Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Long Island's Sewers

Long Island needs better sewers, better sewage treatment plants and sewage disposal, and fewer leaky septic systems and cesspools. A State Senator from Long Island makes that common-sense argument today in Newsday, here.

For a second or two as I read it, I thought Senator Marcellino was going to propose that the state do something about the situation:

In 1996, in legislation I sponsored, the state initiated the Clean Water Clean Air Bond Act, which funded a major expansion of clean water initiatives, including $790 million for wastewater and habitat restoration and $355 million for safe drinking water.

Fantastic, I thought. A call for a new bond act. That would be big news. In my real job (which doesn't involve blogging about Long Island Sound) I too frequently have to listen to really long and boring conference calls among the smart people who run statewide or regional environmental groups, and I hadn't heard any of them talk about a new bond act. So this is potentially great, I thought, until I read the next sentence:

As these funds have dwindled or ended, municipalities must find additional funding to rehabilitate or even replace deteriorating wastewater systems.

Not exactly the boldest proposal ever. But at least he's keeping the larger issue out in the open.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

eXTReMe Tracker