(Editor's note: What happens in Suffolk County regarding this issue will set a precedent that could affect Nassau County.)

"Water More Precious Than Gold" was the slogan of the Sepharadic Heritage Alliance (S.H.A.I.) Environmental Committee public water forum held February, 2006 at the Saddle Rock School. "Our mission is to bring the community together. We must educate each other about the environment," said Mr. Michael Harounian, trustee of S.H.A.I.

This is the time we need the help of every resident of the coastal communities of the North Shore and the South Shore of Long Island to stop the overturn of the New York State Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) enacted in 1986 to protect the drinking water of coastal communities like Great Neck and Long Beach in Nassau County as well as the Suffolk County coastal villages that have only Lloyd Aquifer drinking water.

Write to Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli and Senator Michael A. Balboni. Both should support and Senator Balboni should co-sponsor Assemblyman Englebright's A8807 bill. They must urge New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Sheehan, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233 not to grant the Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) a waiver. Their well is not coastal; they do not have extreme hardship; the test well is not "state of the art" and may crack to pollute the Lloyd Aquifer.

Official at SCWA have applied to the DEC for a permit to drill a new public drinking water well into the Lloyd Aquifer at the Northport Hospital wellfield. SCWA asks the DEC to waive the 1986 moratorium on drilling new wells in the Lloyd Aquifer (S 15-1528). SCWA wants to use the uncontaminated Lloyd Aquifer water to dilute the nitrate contamination in Magothy wells.

The DEC Commissioner Denise Sheehan should not allow any of the 55 Long Island water suppliers to drill new wells into the Lloyd Aquifer in non-coastal communities and use 8,000-year-old pristine water to dilute pollution such as nitrates. Water districts have already closed 41 wells due to nitrate contamination in Nassau County. There is new technology to treat polluted water.

There must be enforcement from the Department of Health of both LI counties for wellhead protection. Villages must install sewers to protect their public drinking water wells. Nitrates can cause "blue baby syndrome" in infants and are probable carcinogens.

Along the North Shore of Long Island, the salt water of Long Island Sound, and on the South Shore, the salt water of the Atlantic Ocean tries to invade the aquifers, but are held back by the fresh water that percolates down through the soil when it rains. It takes over 200 years for rainfall to reach the Lloyd Aquifer. It slowly travels down through thick clay layers. Long Island has three aquifers, the Upper Glacial, the Middle Magothy and the Lloyd Aquifer. They are LI's "sole source aquifer system."

Every resident of Nassau County is familiar with the water conservation ordinances. We all know we must save water. We have sewers to prevent nitrates from invading our soil that used to pollute our drinking water from overflowing cesspools and septic systems. Urbanized communities must have sewers to carry away nitrates.

Suffolk County does not have a water conservation program. Most of Suffolk County is not sewered. As a result, septic systems and cesspools are overflowing. The Northport Hospital well field has a sewage treatment plant and a lagoon. This has resulted in nitrate contamination in the soil not far from Middleville Well #3 which has already contaminated two other wells.

Environmental groups such as the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Great Neck, Nassau County and Suffolk County, the Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington, Friends of the Bay, Long Beach LWV, Huntington and Hamptons LWV, Sierra Club, and North Shore Land Alliance and coastal villages are fighting to protect the Environmental Conservation Law and the Moratorium for new Lloyd wells.

They were represented as petitioners at an adjudicatory hearing at the DEC Region 1 headquarters in Stony Brook, NY, on Sept. 12 through 14, 2006. The petitioners were represented pro-bono by E. Christopher Murray, Reisman Pierez & Reisman, LLP, 1305 Franklin Ave., Suite 270, Garden City, NY 11530 and Hydrology professor, Sarah Meyland, New York Institute of Technology.

Administrative Law Judge Maria Villa will make a decision in January after reviewing the pre-hearing and verbatim testimony and post hearing briefs. The petitioners must pay $1,150 for court fees. The ALJ's decision will be given to the DEC Commissioner, who will decide whether or not a permit should be granted to the SCWA to drill a new Lloyd well. Granting a permit would overturn a 20-year-old moratorium which has protected the drinking water in Nassau and Suffolk counties from over-pumping and salt water intrusion for 20 years. We need your help!

If you would like to contribute to the fund to pay court fees for the petitioners, you may reach Ms. Siegal at 466-0427.