Clean Water Advocates Applaud East Hampton Legislation

Environmental advocates last week resoundingly applauded proposed legislation in East Hampton Town that could direct grants of $15,000, or more, to individual homeowners to replace aging septic systems, and require nitrogen-reducing septic systems in all new construction and major renovations.

The legislation, which the town hopes to adopt this summer, creates the region’s second—after Suffolk County—and likely most robust rebate program to help homeowners replace old systems. It would be the first in the state to mandate the use of newly approved septic systems in construction projects.

“This is something that for the first time in a long time puts the money that people raise for natural resource protection back in their own pockets, for them being able to do something on their own property that will change the future course of water quality in the town,” said Bob DeLuca, president of the Group for the East End, at a Town Board meeting on Thursday, June 15.

With nitrogen loading from residential septic systems pegged as the main catalyst of exploding algae blooms in local bays, and Suffolk County for decades lagging far behind the rest of the country on regulating better septic systems, rebate programs and mandates in the five East End towns and across the county are seen as the key tool in starting to reverse the tide of ineffective septic systems polluting local waters.

“It is an embarrassing fact that there are more failing septic systems in Suffolk County than in any other county in the country,” said Britton Bistrian, a development consultant.

Last fall, voters in all five East End towns chose to allow their town governments to direct as much as 20 percent of their respective Community Preservation Fund revenues to water quality improvement projects.

In East Hampton, that could mean upward of $5 million a year. The bulk of that is expected to be dedicated to the residential replacement incentives for the 6,000-plus homes built in the watersheds to bays and harbors.

Nitrogen-reducing septic systems, which reduce naturally occurring nitrogen in human waste by neutralizing it in underground tanks before releasing the water flushed from toilets back into the ground, are in use around the country. But the vast majority of houses in Suffolk County that are not connected to sewers have only 1980s-era septic tanks that capture solid waste and release urine, which carries the most nitrogen, into the ground untreated.

Many local homes still rely on cesspools, which are nothing more than underground pits into which waste flows entirely untreated and uncontained and which, in many waterfront neighborhoods, are regularly inundated by the water table that flows into local bays.

Water quality advocate Kevin McAllister said that while the town rebates and mandates on new construction are a good start to the fight to stanch the flow of pollution into tidal waters, eventually the region is going to have start mandating that the worst systems be replaced. He suggested that perhaps a requirement to upgrade septics at a house at the time of a sale could be imposed.

“We do have to move into, ultimately, a mandate—and that’s a difficult word for some,” Mr. McAllister said. “Something to perhaps consider is at the point of transfer, when we get the system rolling down the road a bit.”

The new systems, which can reduce the amount of nitrogen released in wastewater from 50 milligrams to 10 to 20 milligrams, currently are expected to cost between $15,000 and $18,000 to install. Suffolk County recently signed into law its own rebate program, which will dedicate $2 million annually to septic replacement incentives. East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said that homeowners looking to replace septics with the latest systems will be eligible to apply for grants from both the town and the county, a partnership that the supervisor said should help homeowners cover the full costs of replacing the systems. He said the two municipalities will coordinate their rebate awards to ensure the money is awarded appropriately.

At last week’s meeting, Peter Mendelman, whose family owns three marinas on Three Mile Harbor, asked that the town be careful to direct the funding in the first years of the rebate program toward areas with the most critical need. He suggested that, along with focusing on the areas closest to the enclosed bays and harbors that have been plagued by algae blooms, the town look deeper at the properties that it gives rebates to, taking into account whether they are occupied year-round and the number of people living in a given house.

“Please focus on where the harmful algal blooms are,” he said. “You need them in Springs, in Northwest, in Montauk and around Georgica Pond. Even though 20 percent of the CPF is a lot of potential money, we’re going to need to stretch this money and put it where it pays the biggest payoff.”

Mr. Mendelman also asked that the town look next at grants for businesses whose owners may be reluctant to upgrade their septic systems, which could cost up to $80,000 to replace as he said his family has calculated for some of its marinas. He suggested the town offer to put in up to $30,000 or $40,000 for commercial systems.

Others also implored the town to strive for the ability to demand its own authority in enforcing septic rules, particularly when it comes to over-taxed systems that now are the sole purview of the county.

“Anyone that is a follower of the Planning Board process hears week after week the board say, ‘We can’t do anything about septic—that’s the county’s jurisdiction,’” said David Buda, a resident of Springs and town policy hawk. “For 30 years, regulations with regard to septic systems have been largely ignored. I hope somewhere in the revisions of [the town code] you have given to your Planning Board and to your enforcement officers … the power to regulate and coordinate septic flow with the county.”

Both the town and Suffolk County have acknowledged that the implementation of new systems will require a more dynamic effort to monitor the use and maintenance of the systems. Because they use pumps to power the processes required to treat nitrogen, the new septic systems require regular monitoring to ensure that they are functioning properly. Town officials have said they will consider creating a new town post to inspect systems, and Suffolk County officials have said they will set up the infrastructure for monitoring and regulating the systems.

Once the town’s new regulations and rebates are adopted, Mr. Cantwell said, educating the public about the availability of the rebate program and the importance of replacing the oldest septic systems will be a key, and difficult, part of the effort.

“We think we are on a good path to change,” said Kevin McDonald, a director at The Nature Conservancy and one of the original architects of the CPF program. “We look forward to continuing to work with you so we can get the cleanest water we all deserve.”