It is truly inspiring to see Sayville, the town I grew up in, and where my mom and one of my four sisters still lives, banding together in the fight to help save The Great South Bay.   We’ve had a number of requests for literature already;  All should know that I will be in Sayville this Wednesday for a reason that I will divulge at the end of this post, and will make sure everyone that requests our literature on living pesticide free, organic lawn care, and water quality are properly supplied.

Here is what we will be distributing,

Protecting Our Water

Our Aquifers Long Island’s Drinking Water Source

Organic Lawn Care Program

Jump In Help Protect Our Water

Pesticides What You Need To Know

Save The Great South Bay will also produce a one pager on the overall moratorium effort in Sayville.

First off, I heard from Daniel Rowan of Leesa Byrnes Realty who writes:

Hello. If you can please leave some literature at Leesa Byrnes Realty on Railroad Ave located just  north of The Sayville Movie Theatre.    I will address all sales agents to hand literature to all new home buyers.  I feel that if it’s brought to the attention of the buyers in our community at the time of purchasing their piece of Sayville, their attention on the topic could be very effective. Thank you and hope to see you soon.

Daniel, I agree 100%.   One of the reasons people move to Sayville is because of its proud bay heritage.   People looking to make a home in Sayville should know about our respect for that heritage, and about our current efforts to preserve it for future generations.

I heard from Udo Wahn, formerly of Sayville, now living in Southern California as a physician and an author of children’s books about … protecting marine life.   No surprise here!   His latest, For The Sake of Hugh Manatee, can be ordered from his site www.Caboandcoral.com.   A large part of the proceeds goes to support The Maddie James Seaside Learning Center at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, CA, which was established in memory of a little girl, Maddie, who was taken too soon, and who loved the sea.

We’ve also heard from  Elizabeth Casey Acupuncture of Sayville and Islip.

Elizabeth writes:

I’d be more than happy to have some of your literature at my acupuncture office. I’ve been working with the Sierra Club on ridding Suffolk County of single-use bags (Congrats to Patchogue Village and the Townships of Easthampton and Southampton for their positive actions on this issue) and am 100% in support of anything that keeps our Long Island waters clean.  Lawns kept green by the use of pesticides and herbicides are a blight on the land. Please let me know where and when I can pick up brochures.

It would be entirely consistent with our mission of healing the bay if Sayville were to follow Patchogue and “Ban the Bag.”   There’s nothing sadder or uglier than a plastic bag — clinging to a tree branch, or on the side of a road, or floating in the water.  Something we should all think about as we seek to return Sayville to its former beauty.

A resident at a bay front coop complex offered to bring this issue of fertilizers and pesticides up at his next board meeting.

We also heard from Popei’s Clam Bar, at 299 Raft Avenue, Sayville.    They would be happy to have literature for their patrons.

We’ve even been offered some help from our neighbor town Bayport.   Miss Amy’s Preserves, which are sold at a dozen farmer’s markets in the area, has asked for some literature for their many customers.

I’d imagine that The Seafarer Gift Shop, at 28 South Main, Sayville, would love to participate in this grassroots information campaign, and maybe even carry Udo’s book.   As I heard, the proprietress helped a lot of people post Sandy, turning her shop into an ad hoc depot for relief supplies.   I’ll drop in Wednesday.

I’d imagine that The Seafarer Gift Shop, at 28 South Main, Sayville, would love to participate in this grassroots information campaign, and maybe even carry Udo’s book.   As I heard, the proprietress helped a lot of people post Sandy, turning her shop into an ad hoc depot for relief supplies.   I’ll drop in Wednesday.

But why Wednesday?    Because on Wednesday I will be on site witnessing what we can all hope is the future for Sayville.   The Roman Stone Construction Company will be installing a home denitrification system at a home in Sayville.    The proprietor, Thomas Montalbine (of Sayville, and just three doors down from where I grew up!) writes:

Roman Stone is a Town of Islip based manufacturer of Advanced wastewater treatment systems that reduce nitrogen pollution in our bays and drinking water. We are doing an installation in Sayville on December 2nd as part of Suffolk County’s Department of Health Services trial to help reduce nitrogen in our wastewater.

 Suffolk County is testing 19 different systems now, hoping to qualify at least some of them for use.   Such systems are being used successfully on Cape Cod and elsewhere, but until Suffolk County approves them, they is not an option for residents.  The local moratorium on fertilizers and pesticides that we, the freshmen of Sayville High School, and West Sayville’s Blue Island Oysters are all calling for, would address a significant part of the bay pollution problem.   The largest issue, though, is our cesspool/septic tank problem.    Some favor sewering the town, but how many years would it take to get the funds, plan the deployment, and roll it out?   10 years?  Do we even have 10 years?   In the meantime, there are onsite denitrification systems for homes that we can begin to use. Not only do we not have enough time to wait for sewering, sewering also invites high density construction.  For those who commute, who drive our roads, the last thing we need is more people living on Long Island.   If Nassau and Suffolk were its own country, it would be the 4th most densely populated in the world.    Sewering would be a boon to the builders, at least the short sighted ones.   Limit sewering to Main Street to improve local commerce such as in Patchogue?   Yes.   Have it become the means to build apartment complexes on our last remaining open spaces?  No thank you.    We therefore wish Roman Stone good luck in their trial with Suffolk County.  If their solution is qualified, we can begin to replace the thousands of cesspools and septic tanks in Sayville, and really make a dent in the amount of nitrogen we are putting in the bay.

Beyond that, Save The Great South Bay would love more suggestions / requests as to where else we can distribute literature, or, say, mount posters about the moratorium.    We want to make sure that by the time spring rolls around that everyone in town knows just how bad these chemicals are for the bay.  From November 1st until April 1st, it is illegal in Suffolk County to put any fertilizer on your lawns.   Not that anyone would.   This is a useless law, by design.   It looks like ‘taking action,’  but the dumping of high nitrogen fertilizer only begins in the spring when we are told relentlessly ‘feed your lawn.’  By spring, people should know that they are also feeding algal blooms, and imperiling the many efforts we are making to bring back the bay and our shellfishing industry.

Lastly, Save the Great South Bay welcomes other South Shore towns to join in Sayville’s moratorium.   With you, we can make great strides in improving water quality, and with that buy ourselves enough time (perhaps) to save The Great South Bay.

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