On March 7, 2000, Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) hosted, for the fourth consecutive year, a Peconic River and Bay workshop. Held in BNL's Berkner Hall and attended by 21 people, this workshop presented information on the Peconic Estuary Program, the Peconic River fish ladder project, and BNL's Peconic River cleanup plan.
This workshop offered an important opportunity for community members to learn about efforts to clean up, preserve and protect the Peconic River ecosystem and its natural resources. Following the presentations, attendees took a tour of the Lab's sewage treatment plant and one of the on-site portions of the Peconic River slated for cleanup.
In the past, this workshop has focused on research initiatives being conducted at BNL, such as brown tide research. This year, the agenda was opened up in an effort to help the public better understand the many programs affecting the Peconic River and Bay.
Walter Dawydiak, of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, presented a brief overview of the Peconic Estuary Program. This program is focused on concrete methods of protecting and preserving the Peconic estuary a vital Long Island ecosystem. Participants in this program include a wide variety of people representing citizen and environmental groups, businesses, schools, and local, state and federal governments.
Chris Smith of the Cornell Cooperative Extension and Byron Young of the N.Y. State Department of Environmental Conservation presented information on a fish ladder project. Installed at Grangable Park, the fish ladder is designed to assist alewives travelling upriver to reach additional areas for spawning. The alewife is used for bait and is eaten by larger game fish. The fish ladder is expected to reopen past habitat to the alewife and increase its population, thereby increasing the game fish population.
The final speaker, Jason Remien, Project Manager for the BNL sewage treatment plant and Peconic River cleanup, presented the proposed cleanup plan that was released on February 15. Following the group tour mentioned earlier, Jason led interested people to the other on-site areas of the Peconic River that are proposed to be remediated. More information on the proposed cleanup is available in the Operable Unit V Proposed Plan, which is posted online at http://www.oer.dir.bnl.gov/ou5doc.html.
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| During their tour, workshop attendees learned about the operation of BNL's sewage treatment plant, which uses a state-of-the-art tertiary treatment system. |