Dan's Papers -February 27, 2009 -

It is New York State's responsibility to preserve and protect tidal wetlands, fresh water wetlands and surface water from being despoiled or destroyed, and they do this by buying land to preserve it, repairing storm drains to keep road contaminants from flowing into water bodies, and restoring aquatic habitats. This focus on keeping our water clean is why Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman feels it's also important to limit fertilizer use around any body of water. Because we are surrounded by water here on the East End this is an issue he has chosen to pay close attention to.

Fertilizer run off enters our surface waters through rain and irrigation, whether it's a stream, pond or bay, and adds nutrients to the waters that would not be present otherwise. Algae takes advantage of the presence of these nutrients, which are in essence their food, and can then have a population increase that is detrimental to other living things by creating cloudy waters and diminishing the amount of light available to other photosynthesizing marine organisms like eel grass. When the eel grass dies off, young shell fish and fin fish lose their protective habitat. More than once, brown tide, red tide in the saltwater bays and an algae bloom in a Water Mill pond have all had negative effects on scallops, oysters, and fin fish. This, in turn, impacts the fishing industries that have been built up around what used to be an abundant supply of tasty seafood in some cases, and repugnant and unnecessary fish kills in others. "It is a good idea to keep those fertilizers out of harbors and bays," Schneiderman said.

Suffolk County has already addressed the issue of fertilizer run off on all its landholdings and on a County-wide basis. No fertilizers can be used on County-owned property and all fertilizer use whether on County commercial or private property, will be prohibited between November 1 and April 1. So now only manures and compost can be applied to landscapes, as the law went into effect this January 1.

Schneiderman was determined to provide even more protection from excessive nitrogen run off to our surface waters by including an additional provision that prohibits fertilizer use with in 20' of a body of water unless there is at least a 10' buffer of natural vegetation that can absorb those nutrients from surface waters running off into ponds and bays. This provision was just passed in the Legislature's February 3 session and is awaiting the signature of the County Executive Steve Levy pending a public hearing.

This was Schneiderman's second shot at getting this amendment in place. His original proposal was to prohibit fertilizer use with in 100' of a body of water. This prescribed distance made sense, as current DEC regulations prohibit disturbance and building with in a 100' setback from wetlands and bays. But Schneiderman could not get that setback passed as western Legislators felt that this version was too drastic for their districts, in which homeowners bordering water bodies generally have smaller lot sizes. So a compromise was reached which has reduced the setback to 20'.

"All my research says 100', but I just can't get that bill passed. People cannot put their manicured lawns above the water's health and their own health. We are introducing toxins into the bay unnecessarily," Schneiderman stated and he believes that this can also lead to greater instances of human health issues not just die offs of marine and pond organisms.

His reasoning is sound: Clean water is one of the most important issues of our times. Schneiderman may also consider reintroducing a bill aimed at banning certain pesticides from ornamental use in the future.

For more than 20 years, April Gonzales has been involved in garden design, installation and maintenance on the East End, as well as specimen plant scouting and site supervision for landscape architects. ahginc@optonline.net