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Plan Proposed To Cleanup And Preserve Peconic Bay

Release Date: 09/02/1999
Contact Information: Mary Mears (212) 637-3673 / mears.mary@epa.gov

(#99147) New York, N.Y. -- In a culmination of grassroots, local, state and federal efforts, a proposed comprehensive plan designed to preserve and restore the Peconic Bay Estuary was released today by the Peconic Estuary Program (PEP) Policy Committee for public comment. One of The Nature Conservancy's "Last Great Places in the Western Hemisphere," the Peconic Estuary is an invaluable natural resource that faces many ecological challenges. The draft Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan (CCMP) for the Peconic Bay Estuary is designed to assess and address, through individual, local, state and federal actions, these challenges.

"This is a program that grew out of many grassroots efforts to protect, preserve and restore this beautiful estuary, which is a true treasure," said Jeanne M. Fox, EPA Region 2 Administrator. "This CCMP builds on past and ongoing efforts to better understand and control potential environmental threats to the Peconic estuary. I commend New York State for their leadership in portions of the plan dealing with habitat and living resources and Suffolk County, without whom this plan would not be possible. We are extremely gratified that the federal government, through its National Estuary Program, has been able to spearhead this program."

"Governor Pataki understands the critical importance of preserving and restoring the Peconic Estuary, which is why he specifically dedicated millions in Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act funds to protecting local water quality and maintaining a healthy and diverse marine community," said John P. Cahill, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. "Through today's planning process and other efforts, New York State is committed to working in partnership with the EPA, Suffolk County and local communities to ensure that this magnificent natural resource is protected for future generations."

"Suffolk County has always recognized the importance of the Peconic Estuary's natural resources and their value to our residents and to our economy," stated Robert J. Gaffney, Suffolk County Executive. "We in Suffolk County have been fully committed to the PEP, providing a Program Office and well over two million dollars worth of resources for PEP plan development and Brown Tide investigations. Additionally, since 1993 Suffolk County has saved over 3,300 acres of open space at a cost of over $35 million. On this day, we are delighted to join our local, state and federal partners in issuing the first blueprint to keep this 'Last Great Place' great forever."

Southold Town Supervisor Jean Cochran said, "This has really been a grassroots effort from its inception, spearheaded by citizens, towns and villages. East End towns have been at the forefront of watershed management, with programs dealing with open space protection, farmland preservation, land use management and stormwater runoff control. As the local government representative to the Policy Committee, I fully endorse this draft management plan."

"While there are numerous actions underway to protect water quality and habitat already, this plan lays out the foundation for action that must also be done in the next few months," said Kevin McDonald, Chair of the Citizen's Advisory Committee. "In the end, however, our success in fending off further degradation and restoring the Peconic Bay depends on the thousands of individual actions of residents and businesses throughout the region. We have found that there is no silver bullet -- what we as individuals apply in our backyards or school yards effects water quality."

Chief among the ecological challenges faced by the Peconic is Brown Tide, which has seriously affected the once nationally-significant Bay Scallop industry. Between 1982 and 1996, the harvest for Peconic Bay Scallop was reduced from more than 500,000 pounds to just over 50 pounds, with an economic loss of more than one million dollars a year. Other critical environmental problems faced by the Peconic are habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation; and localized over-enrichment of nutrients, such as nitrogen that can lead to low dissolved oxygen levels, which can adversely affect marine life. Pathogen contamination has closed shellfish beds and toxic pollutants, while not a documented system-wide problem, continue to be investigated. The need for planning and management is urgent, since 40% of the watershed is subject to development.

The plan provides an overview of the major accomplishments of the program. These include numerous state-of-the-art characterization studies, such as development of a surface water quality model, and an inventory of land uses and development potential for each parcel in the 110,000-acre watershed. The plan integrates economics with habitat and water quality management, since the region's economy is very estuary-dependent. More than 1,100 establishments, with more than 7,300 employees and $465 million in revenues, are dependent on the estuary and its water quality.

For Brown Tide, the program has emphasized a coordinated approach of monitoring, resource restoration (such as bay scallop seeding and eelgrass restoration trials) and research. The PEP has drafted a Brown Tide Workplan to identify research needs and is part of the Brown Tide Research Initiative (BTRI) team, headed by New York Sea Grant, which manages $3 million of funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrator for Brown Tide research.

Included in the plan are specific policies that have already been enacted to control the discharge of nitrogen into the Peconic. For example, nitrogen discharges from sewage treatment plants in the western estuary have been frozen at their current level. Through the New York State Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act, sewage treatment plants at Riverhead and Sag Harbor are being upgraded. The PEP is well on its way to achieving its ultimate goal of developing and implementing a strategy that reduces nitrogen going into the Peconic River and Flanders Bay. The strategy would also control increases in nitrogen discharges east of Flanders Bay, where potential development could result in more nitrogen discharges. The goal is to implement a water quality preservation policy for these high quality waters east of Flanders.

Ambitious efforts have been launched to identify and manage "Critical Natural Resource Areas," and to implement a regional "Habitat Restoration Plan." Already, 68 sites have been nominated for restoration and critical natural resource areas have been delineated. The plan also proposes numerous policies, including prevention of "shoreline hardening," which occurs when structures (such as bulkheads) are built into the shoreline.

The plan also highlights the newly-initiated Regional Stormwater Management Strategy, which assists in accomplishing the PEP goal of halting annual increases in shellfish bed closures (due mainly to stormwater-based coliform contamination) and, possibly, reopening local beds. Efforts also continue to characterize toxic chemicals in sediments and fish in the estuary.

More than 50 early implementation projects, using $7 million in federal and state funds, deal with stormwater management; wastewater treatment upgrades; and scallop, wetlands and eelgrass restoration. Public support and non-federal resources have been critical, resulting in the commitment of tens of millions of dollars of future funding from county and town sources for land preservation, pollution control and resource enhancement. In particular, land acquisition actions are central to the management plan, to protect high quality habitat, watersheds and water quality.

The plan contains other policies and actions to improve and preserve the Peconic. Among the key actions are to:

· Use land use planning to control nitrogen impacts associated with new development
· Develop annual "sub-watershed implementation plans" to address specific pollution problems in smaller sections of the overall Peconic Estuary watershed
· Enhance fertilizer and septic system management
· Establish no discharge areas, prohibiting the discharge of treated boat sewage into the estuary
· Reduce pesticide run-off into the Peconic Estuary

The Peconic Estuary was accepted into the National Estuary Program as an estuary of national significance in September 1992. The Peconic is one of 28 estuaries nationwide to obtain this designation, including the New York/New Jersey Harbor Estuary and the Long Island Sound. Participants in the Peconic Estuary Program include a wide variety of stakeholders, representing citizens and environmental groups, businesses and industries, academic institutions, and local, state and federal governments.

The public will have the opportunity to comment on the CCMP until November 16, 1999. The Peconic Estuary Program expects to complete a final plan in the spring and secure final approval from EPA Administrator Carol Browner and New York State Governor George Pataki by next summer. Members of the public can obtain full copies of the plan, which will be printed and ready for distribution by September 16, 1999 by writing Vito Minei, Program Manager, Peconic Estuary Program, SCDHS Office of Ecology, County Center, Riverhead, New York 11901 or faxing to 516-852-2743. The plan will also be available by September 19, 1999 on the web at www.co.suffolk.ny.us/health/pep.

For more information contact:

Mary Mears, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3669 FAX: 212-637-5046 E-Mail: mears.mary@epamail.epa.gov