Protecting & Restoring Long Island's Peconic Bays
This four-part blog chronicles the experience of one participant in the Suffolk County Septic Demonstration Program for Advanced/Alternative On-site Wastewater Disposal Systems.
I applied for Septic Demo Round 2 in February or April 2016. (I had also applied during the First Round, but wasn’t selected). The lottery was held in late June (jackpot!) and a long vetting process began. I guess they wanted to be sure homeowners with pitchforks weren’t going to be chasing people off their property. This is for science after all, folks!
After a few phone interviews (where I tried to sound as normal as possible), I attended one of the public meetings for selected homeowners to gather, meet the county project managers, learn more about the selected technologies, and meet the company reps from each manufacturer as well as their supporting technicians, excavators, etc. We even got to meet each other. Everyone presenting at the meeting was friendly and very informative and boy do I have a lot of respect for the County project manager and the task he is trying to accomplish after that evening. An open floor for questions commenced and it was like the Spanish Inquisition! Sheesh, I know the public generally has a lack of trust for the government, but this was one brutal crowd to appease.
Working in this field, and working closely with the experts who are trying to make an actual dent in the massive effort of reducing nitrogen loading into our bays, I think it is fair to say I feel the immediate need and importance of these projects (it’s probably what helped make me a good candidate). But it really struck me just how little understanding exists amongst the common Joes about the nitrogen (fill-in any of the following: carbon, trash, population, use) footprint our communities have on the Long Island environment.
Anyway, I made it through the wilderness. Somehow I made it throoo-ooo-ough. I knew the ball was actually rolling when Justin contacted me (after some late summer delay) for a tour of the property. I gladly scheduled a meeting where we discussed options for the property, he took pictures, and I was told I was paired with the EcoFlo coconut fiber company. I was thrilled! Not because I use coconut products in nearly all of my cooking and health/beauty aids, but because I was drawn to this technology and the friendly nature of the company during the town meeting.
After some more time, Peconic Green Growth (the septic architect) came by for another visit. They and PEP have worked together on Peconic Green Growth projects before and I knew I was in good hands. She also said I had a wonderful excavator assigned to the project. The good news kept pouring in! She pointed out some important things that we needed on the survey like having the large trees on the property marked, and why aren’t the utilities marked, and wow this entire side yard is yours too? Have you given any thought to a leeching field to further disperse effluent into a large, shallow space and reduce the concentration (or direct injection) of effluent (ya know, the poop-free, disease-free leftover liquid high in nutrients) into the groundwater? Heck yeah! Draw it into the plans!
But now the surveyor who created my property survey, when I purchased the 1940’s farmhouse five years ago, needed to be brought back around to add these important features so blueprints can be created. EcoFlo was in constant contact with me through the process and coordinated all of the correspondence between myself and the surveyor. AND the county. AND the soil borers/testers. AND with legal.
The contracts were not scary. I had to cancel my lawyer on standby who was poised to rip through the legaleez and fine print that, in my mind, would have given the county the right to my house, my property, my first born, and a pint of my blood whenever they wanted. How silly of me! The contracts were easy, short, and put all of the obligation on the county and none on me (with the exception of keeping a contracted technician on-call incase anything went wrong). But I didn’t mind! Martin’s charming French Canadian accent was always reassuringly positive that the project was in good shape and wondering if I had any questions. Maybe it was the slight language barrier, or maybe it’s their job to manage the customer’s expectations, but I always walked away from a conversation feeling like this project was on the move, was going to cost me nothing, and was going to happen. We had originally slated to break ground in November, then it was December, then it was the new year. Finally….I got the call in mid- January!
Editor’s Note: The Demonstration phase of this program, described here, has concluded. The new phase of Suffolk County’s Reclaim Our Water initiative is the Septic Improvement Program, a grant and loan program to assist homeowners who wish to upgrade their cesspools and septic systems. This website provides information for both homeowners and industry professionals and also includes updates on advanced/alternative on-site wastewater treatment technologies, new and proposed code changes, and other wastewater improvements being made throughout the county.
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