1 Photo
Peter Scully
East End lawmakers, who are planning septic system replacement rebate programs, got a look at the first two nitrogen-reducing household systems approved by Suffolk County on Friday in East Hampton.
County officials and the owners of the companies that sell the two newly approved systems were at East Hampton Town Hall to discuss the systems, the requirements and costs of their use, and the replacement rebate programs, which are expected to be the cornerstone of water-quality improvement efforts in both East Hampton and Southampton towns, utilizing millions in new Community Preservation Fund revenues.
The two systems, called Singulair and Hydro-Action, are the first approved for use by the county’s Department of Health Services that are designed to reduce the amount of nitrogen that is released into the ground with wastewater effluent.
Currently, the vast majority of households in eastern Suffolk County are connected only to cesspools or septic tanks with leaching pools. Most houses built prior to 1980 have only cesspools, which are little more than underground holes into which waste is flushed. Many of those cesspools in areas near tidal waters are actually within groundwater tables that flow directly into bays and ponds.
Septic tanks, which capture solid waste and release liquid waste via leaching rings to filter back into the groundwater, offer only a minor improvement, since liquid waste carries the largest amounts of nitrogen.
Both of the new systems that are now available locally, and several others currently being tested, utilize dual-chambered treatment tanks that use oxygen and naturally occurring microbes to break down nitrogen in waste before effluent is released into the ground.
Peter Scully, the deputy Suffolk County executive and director of the county’s water quality improvement projects, who was at East Hampton Town Hall on Friday, said that the county has identified at least 209,000 households on the East End with deficient waste systems that lie within priority watershed areas, identified as posing the most risk to water quality because of shallow water tables and proximity to tidal waters.
Scientists from Stony Brook University have identified nitrogen from household septic systems as the main catalyst of harmful algae blooms that have exploded in Long Island’s bays and freshwater ponds over the last 30 years. Without major sewerage infrastructure, as exists in towns of western Suffolk and Nassau counties, replacing thousands of decades-old cesspools and septic systems with new on-site treatment options is seen as the best hope for stanching the flow of nitrogen that feeds the algae blooms.
“It’s pretty clear we have a problem—beaches are closed, we can’t eat the shellfish, we’re seeing algae blooms,” Mr. Scully said. “We are preparing for an evolution away from these systems that don’t treat much, to those that do. The be-all-end-all is … how do we make this affordable to homeowners, since one of these systems costs $16,000, compared to $5,000 to $6,000 for septics and cesspools?”
Last month, voters in all five East End towns approved an extension of the Community Preservation Fund to 2050, and added a new rule that will allow up to 20 percent of revenues to be used on water quality improvement projects. Both Southampton and East Hampton towns have said that septic system replacement incentive rebate programs are expected to be a major focus of the millions in revenue the fund will draw in the coming years.
East Hampton Supervisor Larry Cantwell said that the town has already mapped its priority target areas and identified thousands of homes with failing septic systems that pour nitrogen-laden wastewater into tidal regions
“We are looking at those 12,000 properties in East Hampton that are served only by a cesspool—not even a septic tank—and on what basis a property will be eligible for a rebate,” Mr. Cantwell said last week. “We, of course, want to target the areas most vulnerable to nitrogen pollution.”
The Singulair and Hydro-Action systems were each estimated by the companies selling them to cost about $16,000. There are a dozen other nitrogen-reduction systems already being tested, two of which are expected to be approved by the Department of Health Services by early in the new year, and the rest by late next spring. Officials say that market dynamics should bring the costs of systems down steadily, in addition to the funding assistance the towns expect to employ to bring the costs of the innovative systems on par with older systems for homeowners.
Because the new systems also are “active” and employ pumps, they will have some related energy cost to operate—about $300 a year—that traditional septics don’t, and will also require regular maintenance.
Mr. Scully said that the county will be setting up regulations, monitoring and licensing requirements for companies that sell and service the nitrogen-reducing systems. Many of the crowd of nearly 100 people who attended Friday’s meeting were from building and plumbing companies.
In August, the Suffolk County Legislature approved the first updated requirements in the county’s sanitary code since 1973—a technological hibernation that has left the county among the worst in the nation in terms of septic requirements, environmental watchdogs have said.
The new standards require that septic system effluent contain no more than 19 milligrams of nitrogen per liter. Such levels are still far above what marine scientists have said will be needed to stave off destructive algae blooms in local bays, but they are a start, say officials, considering the outdated systems now in place.
“The push is to reduce nitrogen as much as possible—the scientists support this 19 milligrams per liter level as a significant reduction to what’s currently being released,” County Legislator Bridget Fleming said on Wednesday, December 7. “And there has to be more effort to reduce [nitrogen] more. As these things roll out, I think competition in the marketplace will result in lower and lower standards. But we have to start somewhere.”
Tests of the Singulair and Hydro-Action systems showed average nitrogen levels in effluent of between 12 mg and 18 mg per liter, and Health Department officials said that other designs—particularly shallow leaching fields that release wastewater just 2 inches below a home’s lawn, where grass and plants absorb the nitrogen—have shown promise for reducing those levels substantially.
“Those are pretty good numbers,” said Kevin McDonald, an environmental advocate for The Nature Conservancy.
Both systems are similar in size to the standard septic tank used in most houses now and would be buried typically in the same location as the current septics when those are removed. Both systems require that access covers be exposed for servicing.
Justin Jobin, environmental projects coordinator for the Health Department, said that the county is currently working on legislation that will also approve nitrogen-reducing systems for commercial properties. Making the systems mandatory for new construction or renovations of existing homes, however, is still an uncertain step at the county level.
“The Health Department has committed to an annual review of the state of the technology, looking at the systems we have and what’s being used around the county and making a report to the legislature,” Mr. Jobin said. “This is our top priority. We’re ready to approve these systems.”
on Dec 7, 2016