A Roadmap to Reclaim Our Water — Turning the tide on nitrogen pollution
Suffolk County is taking an historic step forward in ongoing efforts to better protect both groundwater and surface water through the development of a countywide wastewater upgrade strategy. In a recent press release, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services announced the long-awaited release of the Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan (SWP). The SWP is a rigorous, science-based roadmap for transitioning away from reliance on conventional cesspools and septic systems, which are the primary source of nitrogen pollution that has fouled local bays.
A Reclaim Our Water initiative, the strategy documented in the Suffolk County SWP was developed in partnership with the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan (LINAP) and in collaboration with numerous project partners, stakeholders, and technical experts. The SWP is the product of years of intensive research, documentation, modeling, and evaluation of all of Suffolk County’s water resources and provides a parcel-specific roadmap on how to address the nitrogen crisis through wastewater upgrades and other nitrogen pollution mitigation strategies. The plan seeks to arrest and reverse the existing trend of degrading water quality over a 10 year period.