NEIGHBORS IN THE NEWS First Day Of Summer Brings Good News For Some Local Beachgoers

The first day of summer marked an auspicious moment for regional nonprofit organization Save the Sound to release results of its 2023 Long Island Sound Beach Report. Staff from Save the Sound were joined on June 21 by local officials and clean water advocates during simultaneous events at North Hempstead Beach Park in Port Washington, NY and Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven, CT to reveal updated grades for over 200 beaches around the Long Island Sound shoreline.

The biennial report offered generally positive news for swimmers and beachgoers, noting that 78 percent of the Long Island Sound beaches monitored earned “A” or “B” grades for water quality. There were concerning signs, however, indicating that residents and local officials must remain vigilant—as beach closures or “failures” due to poor water quality after rain events increased in several regions compared to the previous 2021 report.

A far cry from decades past when people were not comfortable swimming in the Sound—the 2023 Long Island Sound Beach Report demonstrates that water quality at most swimming beaches in the Sound is good to excellent in respect to safe swimming. Thanks to years of advocacy and investment by environmental leaders, like Save the Sound; municipal governments; the States of Connecticut and New York; the EPA; and concerned shoreline residents, the Sound is now ringed with many beaches that consistently provide water quality meeting safe swimming criteria. One hundred and fifty five beaches earned a “B-” grade or above during the 2022 swimming season. To illustrate this positive news further, Save the Sound included a list of the “Top 20” public beaches on Long Island Sound based on their most recent three-year average water quality (10 each in NY and CT).

There were, however, storm clouds gathered on the edge of the positive news. They were literal storm clouds, in fact, as the report revealed that increasing rain events over the past three years have triggered an increasing number of beach sample failures. Beach closures and failures after rain events (often the day after rainfall ends, sometimes lasting several days) are concerning for several reasons. First, elevated levels of fecal contamination after rain can often indicate untreated sewage has made its way into a system of pipes only designed for stormwater. Second, beaches with abundant wet weather failures have large swaths of impervious surfaces (e.g. roads, roofs, parking lots) that are leading to high volumes of stormwater flow to beaches. Third, rainfall intensity and frequency are increasing due to climate change, raising the stakes. This trend threatens to reverse the improvements in water quality secured over recent years. If those improvements are to be maintained or enhanced, it’s clear that investments towards improving local stormwater systems are crucial. Stormwater pipe discharges are one factor that influences the “hyper-locality” of water quality at local beaches. Good water quality at one beach doesn’t necessarily predict good quality at a neighboring beach, especially if the neighboring beach has a stormwater outflow pipe feeding into it. This difference can be largely explained by the presence of a stormwater pipe that discharges directly into the water of the second beach during rain events.

Save the Sound also raised concerns about limits on beach access in the region, noting that nearly one-third of the monitored beaches are designated as private. Many beaches have restrictions on use by non-residents, such as onerous fees.

Save the Sound has created a dedicated website—www.SoundHealthExplorer. org—which features interactive maps listing beach water quality at all 207 monitored beaches, and from which the full Beach Report can be downloaded. The site also features a “beach access” section including information on which beaches offer public access, fees, the location of kayak and canoe entry ramps, and more useful information. The site highlights two decades of water quality data for Long Island Sound.

—Submitted by Save the Sound

Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra Summer Concert Series

The Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra is proud to announce the dates for its 2023 Summer Concert Series. Live music returns to the following venues as follows:

East Meadow (Lakeside Theater/ Eisenhower Park) - Friday, July 7, 8:00 p.m.

Malverne (Malverne Station Park)Sunday, July 9, 3:00 p.m.

Port Washington (Bar Beach) - Saturday, July 15, 7:00 p.m.

Mineola (Memorial Park) - Tuesday, July 18, 8:00 p.m.

Join Music Director & Conductor Louis Panacciulli and the Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra as they bring you the music of Irving Berlin, Billy Joel, Cole Porter, Andrew Lloyd Webber, John Phillip Sousa, John Williams, and others. Local favorites, vocalists Jack and Ann Cassin, will also join the orchestra.

The Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra is grateful for the sponsorship of Jovia Financial Credit Union and the Huntington Arts Council.

The Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1984 by Managing Director Dawn Manuel and Music Director Louis Panacciulli. The orchestra performs a full summer concert series in many of the parks in Nassau County featuring classical overtures, Broadway medlies and marches.

Based in the Village of Mineola, the orchestra has been featured with many prestigious entertainers and maintains affiliations with Nassau Community College and the Mineola Choral Society with seasonal performances at Chaminade High School. The Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra has been a member of the Mineola Chamber of Commerce since 1996.

—Submitted by the Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra

Village Of Sands Point Receives State Grant For Water Infrastructure Upgrades

On Thursday, June 22, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Village of Sands Point will receive a $3 million Water Infrastructure Improvement (WIIA) grant for crucial infrastructure upgrades that will protect local drinking water supplies from emerging contaminants.

Those grant funds will be used for the installation of advanced oxidation process (AOP) and granular activated carbon (GAC) treatment systems for wells 2A and 5A to remove 1,4 – dioxane and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from drinking water.

Following the announcement, Nassau

County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D – Glen Cove) issued the following statement:

“These New York State grants will go a long way toward protecting the purity of our region’s drinking water without dramatically increasing costs to Sands Point ratepayers,” Legislator DeRiggi-Whitton said. “I thank New York State and Governor Hochul for prioritizing Nassau County’s environmental needs in this recent round of infrastructure grants.”

—Submitted by the Nassau County Legislature

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