State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. announced this week that in its final budget bill, the State Assembly had included funding for the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, a measure that seeks to improve water quality by supporting various wastewater projects, from innovative alternative home wastewater systems to new sewer lines.
Funding for the measure is also included in the State Senate’s budget, as well as in Governor Kathy Hochul’s own budget, Thiele said. He anticipated some version of the program would pass when the State Legislature adopts a final budget on April 1. “It’s all a negotiation until then,” he said.
If adopted in the final budget, the act would create a dedicated fund for water quality improvement projects, as outlined in the Suffolk County Subwatersheds Wastewater Plan. The program would be financed with an 1/8 percent addition to the sales tax, which would be subject to a countywide referendum.
The measure would also continue until 2060 the collection of the county’s 0.25 percent sales tax, which is dedicated to financing the county’s Drinking Water Protection Program, and is scheduled to expire in 2030.
The act would also allow Suffolk County to consolidate its 27 existing sewer districts into a single district, Thiele said.
The assemblyman said the measure recognizes that strong steps need to be taken to improve the county’s groundwater quality soon by removing nitrogen and other contaminants from wastewater.
He said the county still has about 350,000 traditional home septic systems in operation. Although there has been a push to fund the replacement of those systems with innovative alternative systems, which remove large amounts of nitrogen from wastewater, progress has been slow.
“Between the towns, the villages, and the county, they have put in a thousand, or at most a couple of thousand new systems,” Thiele said. “To use a bad pun, that’s just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.”
Although the state has provided some funding for the county program over the years, the new measure would guarantee a source of funding for years to come, Thiele said.
Under the measure, 75 percent of the funding would be dedicated to septic upgrades and up to 25 percent for larger sewage projects, Thiele said.
The East End towns already provide a source of funding for septic upgrades through their Community Preservation Funds, but Thiele said East End residents would also qualify for the county funding, which could significantly reduce their out-of-pocket expenses.
With Montauk, East Hampton Village, Southampton Village, and Riverside all considering sewer systems, the program could provide a source of funding for those projects as well, Thiele said.
“Twenty-five years ago, sewer and water lines were all looked at as growth-inducing,” Thiele said. “Now, if you don’t have that infrastructure, you are not going to have potable water, your surface waters will become contaminated, and the fishing and tourism industries will suffer,” he said.
Although sales taxes are typically considered regressive, in that the poor bear the greatest burden because the tax is imposed on each dollar spent, Thiele said the county has a strong tradition of supporting sales tax increases to support environmental initiatives.
“Number one, it’s been used for the environment before so it’s consistent,” Thiele said, “and in the past voters have voted for sales tax. We all live here, so we all have to pay. And the public seems to find it less onerous because a lot of people who don’t live here also contribute.”
Stephen J. Kotz on Mar 21, 2023