Barrens Society, Joe Gergela, Executive Director Long Island Farm Bureau, Karen Rivara, Aquaculturist and President, Long Island Farm Bureau, Bob Deluca, President, Group for the East End.