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Preservation of Long Island’s waterways, their maritime culture and natural beauty have always been important to Long Island’s citizens, but during the past 10 to 20 years, the issue of waterway restoration and preservation has become not only a popular cause, but one that’s critical to maintaining quality of life on the Island.
“During the past few decades, the issue of bays and estuaries has really been highlighted. And we have come to understand that our economy and our quality of life is very much tied to those bodies of water,” says Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Farmingdale. “Because of that, there’s been a great deal of work and activity and focus on developing management plans for each body of water to preserve and restore the water quality and the value of the estuary.”
Waterway conservation as an environmental and political issue directly correlates to land conservation efforts and preservation of open spaces, parks and nature preserves.
Rainwater and precipitation that falls onto the land will inevitably end as runoff into the bays, rivers, estuaries or the Atlantic Ocean, or be filtered down to one of the three major underground aquifers that lie under the surface of Long Island—the Upper Glacial, the Magothy and the Lloyd Aquifers. This series of sand and gravel aquifers are geologic formations that can hold, store and yield fresh water in large, usable quantities. All of Long Island’s water supply comes from the underground water held in those aquifers.
All Long Island aquifers receive fresh water from precipitation, although it takes from 25 to 1,000 years for the water to trickle down through the layers to the aquifers, taking with it any pollutants and/or contaminants it has picked up on the way. The aquifers hold roughly 70 trillion gallons of water, which allows Long Island to withstand long droughts Almost four million gallons each day are taken from beneath Nassau and Suffolk Counties, providing the primary source of water for Long Islanders. Development, invasive species, overharvesting of fish and shellfish, and direct and indirect contamination have all contributed to the degradation of Long Island’s waterways, and have pushed preserving the quality of Long Island’s groundwater to the forefront of many citizens’ minds.
“You can’t point to one particular threat to our waterways, but there are a number of different threats during the years that arise as an area gradually becomes developed,” says Nancy Kelley, executive director at The Nature Conservancy Long Island, East Hampton. “There’s the concern about not only what gets put directly into the water, but of equal importance when it comes to waterway protection is thinking about conservation of the watershed—an area of land onto which anything that is placed could end up finding its way into the water,” Kelley says. “If inappropriate land practices are the norm, that will end up severely impacting the quality of a water body, whether it is a river, a lake, a bay or a harbor.”
It’s a never-ending job keeping up with the myriad threats to Long Island’s waterways, but organizations like The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Farmingdale; the Peconic Land Trust, Southampton; and others are on the front lines of the battle. Those groups raise awareness of issues, generate funding from private citizens, civic organizations and federal, state and local governments; they also develop and implement management plans and long-term preservation goals for bodies of water and the watersheds that surround them.
One of the great success stories has been TNC’s acquisition of 13,000 acres of underwater land in the Great South Bay. TNC acquired this land in 2004, and set out to restore the populations of shellfish and sea grass that once thrived there. As recently as 1976, 700,000 bushels of hard clams were harvested from the Great South Bay more than 50 percent of the national harvest of hard clams. In recent years, however, that number severely declined, to only 10,000 bushels in 2003.
“That particular area was responsible for a great number of clam takes on the Eastern seaboard, and that was significantly diminished as a result of overharvesting and degradation of water quality,” Kelley says. “The good news is, with proper attention and with proper practices on the land that result in higher-quality water flowing into these marine systems, and with attention being paid to restoring what we call key species, the systems can be restored.” As water quality is restored in the Great South Bay, the environment becomes safer and more hospitable to shellfish populations, and as shellfish populations are rejuvenated, the water quality of the Great South Bay is restored since shellfish are filter feeders—actually filtering the water as they go about their business of living.
To restore shellfish populations, TNC has implemented areas in both the Great South Bay and in the Peconic estuary where adult clams and scallops are concentrated and protected, areas called spawner sanctuaries. The spawner sanctuaries, in conjunction with harvest restrictions, water-quality monitoring and other preservation and restoration activities, have already made a difference. There are now 18 spawner sanctuaries in the Great South Bay, and more than one million adult hard clams.
“We hope the work that we’re doing on 13,000 acres of underwater land will be replicated across all of Great South Bay,” Kelley says. “It stands as a great example of a water-body restoration project that we feel can be replicated not only across Long Island, but up and down the Eastern Seaboard and across the United States.”
Of course, replicating efforts like those takes money. For organizations like TNC and Citizens Campaign for the Environment, generating interest and passion for their causes is not a problem—getting the necessary dollars to make their visions a reality is. “There isn’t much resistance in the concept of protecting the estuaries, but there’s always a battle about the funding and where it’s going to come from. That’s our challenge,” Esposito says. “Because conceptually, protecting the waterways has become very popular and non-partisan—that’s helpful. But getting the money each year is still a challenge”
Esposito specifically cites the fight against a cut in federal funding earmarked for the Long Island Sound conservation and restoration management plan. “Long Island Sound right now could be funded up to $40 million by the federal government for the restoration efforts,” she says. “Currently it’s in the president’s budget for less than $500,000. This is the lowest proposed funding for the Long Island Sound restoration effort in the past decade.”
TNC’s ambitious, 10-year Long Island’s Last Stand initiative has been more successful at garnering federal support and nationwide attention. The initiative is a comprehensive land and water preservation, management and restoration program that identifies and protects the most important remaining 25,000 acres of open space and 10,000 agricultural acres, and manages and restores tens of thousands of acres of parks, open space, harbors and bays, including the 13,000 underwater acres in the Great South Bay. If you’re looking for ways to help preserve and protect Long Island’s bays, estuaries, the Sound and other waterways, you can find information at citizenscampaign.org, tnc.org and peconiclandtrust.com. Those sites offer information about ongoing preservation and restoration campaigns, current events, donation centers and volunteer opportunities. If you’ve never volunteered before, maybe this is the issue that will prompt you to—pun intended—get your feet wet.
For more information go to The Nature Conservancy’s Long Island Chapter at nature.org/longisland
Read the Draft Environmental Impact Statement at broadwaterenergy.com
