Methoprene Ban Advances

Days after he was asked to co-sponsor a bill that would ban methoprene, the mosquito larvicide that is suspected of harming nontarget species including lobster and crabs, in coastal areas, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle did just that.

On Tuesday, Mr. LaValle followed his State Assembly colleague, Fred W. Thiele Jr., introducing a Senate counterpart to Mr. Thiele’s bill that would prohibit the use of methoprene in any fish habitat in any municipality adjoining Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, along with their connecting water bodies, bays, harbors, shallows, and marshes.

Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O and Tyler Armstrong of the East Hampton Town Trustees attended Mr. LaValle’s annual environmental round table last Thursday in Riverhead. Though both asked the senator to consider co-sponsoring Mr. Thiele’s bill, Mr. LaValle was noncommittal. His office did not return calls on Monday and Tuesday seeking clarification of his intentions, but on Tuesday he demonstrated that he had listened to Mr. McAllister and Mr. Armstrong’s concerns.

Should the ban become law, methoprene could be applied only on an emergency basis as determined by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

The round table also featured discussion of nitrogen mitigation and management. Carrie Meek Gallagher, who heads the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Long Island regional office, sought an increase in funding for environmental protection. She told Mr. LaValle that the D.E.C., the Long Island Regional Planning Council, and Suffolk and Nassau Counties would seek comment from stakeholders on the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan at project scoping meetings held on Monday, Tuesday, and yesterday.

The State Legislature appropriated $5 million for the plan in its 2015-16 budget to assess conditions, determine nitrogen load reduction targets, and identify alternatives and strategies to meet the targets “so we can start taking action,” Ms. Meek Gallagher said.

Peter Scully, a former D.E.C. regional director who was named deputy county executive for administration last year, commended efforts to “elevate the challenges associated with wastewater treatment and nitrogen” but warned that implementing solutions will be challenging. On the East End of Long Island, excessive levels of nitrogen are blamed for the emergence of harmful algal blooms in waterways including Georgica Pond in East Hampton.

The $388 million in state and federal funding to expand sewer service to 8,075 parcels in the county that currently use onsite septic systems is “a starting point,” Mr. Scully said, but “not all of Suffolk County is suitable for sewering,” such as the more sparsely populated East End, where lot sizes tend to be larger and houses spaced widely apart.

“We in the eastern part of the county don’t see sewering as a solution to our problems,” said Bridget Fleming, a former Southampton Town councilwoman who was elected to the County Legislature in November. She asked Mr. LaValle for the state’s support in an effort to identify problem areas and implement unique solutions, be they state-of-the-art septic systems for single-family houses or permeable reactive barriers to intercept nitrogen before it enters waterways.

Pilot testing of new septic systems, which Mr. Scully said could be certified for use in the county by midyear, could address wastewater for such areas where treatment plants are not an option. Whether such systems would be mandatory for property owners in environmentally sensitive areas must be determined, he said, along with whether and how to provide incentives for their adoption and establishment of a work force to install and maintain them. Mr. LaValle said that Mr. Scully and County Executive Steve Bellone were aware that the East End of Long Island will require a different strategy than the more densely populated western portion.

Long Island’s wastewater problems “will take a long time to rectify and remediate,” Mr. Scully said. “It’s going to be a productive and exciting year in Suffolk County with wastewater issues.”