Water Quality: Private Profits and Public Costs

By Dan Gulizio

Elected officials, environmentalists, civics and development interests are all talking about water quality these days. That is a good thing. Fish kills, turtle die-offs, toxic algal blooms, bacteria-driven beach closures, contaminated shellfish beds and a rising tide of contaminants all reflect an ecosystem in crisis. State, county and local elected officials have all issued press releases promising action and committing public funds to fix the problem.

The Governor has announced a series of taxpayer funded initiatives including $383 million for new sewers in Babylon, Islip and Brookhaven, $44 million in sewer upgrades, $5 million for a nitrogen reduction study and $3 million for the development of a wastewater technology institute at SUNY Stony Brook.

Suffolk County has estimated that sewer and septic system upgrades could cost as much as $7 billion. The County has already authorized $20 million for a 10 million gallon per day expansion of the Bergen Point sewage treatment plant (STP) along with $207 million for the replacement and expansion of the plant’s ocean outfall pipe. The County has also committed $24 million towards the cost of extending sewer service from Babylon to the Ronkonkoma Hub project and is considering a new route that could potentially double the cost to $50 million. In addition, the County Executive has asked the State and Federal governments for additional funding to address recent fish kills and East End officials recently asked for $100 million in federal funds to upgrade antiquated septic systems.

All of these efforts are in addition to the approximately $2 billion that taxpayers have spent preserving open space through the County’s ¼ Percent Drinking Water Protection Program and East End Community Preservation Funds. Finally, taxpayers in the County also pay millions to subsidize the operational costs of existing STPs through the County’s ¼ Percent Drinking Water Protection Program.

The region’s burgeoning environmental crisis is a result of the failure to effectively regulate development. Simply put, we didn’t inherit poor water quality. We caused it through a combination of unsustainable development patterns and ineffective sanitary standards. Not only has the public paid for this failure with a diminished quality of life, increasingly taxpayers have also been asked to fund the cost of fixing the problem.

To make matters worse, through an assortment of economic development incentives, tax abatements and government funded infrastructure projects, the public is also asked to subsidize the cost of the unsustainable development patterns that are the root cause of the problem.

Taxpayers have dolled out $43 million to subsidize the cost of the Ronkonkoma Hub project, tens of millions for Wyandanch Rising in the Town of Babylon and the State Legislature just authorized $550 million in subsidies for “transformative” projects on Long Island. The County Executive is seeking $300 million for new transportation projects – needed to promote even more growth and taxpayers are paying $430 million for the LIRR Double Track Project – a second track constructed between Ronkonkoma and Farmingdale which has been billed as critical to the success of developments like Heartland Town Square, Ronkonkoma Hub and the Route 110 Corridor.

The purpose of government regulatory controls is to protect the health, safety and welfare of the public – including the environment upon which we all depend. Clean air and clean water are not privileges. They are entitlements.

Rather than externalizing the true costs of development onto the public, our elected officials must reform the region’s failed regulatory process. Like the region’s development patterns, the practice of privatizing development profits while socializing its costs is…unsustainable.

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.