At a crowded public meeting on Jan. 12. members of the Southold Town Board, local politicians and representatives from several water treatment companies discussed solutions to the water quality crisis faced by Suffolk County.
Walter Dawydiak, director of environmental quality for the Suffolk County Health Department, opened the meeting with a summary of the health and environmental issues caused by nitrogen spewing from over a million inadequate wastewater systems in our area.
“Septic tanks are putting out over a hundred times the amount of nitrogen that is needed for a healthy bay,” he said. “Over 90 percent of the eelgrass is gone due to nitrogen.”
The presence of nitrogen and other pathogens emitted by outdated cesspools and septic tanks affects not only our waterways, but our drinking water as well.
Dawydiak acknowledged that installing new residential wastewater treatment systems would be expensive; a regular septic system costs between six and eight thousand dollars while the newer systems cost in the vicinity of $14,000. He stressed that the county is looking for ways to cost share by providing initiatives or grants.
Several companies gave slideshow presentations describing how their systems work to remove nitrogen from wastewater and the public was invited to ask questions from a panel of representatives.
You can view a video of the entire meeting on Southold Town’s website.
