There are few places on Long Island where dams of any kind have been removed and stream flow has been restored.Thus, the Town of Smithtown is to be commended for its support of this project along with the stakeholders who helped to bring this about. The project is supported by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund .

Within the Nissequogue Stewardship Action Plan, there are specific actions and objectives promoting fish passage throughout the watershed. The Nissequogue Implementation Committee looks forward to working together with willing partners, like the Town of Smithtown in implementing other actions in the plan.

Sources:
1: "Eliminating pond from Harrison Park." The Smithtown News.

Stormwater also has the adverse effect of picking up debris, chemicals, dirt, and other pollutants and bringing them directly into the sewer system, bodies of water, and watersheds3. Actually, silt that accumulated due to winter street-sanding has been noted by town officials as a key contributor in filling in water bodies with excess sediment1.

The problem of excess water entering our region will not be an isolated incident according to experts in the field. According to experts, climate change will lead to increased precipitation over more than half of Earth's surface and likely increased frequency of flooding in many areas4. As the effects of climate change become more apparent (and it goes much deeper than temperature fluctuation), we as a society need to learn how to deal with the oncoming changes.

Within the Nissequogue Watershed Stewardship Action Plan, there are several objectives that focus on the current runoff issue and look to nip the problem in the bud using different methods concurrently. One of which is to redesign municipal road systems so that when there is rain or snow, the roadways are better equipped to handle the volume of water so less strain is put on the permeable areas of land in the town. Another objective of the action plan recommends identifying areas of the river where sediment has accumulated to too high a level and perform restorations on those portions so that the watershed can be more efficient at handling stormwater runoff in the future.

There are also actions that community members can take in order to help remedy the situation, including creating rain gardens. Rain gardens are gardens that are created with the priority of capturing stormwater and are relatively easy to put into place and maintain. Hopefully, through the combination of Town funded improvements and a conscientious effort by the community, people in Smithtown and throughout Long Island will not have to deal with flooded basements, which can cause thousands in damage to homeowners5, every year while also helping prevent the flow of stormwater throughout the watershed.

Sources:
1: "Corner turned in flooding relief." The Times of Smithtown. http://www.northshoreoflongisland.com/Articles-i-2010-06-03-84225.112114-sub18241.112114_Corner_turned_in_flooding_relief.html
2: "The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review: Guidelines for Identifying Business Risks & Opportunities Arising from Ecosystem Change." The World Resources Institute. http://www.wri.org/publication/corporate-ecosystem-services-review
3: "After the storm." United States Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/weatherchannel/stormwater.html
4: "Ecosystems and human well being: Wetlands and water." The World Resources Institute. http://www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx
5: "Survey: LI groundwater rises to near-record levels." Newsday. http://www.newsday.com/long-island/survey-li-groundwater-rises-to-near-record-levels-1.2001395?p=

Recognizing this as an important issue, Newsday recently began a "Future of Long Island" series of stories laying out what needs to be done as Long Island grows in the future and included a recent entry highlighting smart growth in Long Island downtown areas. The article2 gives a good perspective on some of the challenges in switching over to a smart growth frame of mind when developing for current and future Long Island residents:

"To be sure, it's a tough sell convincing Long Islanders who fight fiercely to protect their single-family way of life and see higher density as the enemy, bringing in traffic, more demand on schools, and downtowns more Queens than quaint."

However, the time to act is now, especially when considering some of the troubling statistics cited by the article that were drawn from the Long Island Index3:

"Between 2000 and 2008, Long Island lost 22 percent of its young adults who went looking for more exciting or more affordable places to live."

"School taxes - the largest portion of property taxes - increased 72 percent from 1998 to 2006, while inflation rose 27 percent."

"Thirty-seven percent of Long Island's residents pay more than a third of their income on housing according to a 2008 study."

With the status quo, it comes to simple economics in that there is not enough supply (land) to go around for the demand. Smart growth will allow more people to live on Long Island and attract businesses that will make it a hot spot so younger generations won't be as apt to leave for greener (or more urban) pastures.

Smart growth was a priority when the Regional Plan Association drafted the Nissequogue Stewardship Action Plan and it is our vision that the watershed and eventually the rest of Long Island can be a shining example of intelligent planning and design that balances the needs of those in the community and the environment in which they live, both natural and man made.

Sources:
1: "Long Island 2035 Project Overview." Long Island 2035. http://www.longisland2035.org/
2: "Suburbs look at 'smart growth' for their downtowns." Newsday. http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suburbs-look-at-smart-growth-for-their-downtowns-1.1887931
3: "Long Island Index Overview." Long Island Index. http://longislandindex.org/
4: "2010 Report and Key Findings." Long Island Index: Places to Grow. http://www.longislandindex.org/special_analysis0.0.html

Over the next few weeks, we will make the site easier to navigate, more visually attractive, and make it a source of environmental and planning related information for the Nissequogue watershed and Long Island in general. We plan to do the latter by beginning to give semi-regular blog style stories of recent news related to our efforts on Long Island. By tying in stories that affect residents on Long Island to our action plan, we hope to create a sense of transparency and participation for the Long Island community.

While there is a list of changes we are planning on making, any ideas or comments from anybody will be greatly appreciated. If you have thoughts, please do not hesitate to contact Rob Freudenberg at robertf@rpa.org.

Thank you all very much for your continued support for our efforts and website. Come back soon to see the website as it (finally) gets its much needed updates!