In what Suffolk officials call Long Island's most extensive municipal effort to reduce storm water pollution, the Village of Babylon plans to install filters at every village outfall pipe that leads to the Great South Bay.
"We're doing 93 of them," Mayor Ralph Scordino said at a news conference yesterday next to a canal at Green Avenue, where the village installed a prototype two years ago.
The plan addresses one of Long Island's biggest water quality problems: contaminated runoff from heavy rains that washes oil, chemicals and animal waste off the land and into creeks and bays. Funneled via storm drains, the polluted runoff can temporarily close bathing beaches and make shellfish unsafe for human consumption.
Citing Babylon's history of fishing and clamming on the Great South Bay, Scordino said, "It's our duty to make sure that asset and that resource is here for our children, and our children's children."
Suffolk County provided $310,000 to help the village buy and install the filters in a matching grant approved by the legislature earlier this week. The village plans to start retrofitting the outfall pipes next spring.
The filter units will be placed in underground concrete vaults that intercept storm water from catch basins. Special sponges held in an aluminum frame soak up oil, grease and bacteria that would otherwise end up in local waterways. After flowing through the filters, the treated storm water goes out the other end and into the bay. The filters capture 80 to 90 percent of pollutants, according to their manufacturer, AbTech Industries of Scottsdale, Ariz.
"When we cleaned this system out, we had upwards of 80 pounds of hydrocarbons that were absorbed into those pillows," said village engineer Bruce Savik, holding up a sopping used sponge from the Green Avenue unit that had turned completely black.
Each filter unit runs between $5,000 to $6,000 to install. The sponges cost $125 and must be replaced about every year, depending on the volume of water that flows through the unit, Savik said.
The village had tested two prototypes to make sure they would hold up to high tides and heavy rains. Now, a study based on water samples before and after heavy rains will measure the filters' effectiveness. "If it works as anticipated, this can be a model for the rest of Long Island, the rest of the state and the rest of the nation," County Executive Steve Levy said.
Local governments across the country are updating their storm water management plans to meet with federal requirements intended to limit polluted runoff. Almost 90 percent of Long Island municipalities are in compliance, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Hundreds of similar and larger-scale storm water filters have already been installed on Long Island, according to AbTech and Fabco Industries, a Jericho-based manufacturer. Nassau County has said it plans to install 2,000 more filters next year.
