Community members rallied together last week to protest a groundbreaking ceremony on the campus of the State College of Old Westbury. "Clean water, not dirty politics!" was chanted, mostly by members of local environmental and civic groups who stood in the cold wind and rain about 50 yards away from the ceremony which marked the beginning of the construction to build new dormitories on the campus. The project includes building five residence halls to accommodate about 850 students and the possibility for future building.

Last summer, Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli and Senator Carl Marcellino co-sponsored a measure that transfers, to the college foundation, some 200 acres for development. The land overlies one of only two state-designated Special Ground Water Protection Areas in Nassau County. The legislation permits construction unrelated to the academic mission of the college.

"It is outrageous for state and university officials to be celebrating the commencement of massive development in an area that must be preserved to protect some of Nassau's cleanest, purest and healthiest drinking water," said Joseph Lorintz, president of United Civic Associations of North Oyster Bay and the executive director of the Long Island Drinking Water Coalition. "We warned this would happen when the legislation was approved last year, and have been constantly reassured by the legislators involved and the new college president. We have been lied to."

The development plan made headlines and fueled protests last year when it was approved in the New York State Budget. Many legislators complained that they did not understand the provisions of the act which permits leasing of land to the college foundation for unspecified development. Development on the surface would introduce contaminants including human waste, fertilizers and chemicals associated with human activity directly into the critical environmental area, according to environmentalists.

Reverend Calvin Butts was appointed president of Old Westbury last year and he is also the pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Butts replaced interim president W. Hubert Keen, without the college's board of trustees having done a nationwide search for the position. Butts already had a seat on the board of Empire State Development Corporation, a group which promotes construction projects statewide.

"Butts came here to develop this property, not to educate those kids," said Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society.

"I am here to tell you that they [the protesters] are wrong," Reverend Butts said to about 100 invited guests who attended the groundbreaking ceremony. "We have followed every state guideline for the project." He praised the development as improving the school and denied any environmental harm.

Critics question the need for suggested future projects on the campus grounds - a Nassau police academy and an equestrian center. The biggest threat, according to critics, is the environmental impact these buildings will have on the land.

"We are not saying the dorms are inappropriate," said Lorintz. "There seems to be an attempt to misconstrue our intent here. It is not to say that dorms are inappropriate - dorms are appropriate to be constructed in appropriate areas in conjunction with the mission of the college. But when you start a groundbreaking in an area where it is considered to be inappropriate," that is the problem.

Community members are invited to attend a demonstration sponsored by the Society to Preserve Underhill and Long Island Drinking Water Coalition for Nassau's Drinking water on April 22 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Oyster Bay Town Square located between Town Hall and the post office in downtown Oyster Bay. For further information call 681-2096. Following the peaceful demonstration will be an Earth Day celebration in Glen Cove from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.