Weisenberg secures funding for Western Bays study

In an effort to continue environmental studies of the polluted Western Bays, Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg (D-Long Beach) recently secured $300,000 in funding under the Environmental Protection Fund in the final state budget.

The funding comes on the heels of research that began in 2010, after Weisenberg and State Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) secured $600,000 to fund what they called the most comprehensive study of the bays ever conducted.

The research, also known as the Total Maximum Daily Load Study of the Western Bay Quality Monitoring System, is being conducted by Stony Brook University and is expected to help secure federal funding to reduce nitrogen found in the effluent discharge.

The total maximum daily load is the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can absorb and still safely meet water quality standards, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“The completion of the TMDL Study will be really good for Long Beach,” said Scott Bochner, a co-founder of the Sludge Stoppers Task Force. “It will show what the Bay Park sewage treatment plant has been discharging. Once we show the federal government and the DEC, we will be able to get federal dollars to not only upgrade the Bay Park plant but also the Long Beach sewage treatment plant.”

  Weisenberg said that the funding would ensure the critical next step in ongoing measures to “scientifically assess the damage already done to this waterway and to protect the bays from further harm.”

“Our local environmental groups and civic organizations were instrumental in ensuring this money was included in the budget,” Weisenberg said in a statement, noting that action taken by Citizens Campaign for the Environment, the Point Lookout Civic Association, Sludge Stoppers, Operation Splash, and Assemblyman Bob Sweeney, helped secure the funding.