As Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) packed up his moving trucks at the governor’s mansion, the soon-to-be state leader headed to Long Island last week for a quick appearance and chat with local reporters.
Before she became New York’s 57th and first female governor, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) made a quick stop in Hauppauge for a roundtable discussion on Friday, Aug. 20, with local labor leaders where topics included job training, green jobs and new legislative efforts to support essential workers.
Although the discussion was closed to media, Hochul stopped for a small press conference to quickly discuss her intentions during the meeting.
“One of my first priorities is continue creating good jobs,” she said. “Getting the offshore wind institute off the ground and give opportunities to just really train people in the underserved communities and the jobs of tomorrow where there will be tens of thousands of jobs in that space.”
Hochul said she and the business leaders in attendance also talked about workforce development and creating opportunities to keep young people fully employed on Long Island.
The visit wasn’t anything new, she said, mentioning that over the last seven years “coming out and seeing the people is what I do.”
“If you ask anyone, I’ve been told that Nassau and Suffolk counties are planning on taxing me as a local resident because I’m here so often,” she joked.
As chair of the Regional Economic Development Councils, she said that she is going to continue and be accessible throughout her term.
“I’m going to continue showing appreciation to the labor community, the job creators, the business community and elected officials,” she said. “I have a deep appreciation for all the various roles of government, and I want them to know that they have a governor who recognizes and appreciates that.”
Hochul officially took on her new role early Tuesday, Aug. 24, moving into the governor’s mansion in Albany.
“I haven’t thought about getting a U-Haul,” she joked to reporters on Friday. “I was just going to pack an overnight bag and see what happens. I’ll then keep our residence in Buffalo, as well. It’s going to be very fluid.”
During the event, reporters urged Hochul to announce what her plans were surrounding mask mandates. At the time she said she couldn’t release an official statement until she took office but hinted that “people should be ready.”
As expected, she said during her first press conference as governor that New York will require schools across the state to mandate mask wearing for students. Faculty and staff must be vaccinated or tested weekly, as of press time Wednesday, Aug. 25.
As Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) packed up his moving trucks at the governor’s mansion, the soon-to-be governess headed to Long Island.
With just a few days left until she becomes New York’s first female governor, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) made a quick stop in Hauppauge for a roundtable discussion with local labor leaders where topics included job training, green jobs and new legislative efforts to support essential workers.
Although the discussion was closed to media, Hochul made an appearance to quickly discuss her intentions during the meeting.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul. Photo by Julianne Mosher
“One of my first priorities is continue creating good jobs,” she said. “Getting the offshore wind institute off the ground and give opportunities to just really train people in the underserved communities and the jobs of tomorrow where there will be tens of thousands of jobs in that space.”
Hochul said she and the business leaders in attendance also talked about workforce development and creating opportunities to keep young people fully employed on Long Island.
The visit wasn’t anything new, she said, mentioning that over the last seven years, “coming out and seeing the people is what I do.”
“If you ask anyone, I’ve been told that Nassau and Suffolk counties are planning on taxing me as a local resident because I’m here so often,” she joked.
As chair of the Regional Economic Development Councils, she said that she is going to continue and be accessible throughout her term.
“I’m going to continue showing appreciation to the labor community, the job creators, the business community and elected officials,” she said. “I have a deep appreciation for all the various roles of government, and I want them to know that they have a governor who recognizes and appreciates that.”
Hochul is set to take on her new role early Tuesday, Aug. 24 when she will move into the governor’s mansion.
“I haven’t thought about getting a U-Haul. I was just going to pack an overnight bag and see what happens,” Hochul joked. “I’ll then keep our residence in Buffalo as well. It’s going to be very fluid.”
When briefly asked about her policy surrounding the mask mandate, she said she will not be making an official statement until Tuesday but hinted that “people should be ready.”
Gregory Breit and John Wheeler were right in the 1930s and Werner Heisenberg and Hans Heinrich Euler in 1936 and John Toll in the 1950s were also right.
Breit, who was born in Russia and came to the United States in 1915, and Wheeler, who was the first American involved in the theoretical development of the atomic bomb, wrote a paper that offered theoretical ideas about how to produce mass from energy.
Breit and Wheeler suggested that colliding light particles could create pairs of electrons and their antimatter opposites, known as positrons. This idea was an extension of one of Albert Einstein’s most famous equations, E=mc2, converting pure energy into matter in its simplest form.
Zhangbu Xu in front of the time-of-flight detector, which is important for identifying the electrons and positrons the STAR Collaboration measured. Photo from BNL
Working at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a team of scientists in the STAR Collaboration has provided experimental proof that the ideas of some of these earlier physicists were correct.
“To create the conditions which the theory predicted, even that process is quite exhausting, but actually quite exciting,” said Zhangbu Xu, a senior scientist at BNL in the physics department.
The researchers published their results recently in Physics Review Letters, which provides a connection to Breit and Wheeler, who published their original work in a predecessor periodical called Physics Review.
While Breit and Wheeler wrote that the probability of two gamma rays colliding was “hopeless,” they suggested that accelerated heavy ions could be an alternative, which is exactly what the researchers at RHIC did.
The STAR team, for Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC, also proved another theory proposed decades ago by physicists Heisenberg, who also described the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Hans Heinrich Euler in 1936 and John Toll, who would later become the second president at Stony Brook University, in the 1950s.
These physicists predicted that a powerful magnetic field could polarize a vacuum of empty space. This polarized vacuum should deflect the paths of photons depending on photon polarization.
Researchers had never seen this polarization-dependent deflection, called birefringence, in a vacuum on Earth until this set of experiments.
Creating mass from energy
Xu and others started with a gold ion. Without its electrons, the 79 protons in the gold ion have a positive charge, which, when projected at high speeds, triggers a magnetic field that spirals around the particle as it travels.
Once the ion reaches a high enough speed, the strength of the magnetic field equals the strength of the perpendicular electric field. This creates a photon that hovers around the ion.
The speeds necessary for this experiment is even closer to the speed of light, at 99.995%, than ivory soap is to being pure, at 99.44%.
When the ions move past each other without colliding, the photon fields interact. The researchers studied the angular distribution patterns of each electron and its partner positron.
“We also measured all the energy, mass distribution, and quantum numbers of the system,” Daniel Brandenburg, a Goldhaber Fellow at BNL who analyzed the STAR data, said in a statement.
Even in 1934, Xu said, the researchers realized the cross section for the photons to interact was so small that it was almost impossible to create conditions necessary for such an experiment.
“Only in the last 10 years, with the new angular distribution of e-plus [positrons] and e-minus [electrons] can we say, ‘Hey, this is from the photon/ photon creation,’” Xu said.
Bending light in a vacuum
Heisenberg and Euler in 1936 and Toll in the 1950’s theorized that a powerful magnetic field could polarize a vacuum, which should deflect the paths of photons. Toll calculated in theory how the light scatters off strong magnetic fields and how that connects to the creation of the electron and positron pair, Xu explained. “That is exactly what we did almost 70 years later,” he said.
This is the first experiment on Earth that demonstrates experimentally that polarization affects the interactions of light with the magnetic field in a vacuum.
Xu explained that one of the reasons this principle hasn’t been observed often is that the effect is small without a “huge magnetic field. That’s why it was predicted many decades ago, but we didn’t observe it.”
Scientists who were a part of this work appreciated the connection to theories their famous and successful predecessors had proposed decades earlier.
“Both of these findings build on predictions made by some of the great physicists in the early 20th century,” Frank Geurts, a professor at Rice University, said in a statement.
The work on bending light through a vacuum is a relatively new part of the research effort.
Three years ago, the scientists realized they could study this, which was a surprising moment, Xu said.
“Many of our collaborators (myself included) did not know what vacuum birefringence was a few years ago,” he said. “This is why scientific discovery is exciting. You don’t know what nature has prepared for you. Sometimes you stumble on something exciting. Sometimes, there is a null set (empty hand) in your endeavor.
Xu lives in East Setauket. His son Kevin is earning his bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is studying science and engineering. His daughter Isabel is a junior at Ward Melville High School.
As for the recent work, Xu, who earned his PhD and completed two years of postdoctoral research at Yale before coming to BNL, said he is pleased with the results.
“I’ve been working on this project for 20 years,” he said. “I have witnessed and participated in quite a few exciting discoveries RHIC has produced. These are very high on my list.”
PSEG Long Island continues to monitor the impending storm. Tropical Storm Henri is intensifying to a Category 1 hurricane as it continues up the coast to Long Island. As of 8 a.m. today, the weather system is forecasted to bring heavy rains and high winds with peak gusts ranging from 30 to 35 mph in western areas and 50 to 65 mph on the east end of Long Island beginning Sunday morning. Given the potential intensity of the storm, some outages may last up to seven to 10 days. The eastern end of Long Island is expected to experience the most severe weather and impact.
PSEG Long Island is performing system checks and ensuring extra supplies are on hand, including poles and transformers preparing for potential outages.
“We continue to monitor the track of Tropical Storm Henri,” said Michael Sullivan, senior director of Transmission & Distribution at PSEG Long Island. “As the storm makes its way up the coast, employees are preparing for the possibility of high winds that can cause flying debris, and bring down trees and power lines. We encourage our customers to do the same at their homes and businesses.”
PSEG Long Island has personnel ready to respond safely and as quickly as possible throughout the storm. Additionally, more than 1,200 line workers, tree trimmers, surveyors and other utility personnel from both local and off-Island resources are being procured to work alongside PSEG Long Island’s highly trained line personnel.
In addition to having additional personnel and equipment at the ready, PSEG Long Island has strengthened the electric grid to better withstand extreme weather and allow for faster power restoration, including elevating a number of substations above flood level in preparation for this kind of severe weather.
PSEG Long Island’s employees have been working continuously for the past seven years to make the electric infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather. From storm hardening upgrades to ongoing enhanced tree maintenance, the company’s proactive work allows the system to better withstand extreme weather.
COVID-19-related storm processes have been adjusted to continue to keep the health and safety of employees and customers at the forefront, even during these unusual times.
As part of their physical distancing protocols, they ask that customers remain in their homes when crews are working nearby. If customers must speak with the crews, they ask that they practice responsible physical distancing and remain at least 6 feet away to ensure the health of everyone involved. For more information about how PSEG Long Island continues to live up to its commitments during the pandemic, please visit www.psegliny.com/covid19.
During this storm, if necessary, PSEG Long Island may use an enhancement to our outage communications process. With this enhancement, customers contacting the Call Center early in the storm will receive a message that personnel are assessing conditions, rather than an estimated time of restoration (ETR). This change will allow crews to assess storm impact before issuing ETRs, thereby increasing the accuracy of the ETR information being provided. For more information about this new process visit https://www.psegliny.com/outages/estimatedrestorationtimes.
After seeing enough cases of vaccinated people testing positive amid a surge in the Delta variant that has become the dominant strain of the virus in Suffolk County, local health officials support the federal government’s plan to provide booster doses eight months after the first course of vaccination.
Several studies have pointed to the benefit of boosters, highlighting how people who are vaccinated have lower antibody levels over time and are more susceptible to the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a joint statement on Wednesday, Aug. 18, that the government is prepared to offer booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20 and starting eight months after people received their second shots.
A recent study by Mayo Clinic researchers looked at records for 25,0000 vaccinated and unvaccinated patients in Minnesota. The study showed 76% effectiveness in the Pfizer vaccine protecting them from infection, but 42% effectiveness in July during COVID, Sunil Dhuper, chief medical officer at St. Charles Hospital, explained in an email.
At the same time, Health Ministry of Israel data showed a similar progressive decline in the effectiveness of the vaccination in protecting patients from infection over a six-month period, particularly amid Delta variant surges.
Still, the vaccinations continued to provide protection against more serious forms of the disease, with a much smaller 10% decline in the effectiveness of vaccines in protecting people against hospitalizations, Dhuper said.
In physician practices, urgent care centers and emergency departments, doctors are seeing a “sizable number” of breakthrough cases, Dhuper continued.
Adrian Popp, chair of Infection Control at Huntington Hospital/ Northwell Health, said Huntington Hospital has seen breakthrough cases, although most of them are “mild” and are “diagnosed incidentally when patients get admitted for other issues.”
Dhuper urged residents to take precautions similar to the ones they took last year before vaccines were available, including social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands carefully, especially in indoor settings.
At this point, boosters will likely be available for the Pfizer/ BioNTech and Moderna vaccinations. The Food and Drug Administration is still looking at data for people who received the Johnson & Johnson shot.
Once the FDA provides Emergency Use Authorization for a booster for the general population, medical health experts anticipate a much smoother roll out than the initial struggle with finding vaccinations.
“As all who have been vaccinated in New York State have a [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] vaccine card,” Sharon Nachman, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, said in an email, “It should be straightforward to each person to get a booster at the eight-month mark.”
At the same time, parents are focused on the timing and availability of vaccines for children under the age of 12. Results from the trial are “expected in December 2020,” wrote Popp.
Medical experts continue to urge residents to receive their shots.
“It is hoped that the booster will cut down on these infections and thus transmissions,” Nachman said.
Kathy Hochul visited Stony Brook University’s Center of Molecular Medicine to discuss energy efficiency improvements in 2019. File photo by David Luces
After Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced his resignation last week, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) began to draw up plans to take over the role. Her first day in the governor’s chair will be Aug. 24.
Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul poses for a portrait and headshot in her office at the state Senate. Photo from Hochul’s office
She was selected by Cuomo as his running mate as lieutenant governor in the 2014 New York gubernatorial election. Hochul, who began her career as an attorney, had served as a member of the Hamburg Town Board from 1994 to 2007, Erie County clerk from 2007 to 2011 and was congresswoman in the state’s 26th District from 2011 to 2013.
State senators and assemblymen in Suffolk County filled in TBR News Media on what they know about the first female governor.
State Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) in an email described her as “competent, experienced and absolutely ready to lead New York State forward.” Freshman senator, Mario Mattera (R-St. James), wrote in an email that he only had the opportunity to meet her briefly in the past but found her to be “cordial and approachable.”
State Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick (R-St. James) said in a phone interview he has met her a few times and said she is a nice person who he believes is capable of doing the job ahead of her. Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) described her as a hard worker who is warm and open to learning about what people think. He said in a phone interview that while he has never had any policy interaction with her, he has met her.
Both assemblymen said that Cuomo kept Hochul on the outside during his tenure. Despite the soon-to-be former governor not providing her with opportunities to demonstrate what she’s capable of, Englebright said he believes she has always known to be prepared to take on the position because she knew it was one of her responsibilities.
Gaughran and Englebright commended Hochul on getting out into the state to familiarize herself with constituents’ issues. Gaughran said he was confident that New Yorkers would like her.
“She has spent the past few years as lieutenant governor traveling the state and has tremendous knowledge about Long Island’s needs,” Gaughran wrote. “She has experience at every level of government — from local to state to federal — and will be able on day one to continue leading New York through the pandemic and the challenges posed by the Delta variant, as well as heal New York from this dark moment in history.”
Englebright echoed the sentiments.
“She knows New York and has traveled to every county in the state as basically an envoy of the executive chamber of goodwill,” Englebright said, adding her good listening skills she demonstrated during these trips will be an asset in the role.
Fitzpatrick said he believes Hochul has a hard time ahead though.
“I think Governor Hochul not only has a tough job, but I think she has a very difficult path to the nomination,” he said.
He added she will need to satisfy those who are progressives in the Democratic Party while also pleasing moderates.
“She’s in a difficult position,” he said.
Mattera agreed.
“She has a lot of work to do to overcome the issues that derailed the Cuomo administration, and I am sure the residents of New York will be keeping a keen eye on how she handles the last portion of Governor Cuomo’s term,” he said.
Englebright agreed she will be tested.
“But this is not her first rodeo,” he said. “She’s experienced so I think the state will be in good hands.”
Gaughran and Englebright, who both believe she has a good chance of winning in 2022, said if they were to give her advice they would tell her how important it is to have a good and cooperative relationship with the state Legislature. Something they felt Cuomo didn’t have. Mattera echoed the sentiment.
“There is a wealth of knowledge in the Senate and Assembly members since they closely represent those they serve in their respective districts,” Mattera said. “That can help our state move forward following this year’s crisis and the ongoing controversy surrounding Governor Cuomo and his administration.”
Many have asked what has happened to us as a society.
As we prepare to remember the victims of 9/11 in just a few weeks, we are reminded of a time 20 years ago when our communities came together to help each other. We applauded our first responders, offered our shoulders to those who were crying and all of us came together as one. The amount of empathy Americans, as well as those around the world, showed for the victims and their families was awe-inspiring. While 9/11 was a day to remember, 9/12 was just as important because it showed that we could be unified.
However, the tragedies and issues caused by COVID-19 have left us more divided than ever. Many scratch their heads wondering why people won’t follow the guidance of medical professionals, who last year simply asked us to wear masks and social distance while they figured out the best line of defense against the virus. Despite the significant strides made in medicine over the last few decades, a new form of a virus can still take time to figure out. And then this year, finally the vaccine that we all were waiting for was released, but yet many have refused to get it to help the common good and themselves.
It seems at times we have become selfish and self-absorbed, not worrying about anyone but ourselves. Then again, we shouldn’t be surprised. Look at our roads. More and more drivers engage in reckless driving, whether speeding down the road, weaving in and out of traffic, not pulling over for emergency vehicles or blowing through red lights and stop signs.
In the days of social media, we see too many people believing that their way is the only way and that those who think differently to them are evil or stupid to a point where we don’t respect our fellow citizens.
We have become so selfish and judgmental at times that we forget when we step out our door it’s no longer about us. The world does not revolve around one person, not even one family or social circle. As we navigate through the day, while our feelings and beliefs are valid and should be respected, the same goes for respecting others. We should also listen to each other. Really listen. It can be difficult at times to balance our wants and needs with the desires of others, but it’s the only way we can live together in peace.
Many have said they don’t want a new normal — they just want normal. Yet, it seems as if a new normal is needed, one where people’s actions show that they care about those around them.
It’s been said that learning about our history is important, so we don’t repeat the mistakes of past generations and benefit from the good elements, too. Now, let’s remember the tragic event of 9/11 and its aftermath in order to be reminded of how we united and moved forward during one of the most difficult times in American history.
Welcome to Dan Dunaief HS or DDHS. I know it’s an odd time to start a new high school, but children need to learn, even during a pandemic.
Originally, I was planning to have everyone come to a pep rally on the first day of school. After all the restrictions of last year, it only seemed fitting to bring the kids together in the gym and celebrate the chance to sit in 1950s style wooden bleachers that rock when someone walks a few steps.
But, then, I realized we don’t have a basketball, football or squash team, we haven’t picked school colors, we don’t have a school song and, most importantly, we are in a difficult spot with the pandemic.
I know your kids are exhausted from dealing with the virus. Who can blame them? Aren’t we all?
At first, I thought we’d avoid the whole topic and stick to the basics in school.
But, then, it occurred to me that avoiding a virus that has now affected three school years wouldn’t make it better. We can try not to think about it, but that doesn’t make it go away. Information and knowledge will help these students understand the strange world that surrounds them and might empower them to feel as if they’re doing something about it, even if it’s just learning more about a time that future generations will no doubt study carefully, scrutinizing our every move as if we were some kind of early laboratory experiment.
With that in mind, I gave the curriculum serious consideration. I thought about all the standard ways students have learned.
Ultimately, I decided to turn toward the academic vortex. At DDHS, at least for the first year or so, we’re going to encourage students to study the real challenges of the world around them.
For starters, in our art class, we’re going to have design competitions for the front and back of masks. The winners will provide masks that the entire school will wear each week.
Then, in an engineering class, we’ll work on creating masks that are more comfortable and just as effective as the ones that make our faces sweat. Maybe this class can also figure out how to provide words that flash across the mask when we talk, giving people a better idea of what we’re saying behind our masks. Maybe enterprising students can design masks that cool our faces when we sweat and warm them when we’re cold, that shave or bleach unwanted hair or that act like dry-fit shirts, covering our faces without clinging to them.
In history, we’ll spend at least a semester on the Spanish Influenza. We’ll explore what leaders throughout the world did in 1918 during the last pandemic. We’ll see what worked best and what disappointed.
Our psychology class will devote itself to the conflicts between people’s perceptions of infringements on their individual freedoms and their desire to protect themselves and each other by wearing masks.
Our political science course will delve into how politics became enmeshed in the response to the virus. This class will look at which side gains, politically, amid different public health scenarios.
Science classes will explore why some people get incredibly sick from the virus, while others show no symptoms. We will also study the way the virus works, look at similar viruses and try to understand and track the development of variants.
Math will work with the science department to understand the spread of the virus and to plot various scenarios based on human behavior. Eager students in math will have the chance to demonstrate how sicknesses spread depending on the wearing of masks, the use of vaccines, and the creation of new variants.
Our language arts class will provide an outlet for students to express their hopes, dreams and concerns amid the unique challenges in their lifetime created by the pandemic.
The other day, I went to the kitchen sink for some water, and when I turned on the faucet, only a few drops came out, then nothing. Puzzled, I tried it again, shutting then opening the tap. No water. My first thought was that something might be wrong with the pipes in the house. Zipping around, I tried the bathroom sinks. Same result. The water line into the house looked intact, no leaks. This was going to be a big problem, I worried, worse than when the electricity cuts out. I had an awful feeling of deprivation. Where was our water?
It turned out that there was a major leak in the underground water line to our block. Before too long, the Suffolk County Water Authority workers arrived and began digging up the blacktop. It was during those high heat days, and soon the men were drenched in their own sweat, but I admired their work ethic. They kept at the job for a full 12 hours until the line was repaired. We deeply appreciated them and let them know.
I also had a new perspective on having water. We turn the handle and expect to have water to drink, to cook, to clean, to bathe. Yes, I have traveled in other countries where I had to drink bottled water, but nonetheless, water came out of the taps. I follow the news about water shortages around the world, including in our country, but it is with a different perspective now when I see such reports on television. We feel entitled to running water, but we are so privileged. To turn on the faucet and have nothing come out, even for a few hours, is deeply unsettling.
Here is an example where water is a great concern. We know there has been a drought in California for the past two years. Southern California cities have prepared for the worst by building aqueducts and reservoirs and storing water underground. Despite their more arid climate, the south of the state is prepared. Smaller northern California towns, located in what was a more rainy climate, and much loved by tourists, are caught short. Reservoirs there are at worrisome levels and even power-generating dams have had to stop producing electricity because of insufficient water. These are agricultural areas too, and farmers, as well as restaurateurs and innkeepers, are afraid they may have to shut down. To truck in water costs 20 to 45 cents a gallon compared with the typical utility company rate of less than a penny a gallon.
Further, the level of water in the Colorado River and Lake Mead, which is formed by the Hoover Dam, is falling, threatening the water supply for Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada residents and especially Arizona’s agricultural output. Even major semiconductor manufacturers, expanding there, require a lot of water to produce their much needed product. Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, is now at its lowest level ever. The $1 trillion package just passed by the Senate does include water shortage mitigation funds.
Worldwide, over a billion people lack access to water and 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month a year. Countries most affected include Egypt, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan, Haiti, Laos, Cambodia, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. The irony is that over 70 % of the earth is covered by water. Desalination, which is an expensive option, could become a solution. There is also water in the air. An Israeli company called, Watergen. pulls water from the air, as much as 6000 liters a day. that is used to support entire hospitals in Gaza and rural villages in central Africa. It also helped Australia battle bush fires in 2020. Further, harvesting the pure water from icebergs is big business along Canada’s east coast.
These are all possible solutions. Perhaps most important is the care we humans must take with our precious supply, not to mindlessly pollute or overuse what we are grateful to have. I am duly reminded how lucky we are.
A screenshot of the app created by Christopher Gobler and Sung-Gheel Jung of Stony Book University.
Stony Brook University’s Christopher Gobler, endowed chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, and Sung-Gheel Jang, faculty director in the Geospatial Center at Stony Brook University, have created a free app that provides information on water quality on Long Island.
Through the downloadable Long Island Beach and Water Quality App, also known as LIBAWQA, residents can gather information that can connect to a person’s location, indicating the health and safety of beaches, bays, estuaries or waterways near them.
Gobler’s lab provides the water quality data, which comes from measures they make in 30 locations from East Hampton to Hempstead.
The New York State Department of Health provides updates on about 200 beaches across the Island, while the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation offers shellfishing data for more than 500,000 acres of bays, harbors and estuaries.
Jang, whose expertise is in the mapping related to geographic information systems, or GIS, helped build a service he targeted for the general public.
Instead of calling the county to find out if their favorite summer destination is open, residents can “use the app and you will know the current water quality,” Jang said.
Shellfishing and bathing restrictions use different criteria to determine the safety of swimming or pulling up clams and other shellfish.
“This is the beauty of the app,” Gobler said. One day last week, he noticed that a site in Center Moriches allowed swimming but not shellfishing. “The beach right next to it” allows shellfishing. “Which one would you rather go to?”
The app, which is available by installing ArcGIS AppStudio Player from Google Play, the App Store or the Microsoft Store and using a QR code on a camera, can show the health history of a beach.
While the system, which Gobler described as being in “version 1.0” doesn’t have text alerts, it does provide real-time information.
Users can track their location on the map in the app, checking on the shellfish or bathing status of nearby waterways.
The idea for this app came about a couple of years ago when Jang visited Gobler’s lab and the two Stony Brook researchers talked about collaborating.
“I was impressed by [Gobler’s] work,” Jang said. “His lab collected water quality data for many, many years.”
Jang suggested creating an easy-to-use mobile app. Gobler wanted to add other information beyond the water quality data his lab collected regularly.
Gobler and Jang expect to modify and enhance the information by next summer, when it could include a crowdsourcing opportunity, in which participants share updated information, including limitations on parking or beach closures.
Gobler and Jang said they would need to provide a filter before posting information to ensure it contains quality data.
The service isn’t available in the Google or Apple app stores yet.
“By next summer we hope we can release a new version,” Jang added. “We wanted to show we have a working app first.”
Scientists of any age, from primary school through postdoctoral researchers, can use the information for their own research papers or studies, Jang said.
Anyone who is interested in accessing and using the data for their own research projects can contact Jang through his email at [email protected].
The scientists have received funding from the Rauch Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust. The pair will seek renewals from both sources this fall.
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