Source: Suffolk County Department of Health Services; Design: Amy Unikewicz/JellyFever

Why is this important?
Long Island’s sole source aquifer system provides the Island’s residents with 100% of their drinking water.  Both the quality and quantity of the water in this underground aquifer system is directly impacted by what we do on the surface. 

How are we doing?
In 2010, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services released a draft Comprehensive Water Resource Management Plan, which provided a detailed assessment of the aquifers underlying Suffolk County.  It was the first such comprehensive assessment since 1987.  The Plan revealed an alarming decline in the quality of the Island’s aquifers.  Among the findings were:

• A rapid rise in the level of nitrates:  A 40% increase in the Upper Glacial Aquifer since 1987 and a 200% increase in the Magothy Aquifer over the same period of time.  Previously, the quality of water in the Magothy had largely been considered pristine.  Nitrate contamination is attributed to failing septic systems and, on the east end, fertilizer application.
• An increased presence of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s).  VOC’s are found in many household cleaning supplies and, in 2005, they were detected in four times as many well as they were in 1987.
• An increase in the detection of pesticides.  In 2005, pesticides were found in nearly one out of every four community supply wells.

Nassau County has not conducted a comprehensive review on the scale of the Suffolk County Plan for a number of years, so similar data does not exist.  What is known, however, is that while Suffolk County struggles with water quality issues, Nassau County struggles with water quantity issue.  Due to denser development and less permeable surfaces in the county, consumption rates outpace the aquifers ability to recharge.  This can lead to salt water intrusion into the aquifer rendering the water supply undrinkable.  This has occurred in the City of Long Beach and in several wells on the northern shore of the county. 

If these trends are not reversed, significant infrastructure projects will be required to move clean water from one part of the region to another and/or to treat local supplies of water.  The impact on our already high taxes could be considerable.  Furthermore, all of the water bodies on and around the Island are fed directly from the Island’s aquifers.  While we may be able to treat and clean the water we consume, our natural environment can afford no such luxury.  Continued groundwater contamination could have a devastating impact on the ecosystems upon which the Island’s tourism and fishing industry directly rely upon.