L.I. How Did We Get Here? Environment

From their living rooms after work in the mid-1960s, a trio of Long Island scientists and avid birders, Art Cooley, Charlie Wurster, and Dennis Puleston came together to discuss and document what they were observing - the decline of the osprey population.

A few years prior in 1962, Rachel Carson’s book, “Silent Spring,” was published. In her book, Carson effectively argued that the pesticide DDT, which had been widely used since WWII, was having a destructive effect on the environment. Specifically, causing the shells of bald eagles and peregrine falcon eggs to thin, weaken, and break, ultimately threatening their survival.

Back on Long Island, this small group of scientists researching the osprey population decline found that unhatched eggs contained substantial concentrations of DDT. They asked the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission to stop using the chemical. The commission was unmoved and continued to use DDT, citing its efficacy and cost efficiency.

Unprecedented at the time, the scientists joined with a lawyer and went to the NY State Supreme court in Riverhead and filed a lawsuit on behalf of the environment. They prepared for months and made a convincing case. DDT wasn’t just poisoning bird species, but also crustaceans, while diminishing in value as a mosquito control, as the insects were becoming resistant to it. A few weeks later, the court issued an injunction against the use of DDT by the Mosquito Control Commission. The injunction lasted a year, but the lawsuit was ultimately thrown out. However, in the meantime, Mosquito Control Commission had switched to using a different insecticide and DDT was never sprayed on Long Island again. The scientists had won the case in the court of public opinion.

In 1967, the group along with other environmental activists gathered in a conference room at Brookhaven National Laboratory and signed documents of incorporation to form the Environmental Defense Fund. Their first office was above the Stony Brook Post Office.

Ultimately, the New York State Legislature banned DDT in 1971, and a nationwide ban followed in 1972. Following the national ban, the bald eagle and peregrine falcon were removed from the federal endangered species list, and Long Island osprey populations made a dramatic recovery. 

Interview with EDF Founding Trustee Charlie Wurster highlighting the organization’s history. 

NY Times article on the passing of EDF founder Dennis Puleston.

LI Press Obituary of Art Cooley.

In 1969 voters in the southwestern portion of Suffolk County voted for establishment of the Southwest Sewer District. The plan soared in price, was hindered by corruption and defrauded taxpayers. Ultimately, turning into a $120-million bid-rigging case and one of the biggest scandals in the history of Suffolk County in which two vendors were convicted and four others paid fines without admitting guilt.

The scandal took down the administration of County Executive John V. N. Klein of Smithtown. With the scandal central to his campaign, then Islip Town Supervisor Peter F. Cohalan ran against Klein in a Republican primary for county executive and won, then won again in the general election. Cohalan’s campaign slogan called on Republican voters to “Flush Klein.” The scandal effectively ended sewer expansion in Suffolk County for decades. As a result, county officials estimate at least 70 percent of the county relies on cesspools.

1981 NY Times article.

LI Business News article, “Down the Drain.” 

Karl Grossman's article touching on the history of the scandal.

The Nassau-Suffolk Regional Planning Board released the Long Island Comprehensive Waste Treatment Management Plan in July of 1978. The plan was named the “208 Study” because it was developed pursuant to Section 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The 208 Study was the first attempt at comprehensive water quality management on Long Island. The plan helped create awareness that, unlike most communities that rely upon rivers or reservoirs, Long Island relied upon environmentally vulnerable underwater aquifers for all drinking water needs.

The 208 study described Long Island’s sole source aquifer system as consisting of three major aquifers: the Upper Glacial aquifer, the Magothy aquifer, and the Lloyd aquifer. Additionally, the study identified eight hydrogeologic zones located across the Island, which created conflicts between the pressure to develop and the need to maintain open space to serve as recharge areas for the aquifers.

A PDF of the entire study is available here.

Chartered by entrepreneur and owner of the barge, Lowell Harrelson, and Luchese family mob boss, Salvatore Avellino, the barge set sail on March 22 from Islip carrying 3,168 tons of trash headed for a pilot program in Morehead City, North Carolina, to be turned into methane. While in transit, a rumor proliferated that the trash contained hospital waste, syringes, and diapers that contaminated the entire load.  The barge was docked at Morehead City until a local WRAL-TV news crew, acting on a tip, flew over the barge by helicopter to investigate. The story broke on the 6 p.m. news on April 1, 1987, and North Carolina officials began their own investigation, resulting in an order refusing to accept the waste. The barge then continued along the coast looking for another place to offload. After an 11-day delay, the barge made its way to its home port in Louisiana, but that state, too, refused to accept the waste. Likewise, Alabama and three other states, the nations of Mexico, Belize, and the Bahamas also rejected the load before the operators abandoned the plan and returned to New York. 

The owner of the garbage barge tried to negotiate to dock near Queens, NY, where the load would be carried back to Islip by truck, but Claire Schulman, borough president of Queens at the time, secured a temporary restraining order that forced the waste to stay offshore. The barge stayed off the shores of Brooklyn, decaying until July, when the vessel was granted a federal anchorage in New Jersey. Court hearings ran until October, when it was arranged that the cargo would be incinerated in Brooklyn, and the 430 tons of ash that remained would be dumped at the Islip landfill. 

At the time, the incident was widely cited by environmentalists and the media as representative of the solid-waste disposal crisis in the United States and a shortage of landfill space. The incident sparked national public discussion about waste disposal and was likely a factor in increased recycling rates in the late 1980s and after.

NY Times article “Garbage Barge Returns in Search of a Dump” 

2017 Newsday project looking back on the 30-year anniversary of the garbage barge.

PBS Retro Report on the garbage barge (video). 

In the late 1980s, real estate development, including strip malls and housing developments of suburban sprawl was responsible for Long Island losing vast acres of its valued woodland Pine Barrens at the rate of nearly 5,000 acres a year. The ecosystem that once covered 250,000 acres had declined to an estimated 125,000 acres. At the time, 234 development projects were proposed in the remaining Pine Barrens area. The Long Island Pine Barrens Society, founded in 1977 by John Cryan, Robert McGrath, and John Turner. to increase public understanding of the significance of the Pine Barrens found itself in a historic effort to stop development before the Pine Barrens ceased to be a viable ecosystem.

Photo by Sandra Richard CC BY-NC 2.0

On November 21, 1989, the Pine Barrens Society filed the largest environmental lawsuit in the history of New York State, asking the State Supreme Court to require a collective environmental assessment of all the projects in this critical region under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

In 1992, the Court of Appeals (the highest court in New York State) ruled against the Pine Barrens Society. However, in the decsions, the Court noted, "[A]n exhaustive and thorough approach to evaluating projects affecting this region is unquestionably desirable and, indeed, may well be essential to its preservation." However, "We in the judiciary are not free to piece together statutes and regulations that were never meant to address a problem of this magnitude... the solution must be devised by the Legislature." This, along with the public awareness created by the lawsuit and campaigns by the Pine Barrens Society and other environmental organizations put pressure on the New York State Legislature to act.

The Society quickly gained a reputation as determined fighters for drinking water protection and open space preservation. The founders enlisted communications professional and community education expert, Richard Amper, as their first professional staff person. They educated him on everything about the Pine Barrens and tasked him with developing and executing a campaign to save the Pine Barrens. 

During the campaign, the Society emerged as one of the most effective environmental groups in the state and achieved protection of some 55,000 acres of Pine Barrens through landmark legislation, the Pine Barrens Protection Act. Richard Amper and the Pine Barrens Society won several awards for their efforts and received regional and national recognition for the conservation campaign. 

Pine Barrens Society co-founder, John Turner, on the significance of the Pine Barrens (video). 

New York State enacted the Special Groundwater Protection Areas (SGPA) Law in 1987 (Article 55 of New York's Environmental Conservation Law). The law outlined the framework for designating SGPAs within federally identified Sole Source Aquifer regions, such as Long Island, and named the Long Island Regional Planning Board (previously Nassau Suffolk Regional Planning Board) as the planning entity for SGPAs in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The LIRPB released The Long Island Comprehensive Special Groundwater Protection Area Plan in 1992. Nine SGPAs were identified on Long Island as important for maintaining adequate volumes of high-quality groundwater. These SGPAs are crucial for recharging the deep aquifers that provide drinking water; therefore, policies that aim to protect water quality by controlling or restricting development in SGPAs are considered reasonable restrictions to achieve drinking water protection goals. Under New York State’s environmental quality review laws, SGPAs meet the designation of Critical Environmental Areas (CEAs). This designation signifies their unique ecological, geological, or hydrological sensitivity and requires lead agencies to provide a hard look during SEQRA review regarding the potential impact of a proposed development.  

LI Special Groundwater Protection Plan (PDF) - Long Island Regional Planning Board

In 1994, HealthyPlanet launched its first Turkey-Free Thanksgiving Dinner/Lecture Series, which quickly evolved into one of Long Island’s largest and longest-running community Thanksgiving events (1994 to 2019). The annual celebration was the highlight of HealthyPlanet’s monthly, fully plant-based potluck and lecture series, featuring nationally recognized speakers, authors, scientists, and physicians addressing topics such as health, the environment, climate change, and the suffering of animals.

Designed as both an educational and participatory experience, the events modeled a new, eco-friendly, compassionate holiday tradition that offered the abundance of a Thanksgiving meal without the turkey. The potluck format encouraged attendees to prepare and share whole-food, plant-based dishes, helping participants develop practical skills for long-term dietary and lifestyle change.

Over its 25-year run, the series hosted more than 200 events and drew nearly 20,000 participants, making it a major public education effort on Long Island. Entirely volunteer-driven, it built a diverse community centered on sustainability and wellness while highlighting other nonprofit groups working towards positive change. For its final eight years, the series was hosted by The Sustainability Institute at Molloy University, which provided an ideal venue for this vibrant community tradition.

HealthyPlanet website

In 1996, the Sisters of St. Dominic in Amityville launched Sophia Garden, later renamed Homecoming Farm, as part of the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement. Led by Sister Jeanne Clark, the project modeled a sustainable way of living centered on organic farming and became one of Long Island’s oldest certified organic CSA farms. Rooted in the belief that caring for the Earth means caring for one another, Homecoming Farm not only supplied fresh vegetables to CSA members but also donated a portion of its harvest to local hunger relief efforts.

Homecoming Farm’s mission reflected a larger shift on Long Island toward organic produce, sustainable land use, and community-based agriculture. The CSA model involves a direct relationship between local farms and consumers, where members pay upfront for a season's worth of fresh, seasonal, and often organic produce. At the same time, preservation efforts underscored the importance of protecting the island’s limited farmland. The Nassau County Environmental Bond Act helped secure properties such as Meyer’s Farm in Woodbury and Grossman’s Farm in Malverne, ensuring that some of the county’s few remaining farms were protected for future generations. Together, these developments highlight how Long Island contributed to advancing organic produce, community-based farming, and even inspiring home gardeners to reduce reliance on pesticides.

In 2023, the Sisters ensured that the land would continue its mission of environmental stewardship by transferring Homecoming Farm to the Peconic Land Trust, cementing its role in Long Island’s organic farming history and its contribution to the region’s environmental and food justice movements.

The legislative intent of Suffolk County Local Law No. 33-1999, introduced by Legislator David Bishop, was to "phase out the use of pesticides by the County for many pest control purposes, and to adopt a pest control policy that substantially relies on non-chemical pest control strategies." 

Supporters of the measure cited the "precautionary principle" and the potential links between pesticide exposure and public health issues, specifically the high rates of breast cancer on Long Island. The bill's passage represented a significant shift in County policy, moving toward Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and organic land maintenance on the County’s publicly-owned facilities and phasing out the use of chemical pesticides.

Key Details of the Legislation

Phase-Out: The ban specifically targeted pesticides in the EPA's Toxicity Category I and those classified as possible carcinogens—first. Designed as a phase out, the use of pesticides on public properties and in County buildings. To be fully implemented by July 1, 2003, pesticide use declined each year, working towards elimination.

Scope: This applied to properties owned or leased by the County, which included parks and county-owned golf courses.

Implementation: The law also established the Pesticide Community Advisory Committee (CAC) to oversee the transition and review potential emergency waivers or exemptions.

The Law mandated a transition to Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which involves: Using biological and natural controls; prioritizing non-chemical maintenance practices; allowing only "lower toxicity" substances.

New York Times article on the passage of the law.

This webpage from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County explains the implementation of the law.

From 1999 to 2012, the Long Island Neighborhood Network held an annual Organic Turf and Tree Show that promoted local businesses offering less toxic landscaping services and provided professionals with the latest practices for maintaining healthy turf without chemical pesticides. The event featured vendor displays from leading organic suppliers and workshops that offered DEC continuing education credits.

Building on the effort, the Neighborhood Network created an annual Organic Landscaper List, identifying Long Island professionals trained in organic methods, tested for knowledge, and operating under standards that prohibited harmful products and practices. The organization also conducted an annual Long Island Lawn and Garden Center survey to identify where Long Islanders could purchase alternatives to toxic pesticides, making it easier for homeowners to transition to safer lawn care products.

Grassroots Environmental Education, founded in 2000 by Patricia and Doug Wood, amplified public awareness about pesticide risks through community outreach and education campaigns, including a Long Island Rail Road poster campaign that urged residents to consider safer alternatives to lawn chemicals. Together, these initiatives helped shift local attitudes toward organic land care and demonstrated how community organizations could influence pest management practices while protecting Long Island’s sole-source aquifer system.

2003 Organic Store Survey Press Release

2004 5th Annual Trade Show Program

2015 Long Island Organic Landscaper List 

Grassroots Environmental Education website

On August 21, 2000, then New York State Governor George Pataki signed the Neighbor Notification Law, capping a nine-year campaign that started on Long Island. The law requires 48-hour prior written notification to adjacent neighbors of properties before pesticides are to be sprayed. The effort began when the environmental organization, Long Island Neighborhood Network, received a call from a member who proceeded to tell staff attorney Neal Lewis about a pesticide exposure incident her infant was subjected to on a summer day in 1992. The Neighborhood Network proceeded to propose legislation to protect families from unnecessary pesticide exposure to then Long Island Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli, who championed the reform early in the 1993 legislative session. He drafted and became the prime sponsor of the Prior Neighbor Notification of Pesticide Spraying bill. Later, Senator Carl Marcellino boosted the effort when, upon his election to the State Senate in 1995 became the bill’s prime sponsor in the Senate in his first term. This meant the effort had "same as legislation" in both chambers with bipartisan sponsorship. For nine years, Long Island Neighborhood Network organized a door-to-door and telephone campaign across Long Island to educate the public, distribute hundreds of thousands of brochures, and generate thousands of phone calls and letters from constituents to their elected officials calling for the passage of the bill. The bill was strongly opposed by the pesticide industry and upstate farmers, despite not restricting agricultural pesticide use.

However, demand for prior notice of pesticide spraying mounted. This notice of pesticide spraying would allow families to take common-sense precautions, such as closing windows, removing children's toys from the lawn, and keeping pets indoors. Many complaints came from pet owners,because dogs or cats in a backyard can easily be exposed to spraying on neighboring properties.

The proposed legislation proved popular at a time when people were demanding a 'right to know' about toxins in the environment, as evidenced by the work of breast cancer activists. The law requires that the written notice to neighbors include the name of the pesticide being sprayed, because when exposures happen, knowing the chemical is necessary for taking appropriate action. The name of the company doing the spraying is also included on the notice. Providing the public with information also help to promote awareness of the widespread use of pesticides and rasied questions about their necessity.

The nine-year legislative logjam was finally broken by a compromise that introduced language in the state legislation to allow individual counties to ‘opt in’ to the law’s protections. This allowed urban and suburban counties to require notice, while allowing legislators in rural counties to block implementation. The various advocates supporting the law all agreed to the compromise. Nassau and Suffolk counties immediately opted in. The law is now enforced in: Albany County; Erie County; Monroe County; Nassau County; Rockland County; Suffolk County; Tompkins County; Ulster County; Westchester County; and New York City.

What started as an environmental protection effort had grown into an environmental health rights movement. Combined with the efforts of a broad coalition of homeowners, environmentalists, and breast cancer action organizations took the movement statewide. Upon becoming a top environmental priority, Albany-based environmental organizations suggested adding school notices to the bill, which further enhanced its already strong public support. Once implemented, this first-in-the-nation law brought about significant changes in pesticide applicators’ practices. To avoid notice requirements, many tree-spraying companies began using horticultural oils and soaps, which were exempt from the law, significantly reducing spraying of chemical pesticides on trees.

Governor George Pataki signing the Neighbor Notification Law. Bill authors and primary sponsors State Senator Carl Marcelino (left) and Assemblyman Thomas Dinapoli (right) stand next to him. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos stands directly behind the Governor. Neal Lewis, then executive director of the Long Island Neighborhood Network stands behind and right of Senator Skelos.

NYS Dept. of Health’s Neighbor Notification Law Fact Sheet  

New York Times article, “Legislature to Vote on Pesticide Measure” 

New York Times article “Pesticide Applicators Must Notify Neighbors” 

NYS Dept. of Education Neighbor Notification Law Reminder

The creation of the Open Space and Parks Advisory Committee (OSPAC) was unanimously approved by the Legislature in June of 2001 for the purpose of making recommendations to the Nassau County Planning Commission on the acquisition, preservation, protection, restoration or enhancement of open space, parks, and areas of recreational, cultural, archeological or historical significance. A prime responsibility of OSPAC is to review County-owned parcels for their open space and recreational value before they can be sold by the County.

The Suffolk County Golf Course Initiative involved a plan by County Executive Robert Gaffney to utilize a request for proposals (RFP) process to identify private companies that would operate under contract with the County to design, build, and manage five (5) new golf courses on County land that would be open to the public. The environmental group Long Island Neighborhood Network filed an Article 78 in State Supreme Court in Hauppauge (Lewis v. Gaffney), arguing that the RFP process violated SEQRA and did an end-run around the Suffolk County Pesticide Phase Out Lawby allowing private golf companies to avoid complying with the same rules that county workers were required to follow on county-run parks and golf courses. The Long Island Neighborhood Network worked with a coalition of environmentalists and breast cancer activists that called themselves the Organic Golf coalition. The premise behind the name was to draw an analogy with organic produce by establishing rules for golf course maintenance that prohibit most pesticides and instead relied upon course design features, water management practices, horticultural soaps, oils, and some bio-pesticides.

The Suffolk County lawsuit got a boost when the appellate division second department issued a ruling blocking construction of a golf course in Rockland County for a failure to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS) to evaluate risks associated with the use of pesticides over a drinking water supply. Matter of S.P.A.C.E. v. Hurley, 291 A.D.2d 563 (N.Y. App. Div. 2002). Link to the decision @ Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide: https://elaw.org/resource/us-space-v-hurley-291-ad2d-563-739-nys2d-164-ny-app-div-2002

This case involved a proposed municipal golf course (295-acre) in the Town of Stony Point. The organization S.P.A.C.E. (Stony Point Action Committee for the Environment) brought the Article 78 proceeding to challenge the Town Board’s "negative declaration" under SEQRA. The lawsuit asserted that the town—which was both the lead agency responsible for SEQRA compliance and also the entity that was seeking to get the project approved and had budgeted on the revenue that the new golf course would generate—failed to take a “hard look” at the concern that pesticides applied on a golf course built directly over an aquifer that serves as the primary drinking water source for residents might present a thread of drinking water contamination. 

The Appellate Division overturned the lower court decision and found that the Town's vote to approve a negative declaration (Neg Dec) and therefore not require an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), was "a circumvention of SEQRA`s open and comprehensive review process.” The court required that a full EIS be prepared, holding that “even an Expanded Full EAF cannot legitimately serve as a substitute for an EIS and the attendant analysis and public discussion entailed in a proper SEQRA review.” 

The Appellate Division ruling established a precedent that there is a “low threshold” for determining when an EIS is required, and had the practical effect that new golf courses were unlikely to get approved without following a rigorous EIS process and presenting a plan to mitigate or eliminate pesticide use that presents a risk of contaminating drinking water. Although the case was brought in Rockland County, it had connections to the Organic Golf coalition on Long Island, as the Long Island Neighborhood Network joined the case as co-petitioners. Several months after the decision in S.P.A.C.E. v. Hurley, Suffolk County announced that it would no longer pursue the plan for five new courses as part of the Suffolk County Golf Course Initiative, which the incoming newly elected County Executive Steve Levy indicated he had no interest in pursuing for economic reasons.

The ENERGY STAR Certified Homes project was introduced by the EPA in 1995. The voluntary program was intended to help buyers of new homes identify and choose houses that are significantly more energy-efficient than standard construction. A vital part of the program is an inspection and rating by an independent, third-party Home Energy Rating System (HERS) rater, accredited by the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET), a nationwide, not-for-profit organization founded by the National Association of State Energy Officials and Energy Rated Homes of America.

The proposal to adopt local codes and make the national standard for ENERGY STAR Labeled Homes a mandatory code requirement rather than just a voluntary, incentive-driven program, was introduced and developed in 2005 at meetings of the L.I. Clean Energy Leadership Task Force. The idea was borrowed from a similar local law in the Town of Greenburgh, New York.

The concept was further debated at two meetings of the Long Island Association’s (LIA) Environment/Energy Subcommittee, which helped to identify concerns of the Long Island builders.

A primary concern of residential developers was that there were not enough certified HERS raters on Long Island, which would lead to bottlenecks in getting new homes approved. They proposed altering the propose law to require homes meet the ENERGY STAR standard, but not require the HERS rating.

The laws supporters pointed to studies that showed poor rates of compliance with existing codes, and insisted that third-party verification was essential. The only compromise they would accept was a phase-in period, to allow time for builders and raters to be trained to meet the requirements.

This compromise lead to the proposal gaining the support of the Long Island Builds Institute (LIBI). As a result, LIBI became one of the first builders trade groups in the country to support higher efficiency standards. The LIA board of directors formally endorsed the policy, and directly encouraged all towns to adopt the standard. Newsday printed a number of editorials urging towns to adopt the measure. There was broad support from environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Group for the East End.

Long Island Power Authority provided each town or municipality passing a similar law a $25,000 grant to help train inspectors to assess new home construction.

In 2006, the towns of Babylon and Brookhaven adopted the codes, with the sponsorship of Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Connie Kepert and Supervisor Brian Foley and Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone. Eventually, 11 of the 13 towns on Long Island adopted similar codes.

In 2006, the EPA updated the ENERGY STAR Homes standard, making it considerably more stringent. Rather than have their building codes tied to a program that could change without their input, the Long Island towns that had adopted the ENERGY STAR standard as a code amended their local laws to require new homes to achieve specific HERS indexes instead. When the code was no longer tied to the ENERGY STAR Homes program, the Town of Southampton adopted a tiered system, which required larger homes to meet higher energy efficiency, making it one of the most stringent residential construction energy codes in the nation

The program has proved that establishing better efficiency standards can result in substantial emissions reduction, with little or no expense, while creating long-term savings for homeowners, and advancing “Green Economy” jobs.

Sustainability Institute Green Paper. 

NYSERDA letter to the EPA 2005: https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/bldrs_lenders_raters/downloads/NYSERDA.pdf

ENERGY STAR Homebuilding Standards.

Aware that golf course proposals had generated opposition and, in some cases, litigation, before the proposed developers of the Sebonack Golf Club went public with their proposal, they reached out to the Organic Golf coalition, seeking to find common ground by promising to design and build a golf course to the highest environmental standards. Today, the Sebonack Golf Club has the strongest environmental bona fides of any golf course in the Northeast. The course has been recognized for its significant environmental leadership, particularly through its sustainable design and management. Showcasing best practices, including reducing impact on local water bodies by utilizing rain runoff and treated effluent for irrigation, with systems to ensure cleaner water leaves the property than enters. While maintaining native areas, pollinator habitats, monarch butterfly zones, bluebird boxes, and buffer zones around water, and restricting the use of inputs. According to Audubon International, “Sebonack serves as a prime example of how golf courses can integrate with nature, protecting resources while providing high-quality golf experiences.”

Owner and developer Michal Pascucci, along with project manager Mark Hissey, proved true to their word and lived up to their commitment to sustainable design and operating with environmental stewardship as the central tenet of their turf management credo. Throughout the multi-year environmental review and Southampton Town’s famously rigorous zoning process, Pascucci and Hissey worked closely with Robert (Bob) Deluca and the Group for the South Fork to develop a sustainable golf course management plan and closely monitor environmental compliance. DeLuca described the agreement with Sebonack Golf as a “landmark compromise,” and “the most comprehensive environmental management plan ever attached to a Long Island golf course.” The golf course was certified as an Audubon International Signature Sanctuary, and, in 2008, it received the MGC/MetLife Club Environmental Leaders in Golf Award.  

In the early 2000s, the solar installation permitting process on Long Island necessitated a different set of policies for every town and village, which created confusion, added extra costs, and was responsible for installation delays. During a meeting of the Long Island Clean Energy Leadership Task Force, an initiative administered by the Sustainability Institute at Molloy University, David Calone, chair of the Suffolk County Planning Commission presented the idea of a unified, streamlined permit process was advanced. Under the direction of the Planning Commission, a committee was formed, which included representatives from the Nassau and Suffolk County Planning Commissions, industry professionals, the Long Island Power Authority, and several municipalities. The Committee endeavored to establish a permitting process that could maintain thorough safety measures and quality control, but also be achieved quickly.

The committee proposed an accelerated and standardized process for residential solar power systems. The new Solar Energy System Fast Track Permit Application process allows municipalities to meet the governing requirements, while reducing the time and money associated with approving solar installation permits. An additional aspect of the application includes waiving the need for a survey of the entire property or other information not relevant to the installation. To encourage municipalities to adopt the initiative, the Long Island Power Authority provides incentives to each Long Island town and to each of the first ten villages where the standard is adopted. It has been adopted by most Long Island towns and some villages.

Suffolk County and Nassau County Planning Commissions: Long Island Unified Solar Permitting Initiative (PDF).

Long Island Unified Solar Permit Initiative Solar Energy System Fast Track Permit Application.  

ARTICLE: “A Model for Expediting Solar Permits: Long Island Unified Solar Permit Initiative” 

On May 10, 2010 then governor, David Patterson signed the Safe School Grounds bill into law. In the nine previous legislative sessions professional lobbyists in Albany extensively representing the chemical industry successfully ensured that the bill died in the Senate. For years prior to and after the passage of the Neighborhood Notification Law in 2001, environmental organization, Long Island Neighborhood Network had been building momentum in demanding safer pesticide use in schools. In 1995, the Neighborhood Network published and distributed the report, “Pesticides and Children: Avoiding the Risks,” which was one of the first highly publicized educational efforts bringing attention to the special risks pesticides posed to children. In 1998, the Neighborhood Network established the Pesticide Alternatives Project, which focused on the availability of alternative and organic lawn and garden maintenance products. In 2002, the Neighborhood Network organized the Toxic-Free Schools Project empowering parents to demand changes in school pest control policies and offering help to schools in designing and implementing pest control plans that do not rely on toxic, synthetic pesticides. At the time it was estimated that over 10 million pounds of pesticides are applied on Long Island every year. A 2000 study by the state attorney general’s office determined that 87 percent of schools in New York use pesticides, with almost 65 percent using pesticides outdoors.

In the 2010 NY State Legislative Session, the bill was sponsored by two Long Island elected officials, Senator Brian X. Foley in the Senate, and Steven Englebright in the Assembly. The bill addressed a growing body of research and evidence that children are especially susceptible to pesticide exposure. The bill gained widespread statewide attention and was passed in both houses of the Legislature. The bill was supported by the Healthy Schools Network, Grassroots Environmental Education, and Environemntal Advocates of New York. The law bans almost all uses of chemical pesticides on the grounds of schools and day care centers and protects children from unnecessary exposure to toxic pesticides. The law also prohibits pesticides used for lawn care on school grounds, playgrounds, turf, athletic and playing fields. The law does not apply to pesticides used in a health emergency, as determined by the county health department or school board, or to protect children from an imminent threat of biting, stinging and venomous pests. The requirements and guidelines of the law are administered by the State Education Department for schools and by the Office of Children and Family Services for child care centers.

Former NYS Senator Brian Foley’s press release on the law’s passage:

Dept. of Environmental Conservation guidance (PDF) on the law: https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/guidancech85.pdf 

American Academy of Pediatrics statement on pesticide exposure in children: 

Launched in 2010, the Sustainability Institute at Molloy University’s Sustainable Living Film Series was a free public program that screened documentaries focused on environmental protection, animal and environmental ethics, and sustainability. Each screening partnered with a nonprofit organization, creating opportunities for networking and collaboration among Long Island’s social change community. With up to 200 attendees at each event, the series fostered unity between local organizations and the broader public while also broadening Molloy’s circle of friends. Target audiences included teachers, Molloy faculty and students, nonprofit professionals, and community members, but all were welcome to attend.

Over the course of its run, twenty-five films were screened, drawing attention to critical issues and building connections that extended well beyond the campus. The series not only provided education and dialogue on key sustainability challenges but also enhanced the university’s reputation as a convener of community engagement around social and environmental issues.

Debate about how to approach plastic bags and the environmental impact they have had been a hot topic on Long Island for several years. A Suffolk county bill was proposed in 2016 to ban plastic bags altogether, but it failed to gain necessary support in the county legislature. Instead, on Jan. 1, 2017 the legislature required stores to charge 5 cents for every non-reusable paper or plastic shopping bag, with some exceptions. The county law, passed by a 13-4 vote, requires supermarkets, pharmacies, clothing stores, and other retailers to charge customers 5 cents for each single-use plastic or paper bag they use to carry purchases.

Environmental advocates supporting the bill cited data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that indicates that between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide every year, and that Americans use more than 10 billion paper bags each year. In addition, an estimated 14 million trees are cut down each year to make paper bags. One of the primary environmental groups supporting the legislation was Citizens Campaign for the Environment, led by executive director, Adrienne Esposito. The Suffolk law aimed to boost reusable bag use and reduce the number of single-use plastic bags polluting waterways and threatening marine life. Following passage of the bill a one-year effectiveness report in 2019 by Suffolk County’s Department of Health Services indicated that use of single-use plastic bags was down 81.7% and single-use paper bags was down 78.8% compared with 2017. The report also showed that in November and December 2017 and in the first two-month of 2018, that use of reusable bags or no bags increased from 27.8% to 60.1%. Furthermore, the reporting indicated that between 2017 and 2018, there was a 42% decrease, to 1,552, in plastic bags that cleanup volunteers found littering Suffolk shorelines.

Newsday article: “Suffolk plastic bag use down by 1.1 billion, report says” 

Suffolk County Department of Health Services One-year Effectiveness Report (PDF)

Plastic bag use poses significant environmental damage when bags end up as litter on the side of roadways, in trees, and in waterways where they pose an imminent threat to marine life. After several municipalities around the state passed their own single-use plastic bag prohibitions, New York State became the third state in the country, behind California and Hawaii, to pass a bag ban of its own. In New York, where some 23 billion plastic bags are used each year, the Bag Waste Reduction Law went into effect on March 1, 2020. It was not immediately enforced, however, a result of a lawsuit brought before the NYS Supreme Court. In the complaint, the defendants called the rule vague and unconstitutional, and alleged that it directly conflicted with another state recycling law. 

On Aug. 20, 2020, a State Supreme Court judge ruled against the defendants, upholding the ban on plastic bags and giving the State Department of Environmental Conservation the green light to begin enforcing it on October 19, 2020. After the effective date, however, the COVID-19 pandemic further delayed rollout and enforcement. Studies have shown that use of single-use plastics increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people opted for takeout food delivery, and local enforcement agencies have looked the other way as small businesses struggled during the state shutdown.

The law affects all plastic bags (except those exempt) from distribution by anyone required to collect New York State sales tax. For sales that are tax exempt, plastic carry out bags are still not allowed to be distributed by anyone required to collect New York State sales tax (unless it is an exempt bag). The law also affects anyone required to collect New York State sales tax, bag manufacturers and consumers. Examples of an exempt bag are bags used by a pharmacy to carry prescription drugs and produce bags for bulk items such as fruits and vegetables.

From the beginning, an important element of the state law has been to encourage consumers to bring their own bags. The law is not intended to replace single-use plastic bags with single-use paper bags, the law was intended for people to bring reusable bags, and not intended to put the burden on the store owners. That remains a point of contention as businesses report that they are bearing the cost burden of replacing plastic with paper, and that they want regulators to allow them to use up their remaining stock of plastic bags before switching. They also note that many customers stop by their establishments on their way home from work or appointments and haven’t necessarily planned in advance to pick up grocery items. Environmentalists have their own complaints with regulators, largely that enforcement remains slow some two years after the law’s passage, and that plastic bag use continues to be ubiquitous as a result.

Citizens Campaign for the Environment was a leading advocate for the law. CCE excutive director Adrienne Esposito said, "On March 1, after working for 10 years to ban plastic bags we will finally be free of these harmful unnecessary pollutants... It is all of our responsibility to fight plastic pollution, and this is one small thing everyone can do to help. We just have to get on the plastic bag ban wagon."

About 79 percent of plastic waste ends up in landfills, rivers and oceans where it can remain for hundreds of years, according to the United Nations. Even when the larger plastic products degrade, they remain in oceans in a smaller form, known as microplastics, which are easily ingested by fish and wildlife. 

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Fact Sheet on the law. 

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation information for retailers and manufacturers: 

State Supreme Court’s full decision (PDF).

https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/polypakvsny.pdf

Approved by county referendum in 2019, Suffolk County lawmakers approved two bills in early October 2021 paving the way for the county’s largest sewer expansion in decades. At a groundbreaking on October 29, 2021, exactly nine years after Hurricane Sandy hit Long Island, Suffolk County announced a $400 million sewer expansion project known as the Suffolk County Coastal Resiliency Initiative. The project was part of a plan to make the region’s coastline more resistant to storm surge in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Constructed with federal and state grant funds, the initiative aims to connect some 6,000 parcels of land along Suffolk’s south shore to sewers, eliminating the need for thousands of cesspools and septic systems that have been identified as a primary cause of the pollution of local waterways. Suffolk County Executive, Steven Bellone said at the groundbreaking, “This a tremendous victory for our economy and our environment.” According to a county statement issued at the time, the construction would be completed at no cost to Suffolk County residents. Instead, the major funding for the project includes $243 million from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, and $66 million from the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. New York State committed $30.7 million in state financial assistance, and Suffolk County pledged $42 million of its allotment in American Rescue Plan funding received from the federal government and $24 million from a sewer stabilization reserve fund. 

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment celebrated the project, saying that the funding should be seen as an "investment," not an "expense."

The sewer expansion project includes the connection of 2,184 homes in the Carlls River Watershed in Babylon to an existing sewer district, and the connection of 1,884 parcels in the Forge River Watershed in Brookhaven to a new treatment facility expected to be constructed in Mastic by 2025. In addition, 1,489 homes located in Suffolk County Sewer District No. 3 that had never been tied into the sewage collection system, will be connected as part of the project. 

Sacred Heart University Public Radio audio article and transcript. 

Governor Hochul’s press release on the project.