It was tight quarters in the Hubbard County Park education center Friday morning, but the bungalow on the bay provided shelter from the rain and an expansive view of Flanders Bay, part of the estuary officials had gathered to celebrate.
This week marked the 20th anniversary of the designation of the Peconic Estuary as an estuary of national significance under the national estuaries program and officials from the federal environmental protection agency and the state department of environmental conservation joined County Executive Steve Bellone, Rep. Tim Bishop, State Senator Ken LaValle, Assemblyman Fred Thiele and others to celebrate progress made over the past two decades to protect the estuary and pledge to protect and conserve it going forward.
EPA region two director for clean water Joan Leary Matthews called the Peconic Estuary “a jewel of the nation” as one of only 28 federally recognized national estuaries. Matthews said the Peconic Estuary Program has made great strides in the last 20 years to “protect shellfish and fin fish, reduce the entry of harmful land-based substances into the estuary, control invasive species, encourage fish passages, and protect and acquire critical lands as we prepare for the extremely troubling challenges of climate change.”
Matthews said this week also marked the 40th anniversary of the federal clean water act and said the nation has accomplished much to clean up its waterways.
“Forty years ago, sewage, chemicals and trash were dumped freely into rivers, lakes and oceans,” Matthews said. “Two-thirds of our lakes, rivers and coastal waters were unsafe for swimming and fishing.” That has changed, she said, but there is still much work to be done. Matthews lauded the PEP as a “sustainable model” of an effective partnership for protecting the environment. “You are like a family,” she told the officials and PEP workers in the room.
Bishop said “the challenge ahead of us is to keep the federal government at the table in the estuary program,” because the nation’s fiscal crisis has lawmakers in Washington looking to cut funding from programs like this.
“We talk a lot in Washington about job creators as well we should because it’s important,” Bishop said. “Well, the Peconic Bay is a job creator,” he said, gesturing at the water view just outside the picture window. The estuary is the backbone of the East End’s economy, he said. “All of us can speak with one voice in terms of how important this is. It is one of the things that unites all of us on eastern Long Island.”
That sentiment was echoed by State Senator Ken LaValle and Assemblyman Fred Thiele, who both spoke of the critical link between the environment and the region’s economy.
“This great resource is part of our economic development,” LaValle said.
Thiele, who as a county legislator sponsored the legislation authorizing the nomination of the estuary for the national program, credited the towns and county for not letting the Peconic Estuary study sit on a shelf, which, he said, was the fate of a lot of studies. “Its recommendations have been actively implemented,” Thiele said.
Pointing to the work of the Pine Barrens Commission, Thiele said, “These ecosystems are inextricably linked, just as our environment is inextricably linked to our economy. All of those things depend on clean water. We’ve been smart about that on the East End,” Thiele said. “We recognized that it’s not either-or.”
The county executive praised the work of “the people in this room for working together to protect this incredible resource. Bellone, whose late arrival delayed the start of the ceremony, said he took a wrong turn and noted “the county is so vast, nine months in this job I’m still finding my way,” he said.
“As a Babylon resident — we’re pretty well built out there — that we have this incredible place on the East End to go to, I want to say thank you to all of you on the East End who have been protecting this resource,” Bellone said.
Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter, Councilman John Dunleavy, Southold Supervisor Scott Russell, Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst, and East Hampton Councilwoman Sylvia Ogilvie were in attendance.
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