Long Island has a problem with too much nitrogen in its water.
It contaminates our underground drinking water aquifers as well as our surrounding waters, causing harmful algal blooms, shellfish bed closings and fish kills.
This is not news. Scientists have been talking about our growing nitrogen problem for years, and New York State has spent millions (and proposed billions) to help alleviate the problem.
Most of this excess nitrogen is coming from wastewater, especially septic systems. Suffolk County alone has around a half million septic systems. But a significant amount of nitrogen loading is also coming from the fertilizers we spread on our lawns.
So it was pretty much a no-brainer when a group of environmental, civic and business organizations got together and came up with a simple solution: ban the use of the kinds of lawn fertilizers that are contributing to our nitrogen problem – the high nitrogen, mostly water soluble kind.
This simple solution would cost taxpayers nothing, it would reduce nitrogen loading by somewhere between 10 and 20 percent, and it would leave plenty of excellent lawn fertilizers on store shelves so Long Islanders could still maintain their prized green lawns.
Eventually this idea got the support of hundreds of organizations across the Island, uniting public water suppliers, civic and community organizations, landscapers, shell fishermen, county legislators and business leaders and every major environmental organization in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
Even the American Academy of Pediatrics weighed in, voicing their support for the bill which would reduce the amount of nitrate contamination of private wells. Suffolk County currently has 47,000 private wells, which are not treated for contaminants.
State Assemblyman Steven Englebright introduced legislation in April, and it quickly passed by a wide margin in the Assembly.
Shortly thereafter, state Sen. Kemp Hannon of Garden City, the powerful Republican head of the Senate Health Committee, introduced identical legislation in the Senate. It looked as if Long Island would finally begin to address its nitrogen problem.
And then the trouble started.
Lobbyists for the big fertilizer companies descended on Albany, and before long, Sen. Hannon was walking back his support for his own bill, saying maybe we need more studies. This, despite the existence of hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and the clear and mounting evidence that lawn fertilizers with high amounts of water-soluble nitrogen were harming our only source of drinking water and our fragile marine ecosystems.
Meanwhile, the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan, a taxpayer-funded initiative established by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and charged with developing plans to reduce nitrogen pollution on Long Island, had been meeting with stakeholders.
The Fertilizer Working Group, comprised of fertilizer manufacturers, landscapers, scientists and environmental advocates met several times, with predictable results.
Manufacturers and landscapers argued strenuously against any regulations on fertilizer, while scientists and environmental advocates held that regulation was exactly what was needed.
Everyone agreed that voluntary measures and public education would be unlikely to produce a significant reduction, but there was no agreement on a solution.
And so, after spending $5 million of taxpayer’s money, LINAP failed to produce a workable solution. A draft report advocated a ban on high-nitrogen, water-soluble fertilizers that pollute our water, but it was never formally approved, and DEC kept it secret.
As the legislation sat in the Senate awaiting action, the DEC – the agency charged with protecting our water – sat on its hands, refusing to endorse this simple and elegant solution. DEC officials said privately that they were hoping for a “compromise.”
Really? Long Islanders should compromise their water quality so the biggest fertilizer companies could continue selling their polluting products?
Is that how the DEC protects our water?
Now, I might add here that the nitrogen issue is only one of many problems plaguing Long Island’s water.
We also need to address saltwater intrusion in our wells from overpumping, find a solution to remove emerging contaminants like 1, 4-dioxane and perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), and devote resources to deal with the ever-pressing issue of legacy contaminants from long gone industries and agricultural practices that continue to threaten our water supply.
But back to the fertilizer law. The legislative session came to an end this week and the state Senate allowed the bill to die quietly, never bringing it to the floor for a vote.
So next time you hear about the closure of drinking water wells due to high levels of nitrates, harmful algal blooms causing beach closures, shellfish bed contamination and harm to marine life, you’ll know that high nitrogen water soluble fertilizers are partly to blame.
And the people who we elected who are supposed to protect our water failed to pass this common sense and critically important law.
Apparently, water and politics don’t mix.
