Coalition receives $75K to monitor Hempstead Harbor

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Dec. 4 that over $2.5 million in federal grants have been awarded to local government and community groups in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund. One of the grants, totaling $75,000, will aid the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor’s water monitoring efforts.

“We’re tremendously grateful to be awarded money from the fund,” said Carol DiPaolo, who coordinates the nonprofit’s monitoring program. “We’ve been trying to make the case for many years that monitoring around the Long Island Sound should be a priority, and we’re happy to see it included as such.”

The grant will fund regular seasonal monitoring, on a weekly basis, as well as the collection and testing of nitrogen and bacterial samples and the recording of water quality observations. The funds will be distributed to the coalition by the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee and its municipal sponsor, the Village of Sea Cliff. DiPaolo explained that since the coalition partnered with the committee, the committee has used the coalition’s water monitoring program to keep tabs on the health of the waterway.

“If you’re trying to improve water quality, it’s very critical to know what the water quality is,” said Eric Swenson, the executive director of the harbor protection committee. “Is it improving or not improving? Are there any problem areas? You’re not going to know without monitoring over a long period of time.”

Sea Cliff Village Administrator Bruce Kennedy said that while the committee has worked for over two decades to improve the health of the harbor, he agreed that a big part of the project is to “continually monitor the conditions.”

“Testing is rather expensive, and without assistance from our state and federal partners, monitoring may not continue,” Kennedy said. He added that the program costs around $150,000 annually.

DiPaolo said that in addition to partnering with the village and the harbor protection committee, the coalition also works with local townships as well as Nassau County to keep its water monitoring efforts going. This past summer, the Town of Oyster Bay provided a boat and staff to transport coalition volunteers to monitoring stations around Hempstead Harbor. For quality assurance, the county Department of Health analyzes the bacterial samples that are picked up from the stations.

“Not only does it help us, but it helps the health department get a better picture of what the conditions are, too,” DiPaolo said. “These resources are needed to achieve our goal in monitoring the harbor. Without them, we could never make it work.”

“We have so many partnerships with all the municipalities who depend on the health of Hempstead Harbor,” Kennedy said. “In this day of political division, it’s nice to see all people of all parties working together on basic common issues such as our environment.”

Swenson said such partnerships have established the harbor as “the best studied harbor on Long Island.” “The health of our local waterways is intricately related to the quality of life on Long Island for now and future generations,” he said. “We’re hoping to have the community and residents take a more proactive stance toward protecting the waters that they enjoy.”