Two North Shore state lawmakers are calling for a study of Nassau County’s groundwater they say is long overdue.
State Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) and state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) have proposed including $3.2 million in the next state budget to fund a study to map the flow of groundwater and determine where saltwater may be infiltrating Long Island’s freshwater aquifers.
The research would provide new information key to understanding the Island’s water supply and how to create policy that will help sustain it, Schimel said.
“You can’t do business as usual anymore,” she said. “We need to know the facts, and the facts will drive future policy. The science will drive what we should do.”
The water supply for Long Island’s more than 2.8 million people comes from underground aquifers — the upper glacial, the Lloyd, the Magothy and the Jameco, according to the project proposal by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The two-and-a-half-year study would dig new observation wells to study the water in the Lloyd aquifer and create a detailed map of groundwater flow in western Long Island — Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau County and western Suffolk County, the proposal says.
The USGS would dig 10 new monitoring wells and use those in combination with existing wells in Great Neck, Manhasset Neck, Inwood and Long Beach to create the groundwater flow model, the proposal says.
The study would also determine the location, thickness and salt content of the saltwater-freshwater interface, the boundary between the fresh aquifer water and saltwater; and track potential contamination at sites in Queens and Nassau County.
Research has shown the intrusion of salt water into the Lloyd and the Magothy aquifers poses a growing problem, the proposal says, and there is currently insufficient information about the flow of the groundwater and the freshwater-saltwater interface in the aquifers.
The last study of the freshwater-saltwater interface in the Magothy and Lloyd aquifers was done in 2007, the proposal says, and new technology would allow for a better model of groundwater flow patterns.
“Along with millions of residents here on Long Island we don’t have the luxury of deciding where we get our drinking water,” Martins said in a statement. “It is incredible that as a region we don’t have a comprehensive overview of this, our most precious resource.”
The new data would give scientists, developers, planners and policymakers a better idea of the status of the aquifers and the effects saltwater intrusion, contamination and the stresses of climate change and pumping could have on them, Schimel said.
The hope is that municipalities and government agencies would use the study to guide their decisions and work toward conservation, Schimel said.
“They’re still using the old stuff because they have nothing else,” she said. “Can you imagine if they had new information, how hungry they would be for that data?”
Schimel and Martins have partnered with the Town of North Hempstead, several villages, the Sierra Club and Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington in developing the study, Schimel said.
The USGS would provide $150,000 in matching funds for the study. If the funding doesn’t get through the state budget process with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s approval, Schimel said, its proponents will pursue other funding.
