It is rare to find a person who exhibits the combined traits of personal conviction, willingness to listen to others, vision for improving the present, and the leadership to bring others together for a common purpose. I have had the real pleasure to find and work with such a person – Judi Bosworth.
Although I had known of Judi from her outstanding work on the school board and her involvement with important community issues, I recently was able to work closely with her on an initiative to protect the drinking water supply of Long Island.
Acting from her own personal concern for the groundwater in the Great Neck – Manhasset peninsulas and elsewhere, Judi Bosworth gladly assumed a leadership role. Along with legislative colleagues from the Nassau and Suffolk Legislatures, she created the first bi-county legislative leadership group which held a series of three regional water hearings.
More than 300 people attended the hearings and many spoke of their serious concerns about local water problems. The goal of the hearings was to bring attention to the numerous water problems facing the aquifers such as over-pumping, waste and contamination.
The hearings looked for new ways to overcome the obstacles that have blocked any progress for so many years.
During the hearings and at other water forums, Judi has been an articulate and passionate spokesperson for the view that we cannot continue to try the same failed strategies and expect a different result. Instead, she advocates for a new paradigm that applies the best water management practices, research, technology, and sound science in the hands of highly trained professional water managers with a regional mandate to protect our water.
This approach works in other parts of New York. Judi Bosworth has shown she has the strength to speak for a better way to protect our water.
This is one of the many reasons she will make an excellent North Hempstead Town Supervisor.
Sarah J. Meyland
Assoc. Professor of Environmental Technology
Director of the Center for Water Resources Management at NYIT
