By:LARRY MAIER
Local group gets hands dirty fighting for clean water
Baldwin resident Stefanie Reis stands at the bow of the boat, her eyes carefully scanning the calm waters ahead for bounty. The rest of the six-person crew does the same, but it's Stefanie who sights the day's first prize, about 30 feet ahead and off the port side. She calls to the boat's captain who skillfully maneuvers the small vessel in for the kill. When she is close enough, Stefanie raises her weapon and strikes. BINGO. A moment later, Stefanie's catch is onboard.
It's an empty bag of potato chips, mesquite flavored. It never had a chance.
Stefanie and the rest of her garbage-snaring crew are part of a local organization called Operation SPLASH, which stands for Stop Polluting, Littering and Save Harbors.
SPLASH is a non-profit, all-volunteer group that prides itself on being part of the solution to the problem of coastal pollution. Its members are environmentally conscious individuals who, armed with poles and nets, rubber gloves, garbage cans, and intrepid spirits, prefer to attack the crisis of coastal pollution head on rather than waiting for it to go away on its own.
"We actively get out there and do something about the problem instead of just sitting around talking about it," said Freeport resident Rob Weltner, the current president of SPLASH.
The organization is based in Freeport and docks its vessel in the Town of Hempstead Marina at the foot of Guy Lombardo Avenue.
From early spring until late fall, SPLASH crews board their boat and perform daily, and sometimes twice daily, cleanups of the bays, canals, and wetlands off Freeport and Baldwin.
What started as a grass roots, word-of-mouth effort by Freeport residents Al and Joanne Grover has blossomed into an organization with 250 members, many of whom actively take part in the daily waterway cleanups.
This summer, SPLASH will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. Best estimates are that SPLASH volunteers have scooped, dragged, and hauled over 100 tons of garbage out of local waterways. They have logged over 13,000 man-hours on the boat and in onshore cleanups, like their May 5 cleanup of Milburn Creek, which they performed with the help of the Freeport Rotary Club, high school and fire department.
Taking back the waterways
The backbone of SPLASH's efforts to clean up local waterways is daily boat trips. The boat and crew leave the town marina in search of floating trash seven days a week.
Crews also venture out into the marshlands and collect garbage that gets caught up in the grasses at high tide.
Much of the daily haul includes bottles and cans, plastic and styrofoam cups, plastic bags and wrappers, cigarette filters, and floating dock wood.
SPLASH crews have hauled car engines, shopping carts, a bowling ball and, yes, even a kitchen sink out of the local waters.
Reis is part of the regular Sunday morning crew, which consists of fellow Baldwinite Alice Tuminello and Freeport residents Don Miller, Bill Halvorsen and Mary Kane,
On this particular morning, the SPLASH crew welcomed a newcomer to their group, Jessica Liebler, from Freeport.
And all the hard work of SPLASH crews is paying off. Those who have been with the organization the longest have seen first-hand the power of volunteers working together to make their corner of the world a better place to live.
"I've noticed our waters getting cleaner. I can see that we have made a difference," said Alice Tuminello, who has been an active SPLASH crew member for nine years.
However, Tuminello cautions, there is much more work to be done, to clean up the waters today and to keep them clean for tomorrow.
Education is the key
SPLASH tries to keep litter and pollutants out of local waters in the first place by offering educational programs to civic groups, clubs and, most important, schools.
"We try to get the message across to the kids because they will teach their parents," Tuminello said.
Education is particularly important because there is just so much that can be accomplished by hard-working volunteers combing the local waterways for debris. The fishing nets used by crew members to pluck debris from the water are powerless against many forms of pollution that enter the south shore's waterways through storm drainage systems.
Miller, who besides captaining the Sunday morning crew is also a Village of Freeport trustee, said that animal and plant life in the waters is being "choked out" by debris, road runoff, and chemical pollutants, like lawn pesticides, that flow into local canals and bays.
"Ninety years ago, when the storm drainage systems were built, we didn't have the awareness of the dangers of dumping into the bays and the implications on the environment," Miller said.
SPLASH believes that education is the key to providing "living water" for generations to come and putting an end to litter and pollution. SPLASH members say they would prefer to be out of business.
"We don't want to have to be out here seven days a week," said Kane, an original SPLASH member. "So we focus on education, and maybe, someday, it will eliminate our jobs."
Until that day, SPLASH crews will be out on the waterways doing their thing. And SPLASH is always looking for new members, even those who can't commit to manning a boat for a few hours once a week.
"There is force in numbers," said crew member Bill Halvorsen, who joined SPLASH three seasons ago after years of feeling sick and tired of what was happening to the waters in which he grew up swimming, fishing, and clamming. Halvorsen said that more members means more political power for the environmental group and more attention paid to the problems facing local waterways.
People who care
Still standing on the bow of the boat, Reis takes a break from scanning the water and speaks in a serious tone.
"Everything we throw on the sidewalks, or out our car windows into the street eventually ends up in the water," Reis said. She then turns her attention to her crew and smiles as she watches them in action.
"It's nice to know there are people who want to make a difference. It's nice to know I'm not the only person who cares," Reis said as she grabs her net and gets back to work.
To contact SPLASH about membership information, educational programs, or to make a donation, please call (516) 378-4770.
SPLASH holds a monthly meeting the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m. at the Town Marina, 898 Guy Lombardo Ave., Freeport, N.Y. All are welcome.
