Suffolk strikes a good deal for clean water

Score one for cleaner water — finally. A proposed major wastewater treatment plan, unveiled Monday, that would bring much-needed sewers and high-tech septic tanks to Suffolk County is good news for both the environment and county residents.

This turns around last year’s failure by the GOP-led county legislature to approve a similar plan. Newly-elected Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, a Republican, made a revised wastewater plan one of his top priorities. He helped iron out a deal with legislators intending to get it on this November’s ballot for voter approval. The deal includes a Suffolk sales tax increase of 0.125% to fund a $4 billion, 50-year wastewater treatment plan to reduce the amount of nitrogen pollution in Suffolk’s underground water supply and its waterways. State legislation must be passed in Albany before sending the plan to voters.

New sewers and improved septic tanks are long overdue, to phase out the ineffective cesspools found below most Suffolk homes and businesses. New sewer systems will also treat rainwater runoff that often contains toxins that hurt wildlife in our rivers, bays and Long Island Sound.

For decades, the clean-water drive was stymied by petty politics and clashing ambitions. In the 1970s, the corruption scandal surrounding the Southwest Sewer District halted a plan, approved by voters in 1969, to bring sewage treatment to a 57-square-mile area in Babylon and Islip towns. An earlier sewer plan that would have also included Huntington and Smithtown was defeated by voters in 1967.

Talk of sewers remained politically radioactive for years, with few county leaders willing to touch the topic. During the past decade, former Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, a Democrat, emphasized the need for sewers and high-tech septic tanks. About 75% of Suffolk remains unsewered, including 380,000 properties with outdated cesspools and septic systems. Bellone’s plan was given the necessary approval last year by the State Legislature but county lawmakers declined to put the measure on last fall’s ballot; critics said election-year politics took precedence over long-term environmental needs.

GOP legislators contended that Bellone’s plan placed 75% of its emphasis on septic tanks rather than sewers; they favored greater reliance on sewers which provide wastewater treatment for local businesses and promote economic development. The new deal produced a reasonable 50—50 split between the two approaches. The local tax money raised will enable county officials to seek matching state and federal funding.

Suffolk has lacked a well-funded, long-term plan for water quality and protection for far too long. Now that a deal has been made, Romaine, county leaders and state lawmakers should not let politics get in the way and make sure this wastewater treatment plan gets done as quickly as possible.