Hauppauge – Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy Monday announced over $1.43 million in water quality protection and restoration projects, including for the first time initiatives to address groundwater contamination from Manufactured Gas Plants, to reduce nitrogen pollution from fertilizers, and to reduce or eliminate pesticide usage in the county’s vector control programs.

Levy is proposing six projects, totaling $1,435,829, to be funded through the Water Quality Protection and Restoration Fund. The projects are eligible for a vote by the County Legislature as early as December 3.

The Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program is a component of the ¼ of 1 percent sales tax approved by Suffolk County voters in 1999 – and extended by voters until 2030 in a referendum earlier this month -- for land preservation and environmental protection. The County Charter allocated 11.25 percent of this annual revenue to water quality protection and restoration programs, and the recently approved program increases that allocation to 11.75 percent.

According to Levy, each of the projects meets the county’s priority ranking criteria; and have been recommended by the Water Quality Review Committee.

• Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) Investigation, Monitoring and Mitigation ($298,760): This program will allow the county’s Office of Water Resources, within the Department of Health Services, to investigate contamination from a number of former MGP sites throughout the county. The MGP sites in this program are: Babylon, Bay Shore, Halesite, Patchogue, Sag Harbor, East Hampton hortonsphere, Pinelawn hortonsphere, Port Jefferson hortonsphere, Riverhead hortonspehere, East Hampton gasoline cracking facility, Saltaire acetylene facility and Southold acetylene facility.
• Fertilizer Nitrogen Reduction from Residences and Golf Courses ($190,069): This program will fund portions of Levy’s multi-pronged fertilizer reduction plan which was introduced in October.
• Vector Control Pesticide Reduction Action Plan ($350,000): This summer Levy unveiled a Long-Term Vector Control Plan with a goal of 75% reduction in pesticide use over the next 12 years. The action plan being funded will enhance this effort with proactive, peer-reviewd research into the impacts of pesticides on water quality and alternatives to pesticides, as well as public education and outreach and promotion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) concepts. 
• Reducing and Mitigating Toxic Discharges ($277,000): This project will review the county’s Office of Pollution Control data on industrial inspections and sampling and will perform additional industrial monitoring and assessment.
• Aquatic Invasive Species Eradication ($250,000): This project will study aquatic invasive/nuisance weeds at three lakes in the Town of Brookhaven – Canaan Lake in North Patchogue, and Upper Lake and Lower Lake in Yaphank – and develop an eradication plan to be tested in a pilot project.
• Grangebel Park Fish Passage ($70,000): Construction of dams over a century ago along the 17-mile long Peconic River has prohibited populations of river fish and eels from using the river for spawning, maturation and feeding. The Peconic Estuary Program, partnering with the Town of Riverhead, U.S. Fish and Wildlife and other agencies, is implementing a program to restore over 300 acres of fish habitat along the Peconic River, including a fish passage at Grangebel Park. The county money will be used for a structural analysis of the north and south spillways.