Conservation, Southold-style
Enviro group maps out what's at stake.
1 comments below
Jeremy Samuelson, environmental advocate with Group for the East End, points out the town's many aquifers during Thursday's press conference.
It's water, according to a survey conducted by the Group for the East End, an environmental advocacy organization based in Bridgehampton. And water, particularly the protection of the aquifers that supply the North Fork with much of its drinking supply, is a key component of the group's recently released Southold Conservation Agenda.
The 15-page guide was designed to connect the inventory of the town's natural features and resources with public policies, especially those made at the town level, group president Bob DeLuca said during the March 11 release of the guide at the group's Southold office. (A copy of the conservation agenda is included in this week's Suffolk Times.)
"We're fortunate in that the town is in the process of writing a new comprehensive plan at a time when developmental pressure is lower than it's been in quite some time," said Mr. DeLuca. "It's not often we get the opportunity to get things right, and this is one of those opportunities."
The group tapped grant funds from the Long Island Community Foundation to conduct its poll. The availability of clean water headed the list of concerns, followed by the effects of septic systems on drinking and surface waters. Rounding out the top five are conserving energy, the rate of development and traffic. The future of working farms and farm stands ranked seventh, behind the future of scenic vistas and leaking underground home heating oil tanks.
Among the brochure's graphics is a map of Southold's many aquifers. The area doesn't draw its water from a single underground supply, but from several that follow the North Fork's typography. The Nassau Point, Bayview and Orient peninsulas each have a distinct water source, and in coastal areas that water is found only 10 feet down. The quality of that water is threatened from both above and below by man-made contaminants and saltwater intrusion. Much of the North Fork's drinking water is drawn from a thin lens of fresh water floating atop salt water.
The group previously released a similar guide for Shelter Island.
"Ultimately it is our hope that this effort will succeed in transforming the general concerns about future land protection, water protection and community character into an action plan that can be promoted and implemented by local officials," said group environmental advocate Jeremy Samuelson, one of the leaders of the conservation agenda project. "The greatest challenge to this effort lies in altering the notion that a community really doesn't have to take any action to preserve its resources and community character."
tkelly@timesreview.com
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1 comments found
Why : 3/18/2010
>> in coastal areas that water is found only 10 feet down
Is incorrect. The depth of our aquifers is what the map shows, not the depth to our aquifers.
Our current zoning is essentially our first zoning. It is a transitional plan. We have developed to the extent that we need to progress to a sustainable zoning plan.
Not to act but to REACT!
The resources map highlights in yellow the lands that we now enjoy as open space which may be developed into closed space if we do not make sweeping changes.
Every property owner must balance their private interest with their public interest.
