The Miracle of Sewers

EVERYONE is talking about sewers today. Elected officials, environmental advocacy groups, industry experts are all on the sewer bandwagon. Sewers, we are told, will protect and restore ground and surface water quality, lower taxes, prevent and reduce sprawl, reduce traffic and stem the exodus of young people from the region. Unfortunately, like most public policy issues, the truth is more complicated. Let’s consider the alleged benefits of sewers one by one.

Sewers Protect Ground and Surface Water Quality.

Sewers can provide a benefit by reducing the amount of contaminants and nutrients that enter ground and surface waters. However, these benefits can be quickly lost when sewers also facilitate increases in the total amount of development permitted. Depending on the efficiency of the sewage treatment plant (STP) densities as low as 3-6 units per acre can begin to impact groundwater more than low-density development tied to standard septic systems. Even with ‘state of the art’ sewage treatment, today’s development densities of 30, 40 even 100 units per acre have a negative impact on groundwater. In addition, sewers which discharge to surface waters can reduce groundwater quantity, lower stream levels, facilitate saltwater intrusion and draw pollutants deeper into our precious aquifers.

Sewers Reduce Taxes. The argument that sewers promote economic development that results in an expansion of the tax base and a lowering of overall tax burdens is simply not supported by the facts. Suffolk County is already the 23^rd most populated and 81st densest county out of 3,143 counties in the country. It is also the 8^th highest taxed county when considering property taxes as a percentage of household income. Rather than lowering taxes, increased development typically results in increased cost of government services. As another example, Nassau County has 3 times the development density of Suffolk County. Rather than having a lower tax burden, it ranks as the 3^rd highest taxed county in the Country.

Sewers Prevent and Reduce Sprawl.

First, Suffolk County has already sprawled. Sewers can’t reduce sprawl unless they are tied to redevelopment and a reduction of the region’s development footprint. In addition, sewers don’t prevent sprawl unless they are tied to a transfer of development rights program – something that has not happened in the County’s history.

Sewers Reduce Traffic.

This argument is difficult to justify. Sewers can promote compact development patterns, which can better support public transit. However, even after considering the number of trips absorbed by public transit, urban development densities still result in an increase in traffic.

Sewers Will Stem the Loss of Young People from the Region.

The argument is that young people are leaving the region because there is a lack of affordable housing. Sewers, we are told, will facilitate the housing needed to stem the loss of young people from the region. Young people have in the past and will continue to leave the region after their high school and college years for a host of different reasons. While a lack of affordable housing plays a part, additional factors include an absence of meaningful jobs, traffic, congestion and a decreasing quality of life. Improving water quality, air quality and the region’s quality of life is the best antidote for population losses.

To be clear, sewers have some benefits but they also have costs. Rather than offering up false hope, we ought to have an honest discussion about the benefits and costs of sewering. Spending hundreds of millions, and potentially billions, on new sewer infrastructure might make the development community happy but it will do little to address the region’s increasingly unsustainable development patterns and decreasing quality of life.

Dan Gulizio is the Executive Director of Peconic Baykeeper (PBK). PBK is a Not-For-Profit water advocacy organization committed to swimmable, fishable and drinkable water. Dan was previously the Commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development for the Town of Islip, the Commissioner of the Department of Planning, Environment and Land Management for the Town of Brookhaven, the Deputy Director of Planning for Nassau County and the Deputy Director of Planning for Suffolk County. Dan is a graduate of Colby College, has a M.S. degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Columbia University and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law. Dan has been a resident of the Town of Huntington for over 20 years.