For about 15 years, the US Navy has been cleaning up contaminants at the Enterprise Park at Calverton (EPCAL), in the Town of Riverhead. A toxic groundwater plume from the site is threatening the Peconic River and has contaminated a few drinking water wells in the surrounding area.

We encourage the Navy to move forward with their remediation plan, but we also believe that there is more work needed to fully clean up the toxic plume. A major portion of the plume remains outside of the EPCAL fence line and there are currently no plans for treating that portion.

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Environmental, Health & Community Organizations Act To Protect Long Islanders’ Drinking Water

January 11, 2012 (Farmingdale, NY) – At a press conference today, Group for the East End joined with over 20 organizations* from the environmental and health communities to protect Long Island's drinking water supply. These groups are urging the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to use its legal authority to ban the three pesticides that are most prevalent in Long Island’s drinking water supply.

These toxic chemicals are making their way into the underground water supply or into our local surface waters, posing threats to the health of humans and animals. The solution is clear – ban the most harmful pesticides and create a plan to eliminate all pesticides from Long Island’s drinking water supply. The DEC has legal authority to adopt a zero tolerance policy for pesticides in groundwater within the Long Island Pesticide Use Management Plan, and environmental advocates are calling for action. A letter of comment on the DEC's most recent plan was submitted by all groups on January 6, 2012.

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Book Review:  Raising Elijah: Protecting our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis

                        By Sandra Steingraber

“As soon as you know, you can’t not know.” Some may find this overly-simplistic, while others will surely relate. I experienced this notion recently after news reports of elevated arsenic levels in apple juice. The reports struck me as odd for two reasons. Why is there arsenic appearing in apple juice at all, and why is it suddenly elevated?  For my family, and like many others across the country, we banned all brands of apple juice from our home, right on the heels of banning cantaloupe after a listeria outbreak a few months prior.

Author Sandra Steingraber, a PhD scholar in residence at Ithaca College, has written a very eye-opening book on a theme that keeps many parents awake at night. Part biologist, part poet, Steingraber is the heir-apparent to Rachel Carson, is also the author of Having Faith: an Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood and Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and Environment. This, her third book takes the reader through the first six years of her son’s, Elijah, life as he faces a variety of health setbacks (asthma, attention-deficit, even a rabies scare) due to environmental factors.

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December 12, 2011 (Riverhead, New York) – On December 6, 2011 Group for the East End applauded the approval of new site plan review requirements that will allow the public to weigh in on proposed commercial development projects within the Town of Riverhead. For months the Group has advocated in partnership with the Riverhead Neighborhood Preservation Coalition, and many other civic associations to see this constructive legislation become a reality.

Under the new law, public hearings will be noticed in the newspaper and signage will be posted on the proposed project site to notify interested community members of when and where they can provide comment. Group advocate Jenn Hartnagel noted,  “The new legislation helps to create a more open and transparent decision-making culture that the Town of Riverhead so desperately needs.” The Town of Riverhead was the only town in the region that excluded public input on commercial and retail site plan applications. 

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What's important for kids to know about the Earth they live on?

• Discuss how food is grown and harvested, what resources are used to get it to your table for dinner, and where your drinking water comes from.
• Grow herbs, plant a small garden, tour a farm or join a CSA.
• Find out together what materials are used to make the pencils they use in school, or for the sneakers they are wearing. 

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December 6, 2011 (Suffolk County, New York) – In November, Group for the East End received a $45K grant through the Suffolk Couty 1/4 percent sales tax “Drinking Water Protection Program” to implement the Pharmaceutical Disposal and Aquifer Protection Initiative within the five East End towns of Long Island.

The initiative addresses the environmental and human health impacts of improper disposal of medications by providing East End police departments with lock boxes where residents can properly dispose of unwanted or expired medications. In addition, the initiative seeks to fund a public outreach and education campaign to reach the approximately 88,000 households that make up Riverhead, Southold, Southampton, Shelter Island and East Hampton Towns.

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Earlier this month, Anita Wright and I organized a habitat restoration project at Meetinghouse Creek Pocket Park in Aquebogue. This project, like many of the ones we have done in the past, involved a collaboration between a number of different groups. We had financial support from the Peconic Estuary Program, planning support from the Town of Riverhead, and most importantly hands-on help from Ms. White’s 3rd grade class at Aquebogue Elementary.

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More than 150 years ago, Henry David Thoreau offered this observation about himself: “I never go out knowing what I am going to find. The interest is in finding what I didn’t know I was going to find.”

These words aptly describe my experiences when bringing school groups to Long Island’s ocean beaches. Through the years, Group educators and our students have stumbled upon numerous intriguing finds during field trips to the beach: gray seal pups resting on shore, large pieces of driftwood showing the chew-marks of beavers, sand dollars, sea urchins, and mummified sea horses.

Last week definitely qualified as another exciting episode of “finding what I didn’t know I was going to find”. I arrived at the Napeague beach about forty-five minutes ahead of the Springs School fifth-graders, and so decided to do a little beachcombing on my own. As I walked the edge between surf and beach, something caught my eye that initially appeared to be a hair-brush.

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ACTION ALERT!

Important Public Meeting
Thursday, November 3^rd at 5:30PM
George Young Community Center (446 S. Jamesport Ave., Jamesport)

For about 15 years, the US Navy has been cleaning up contaminants from past uses of the old Grumman site (also known as EPCAL) in the Town of Riverhead. Recently the Suffolk County Department of Health Services discovered that the toxic groundwater plume on the southeast side of the property was much larger than the Navy had originally thought.  

Pollutants from Grumman’s Navy jet engine testing have now reached the Peconic River and have also contaminated a few drinking water wells in the area.

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A group of enthusiastic fourth graders from Springs School Project MOST are participating in an environmental stewardship program led by Group for the East End Educators, Jennifer Skilbred and Anita Wright. The program, which takes place after school, is funded through a grant from the Levitt Foundation and will continue throughout the school year.

The goals for this program are consistent with all of Group for the East End educations programs. We strive to cultivate interest and wonder for the East End’s natural surroundings, provide a foundation to appreciate the values of local natural resources, and instill a sense of responsibility to live in harmony with the environment.

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