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New York Department of Environmental Conservation

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Setalcott Cochair Robert Thompson and members of the Setalcott youth plant a tree at the event. Photo by William Stieglitz
Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright speaks at the event. Photo by William Stieglitz
Setalcott group photo. Photo by William Stieglitz
DEC Acting Commissioner Amanda Lefton speaking. Photo by William Stieglitz
Setalcott Nation Flag. Photo by William Stieglitz
Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico plant a tree at the event. Photo by William Stieglitz
Setalcott group photo. Photo by William Stieglitz

By William Stieglitz

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation joined local officials, environmental leaders and the Setalcott Indian Nation April 24 to celebrate the opening of the newly improved Conscience Bay-Little Bay Tidal Wetland Area. In honor of Arbor Day, native trees and bushes were planted for the long-awaited event.

The DEC effort to purchase the Conscience Bay land started in 2008, when a privately owned property came up for sale. The land the DEC already owned there was mostly underwater, but the acquisition created the opportunity for parking space. Closing the deal took until 2015. Then over the following decade the DEC acquired six more properties spanning 15 more acres. This allowed for the demolition of vacated houses to expand the view as well as the removal of septic systems and underground oil storage that endangered the water. 

“There was a choice to be made,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “You could either see the beautiful area you see here today, or we could have had a condo complex, or a couple of very large mega-mansions. But instead, there was a collaboration… to make sure that this little spot here on Long Island would serve to be preserved, literally, for generations and generations.”

Collaboration was a major theme through the varied speeches, with great emphasis placed on the partnership between Town of Brookhaven and Suffolk County officials with such groups as the Peconic Land Trust, Three Village and Strong’s Neck civic associations and the indigenous Setalcott Nation, who will be stewarding the land and from whom Setauket’s name originates.

The history was a major theme too, in terms of both heritage and geography. “To understand the antiquity of this habitat, you have to go back about 10 to 12 thousand years,” said Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright (D, Setauket), explaining how, before Old Field Beach existed, large waves deposited the high-energy environment of the now-still bay. “To have preserved this ancient habitat with interdune swales of freshwater wetlands and dunes is really quite extraordinary.”

The heritage, of course, was especially personal to the Setalcott Nation. “I’m pleased and beyond words, I don’t know where to begin,” said Helen “Hart of Morning Star” Sells, co-chair of the Setalcott Nation. “I’m so happy that this land has been returned home.” She explained how as a girl she and her mom would play at that very shore and how they knew nearly everyone who lived in Strongs Neck. Sells recited a native prayer before the crowd, which emphasized appreciation for “the magnificent creation of mother earth” and “respect for all people.”

Her co-chair, Robert “Silver Wolf” Thompson, also spoke, along with Setalcott Youth Committee Chairperson A’riel “Thundering Sparrow” Hart. “We are hoping,” she said, “this is not the only time we get together and preserve our land. And this day, hopefully, is the beginning, and not the end, of this beautiful moment.”

Following the speeches, all organizers and representatives worked together in 60-degree heat to plant trees for the new site while hawks flew overhead, an animal which Sells highlighted as a sign of good luck and blessing for the Setalcott Nation. The planted species included 10-year-old black oak and red maple saplings, along with two-year-old white cedar saplings. Each is native to the area and had been grown at a local nursery.

In terms of next steps, DEC Acting Commissioner Amanada Lefton hopes proposed changes in the state budget, backed by Governor Kathy Hochul (D), will allow for improved efficiency in the land acquisition program. As for the Setalcott Nation, they will be kelp farming at the Setauket Harbor by Poquott, a practice that helps reduce nitrogen pollution in our waters and produces kelp that can be combined with soil for gardening.

Sells also said she hopes the Conscience Bay victory will be a step forward in one day achieving state and federal recognition for the Setalcott Nation, who are considered a nonreservation. “When we first started out… 20, 30 years ago… we understood there were steps that we had to do. So we’re climbing the ladder.” 

For more information visit the DEC website: dec.ny.gov.

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Horseshoe crab. Stock photo
Gov. Hochul says regulation authority should stay with DEC

By Mallie Jane Kim 

New York’s horseshoe crabs remain available to use as bait, after Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) vetoed a bill that would have prohibited the practice. Long Island environmental groups that had advocated for increased protections were not happy with the move.

Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY.) Photo Courtesy of www.governor.ny.gov

“I’m angry and disappointed,” said George Hoffman, cofounder of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, which monitors water quality in area harbors and was one of about 60 organizations that signed on to a September letter urging Hochul to sign the bill.

“It will be hard to build enthusiasm among the environmental community for this governor,” Hoffman said.

Hochul’s Dec. 13 veto argued the species is already regulated by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), and said the bill could have “unintended consequences” on managing species like whelk and eel, which are harvested using horseshoe crabs as bait. 

“While this bill is well intentioned,” she wrote in a letter to the state assembly, “the management of marine species is better left to the experts at DEC.”

She also expressed concern the bill could be detrimental to the commercial fishing industry and the biomedical field, which uses horseshoe crab blood in the development of vaccines.

Members of the commercial fishing industry were grateful for the reprieve. 

“We’re thrilled that legislation didn’t take the place of science,” said Bonnie Brady, executive director of Montauk-based Long Island Commercial Fishing Association.  

Brady questions the sufficiency of methodology and equipment used to count New York’s crab population for the ASMFC’s report, which rated the state’s stock of horseshoe crabs as “poor.” She laid out her concerns in a letter to Hochul earlier this month, arguing the species is already highly regulated and not overharvested. 

“Fishermen’s lives and livelihoods depend on this,” Brady said. “Fishermen deserve the best science available — we aren’t doing anything that’s even close to on par with what other states are doing.”

Brady added that fishermen do not want to see the species depleted, and they will work within the regulations they are given.

Before its veto, the bill drew attention from legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, who urged Hochul to sign the bill to protect the ancient species, calling on their “shared sense of responsibility for the natural world.”

For her part, Hochul said she is directing DEC to evaluate whether additional measures could help protect the species, and she pointed to the agency’s current efforts to address concerns about overharvesting, including harvest prohibitions during the May and June spawning season. The agency also limits the annual horseshoe crab harvest in New York waters to 150,000, which is half the quota allowed by the ASMFC.

Environmental groups are not taking her assurance as consolation. 

“Governor Hochul didn’t just drop the ball; she dropped the axe,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment, in a statement. “It’s unacceptable to allow the continued antiquated practice of chopping up horseshoe crabs so they can be used as bait by fishermen.”

Esposito said her organization will keep advocating for stronger regulations to ensure long-term protection of the species.

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File photo by Raymond Janis

Note to our readers

Next week will be the last issue we run letters of endorsement for village candidates. Deadline for submission: Tuesday, June 6, at noon.

Seeking asylum: legal then, legal now

In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower [R] pushed immigration law in a radical new direction. Instead of housing people in immigrant detention facilities like Ellis Island, such facilities were closed. While immigrants were being processed by the authorities, they would let people live wherever they wanted, blending into communities.

If a Republican president in the 1950s could take such a radical step toward humane immigration, I ask what are the Republican legislators of Suffolk County doing in 2023? Clearly acting inhumanely by drumming up fear. Fear of “those other people.” Stoking that fear as a cheap parlor trick to motivate their base while endangering the lives of countless people regardless of their nation of birth or their documentation.

Most of us have relatives who came to America looking to escape persecution, not of something they did but because of who they are. This is the same for many of today’s immigrants. The story is the same, it’s simply the country of origin that varies. These immigrants deserve a chance to live just as our relatives did.

Some 150 years ago there was a Latvian-Jewish immigrant working as a tailor in Reno, Nevada, named Jacob Davis. Jacob had customers whose work pants kept tearing. To solve the problem, he added metal rivets at the stress points of the pants, making them stronger. When he realized he had a product worth mass producing he teamed up with a merchant in San Francisco, Levi Strauss, another immigrant. On May 20, 1873, they obtained a U.S. patent on a style of jeans still worn today.

We can only speculate the challenges of the next 150 years, but I’ll tell you this. It’s going to require the creativity of as many people from as many diverse backgrounds as possible to solve. When some members of the Suffolk County Legislature decided to respond to the current migration situation with “not our problem,” they gave the incorrect response, for it does not set us up for success on the world stage of tomorrow.

Ian Farber

East Setauket

LaLota’s disturbing immigration posture

I found your story of Suffolk County Republicans including my Congressman Nick LaLota’s [R-NY1] attempt to keep immigrants seeking asylum from coming to Suffolk County very disturbing. [“Republican lawmakers, immigration advocates clash over asylum seekers,” TBR News Media, May 25.]

We are better than that. Seeking asylum is both legal and an important principle. Jews, Irish, Italians, Chinese and others came here effectively seeking asylum because of the many dangers in their home countries. Those groups and others were vilified at first but have made important contributions to our country.

We, as a nation, depend on immigrants for our enormous innovation, progress and energy. All American communities must do our part to welcome these people and help them get a good start here. This is not only the right thing to do, it is very much in our country’s interest.

The problem at the southern border was not caused by President Joe Biden [D] but by a Congress that has failed to pass a safe and humane immigration policy. Pandering to our worst instincts, rather than leading and making good proposals to solve the problem, do more harm than good.

Adam D. Fisher

Port Jefferson Station

An open letter on striped bass fishing

To DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos:

Our offices have been contacted by concerned fishermen and boat captains regarding the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s emergency measures to further reduce the size of striped bass for the East Coast Fishery.

It is our understanding that these emergency measures, changing the limit on keeper fish from one fish a day from 28 inches to 35 inches to one fish a day from 28 inches to 31 inches, are currently being reviewed by the Department of Environmental Conservation with the federal requirement to implement them by July 2.

We are being told by our recreational fishermen and boat captains that this rule change will greatly raise the mortality rate of striped bass causing an increase in catch-and-release deaths. This will obviously have the reverse effect on efforts to increase the stock.

Additionally, we have been informed that the for-hire industry utilizes less than 5% of the striped bass stock. The economy of our region is driven by the agricultural and fishing industries. The rich history of our fishermen is a legacy that attracts many tourists and enthusiasts to our area. It will become extremely difficult to encourage would-be customers to use charter and party boats with such a narrow window of striped bass possession.

We are asking that before any emergency measures are adopted by the DEC, a careful review is done based on input from our local fishermen and captains. As you are well aware, our fishing industry is already struggling with difficult quotas, the high cost of fuel, the high property and docking costs in our area, among other challenges. We are hopeful that you will put any plans on hold until all stakeholders are brought to the table and have the opportunity to share their input and concerns.

Please contact our offices if you have any questions or need additional information. We look forward to your expeditious response.

NYS Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk)

NYS Assemblyman Fred Thiele (D-Sag Harbor)

A challenging race

When I ran for trustee for the Village of Port Jefferson last year, I had the full faith and support of Port Jefferson’s mayor, deputy mayor and the clerk’s office. I was guided through the petition submission process and the mayor even numbered my petition sheets.

In the eight months following the 2022 elections, I went from being an establishment candidate to the opposition. I asked questions and challenged decisions that I found questionable and at times, autocratic. That is why I decided to run for mayor.

Now, my opponent’s campaign and its lawyers challenged my petitions and due to an issue with the cover sheet, the Suffolk County Board of Elections on May 30 determined that my name cannot be placed on the ballot.

I am committed to continuing my campaign for mayor even if it means I’ll be a “write-in” candidate. It may be an uphill battle, but I will not quit the people of Port Jefferson.

If you believe that we need a fresh start in Port Jeff, and that you should have a choice for mayor, then write in “Lauren Sheprow” under the column for mayor on June 20. This is your village and your vote should count.

Lauren Sheprow

Mayoral candidate and trustee

Village of Port Jefferson

No political campaigning on sacred days

First, let me say that Memorial Day is a day of sacred observance where we honor those who have given the full measure of commitment to America — their lives. We celebrate the freedom their commitment and those of their more fortunate brothers and sisters have maintained for us. 

Memorial Day is a celebration of freedom and we celebrate it together in the spirit of unity. This is not a day for political campaigning. We like to hear what our elected leaders have to say about unity, America and freedom. We do not appreciate their campaign slogans, campaign attire and campaign leafleting of a parade that is a unifying event.

Please encourage those who engaged in these activities at the Setauket Memorial Day Parade and honorary activities mind their manners and respect those who have served and sacrificed. Ask them to do better on July 4, 9/11 and Veterans Day/Armistice Day.

We need to find some common ground if we are to continue to be a democracy. Bad political manners need to be called out.

Bruce Miller

Sgt. E-5, U.S. Army Armor (former)

2nd Vice Cmdr., American Legion Post 432

Port Jefferson Station

Juliano, the integrity candidate

Just wanted to take the opportunity to tell you a little about my husband, Bob Juliano, who is running for trustee in the Village of Port Jefferson. 

Bob has spent 30 years in public service. The first eight years were spent as treasurer in the Village of Lindenhurst, then 18 years as administrator/clerk for the Village of Port Jefferson, followed by the Village of Westbury as clerk/treasurer until his retirement last year. 

For those who know Bob, you know that this man is hardworking, he is smart, honest and reliable. Although this sounds like a Labrador Retriever, it is the man I have been married to for almost 38 years and I believe it is what we need in the Village of Port Jefferson. 

He worked tirelessly in his time with the village. I was with him when he would receive calls on the weekends and respond by doing a well visit, or checking someone’s property for them. During Hurricane Sandy, he was at the “bunker” taking care of the village, not home with his family. He was doing his job. 

I feel it is time we give Bob a chance to have a voice in the village where he had his hands in everything that went on. Talk about experience, no one can top his. He knows this village, how it runs and how it should run. I hope you will vote for Bob on June 20 at the Village Center. Integrity matters.

Kelly Juliano

Port Jefferson

Snaden would have no learning curve

With the mayoral election less than 30 days away, we need to give careful thought as to who is best qualified and capable of leading the village for the next two years. The dangers of an inexperienced mayor cannot be overstated. 

Deputy Mayor Kathianne Snaden has many years of experience and would have no learning curve when she assumes office.

Institutional knowledge saves the taxpayers money, and Kathianne has amassed a tremendous amount of knowledge and hands-on understanding of what is necessary to move the village forward in the coming years. 

Her resume is extensive: She is the Village of Port Jefferson commissioner of Public Safety, also Planning and Building; she is trustee liaison to code, courts, parking and mobility, Business Improvement District, Zoning Board of Appeals, Architectural Review Committee and the employees union. Most importantly, if Kathianne loses, we not only lose a committed public servant but a strong liaison to our schools.

Losing Kathianne would be a significant blow to our community. If she is not elected, a trustee would be elected without any input from voters, adding yet another inexperienced member to the board.

We cannot afford to take risks with our village’s future. We must elect an experienced, seasoned leader who can hit the ground running. That leader is Kathianne Snaden. Please vote for her on June 20 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Village Center.

Jennifer Testa

Port Jefferson

Review candidates’ history

In reference to our up-and-coming Port Jefferson mayoral election on June 20, I would recommend the village residents to google our candidates’ past employment and endeavors, as you would do if you were hiring a new employee for any political or nonpolitical position. By googling one’s past employment and endeavors, it will give you the insight to see how they will acclimate to their new positions. 

This being said, I would recommend that you google candidates Kathianne Snaden and Lauren Sheprow, who was the previous head of media relations at Stony Brook University. 

I believe the best choice for the future of Port Jefferson village is to elect Kathianne Snaden for mayor. I base this opinion on her experience, integrity, character, honesty and transparency.

Joey Zangrillo

Port Jefferson

WRITE TO US … AND KEEP IT LOCAL

We welcome your letters, especially those responding to our local coverage, replying to other letter writers’ comments and speaking mainly to local themes. Letters should be no longer than 400 words and may be edited for length, libel, style, good taste and uncivil language. They will also be published on our website. We do not publish anonymous letters. Please include an address and phone number for confirmation.

Email letters to: [email protected] or mail them to TBR News Media, P.O. Box 707, Setauket, NY 11733

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Pixabay photo

The Village of Port Jefferson is in a complicated permit dispute with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation over its solid waste landfill at Harbor Hills.

The Port Jefferson Village Clean Solid Waste Landfill, a 1.9-acre kettle hole located on the Port Jefferson Country Club property, has been historically operated to facilitate branch and leaf removal services in the village. In 2017, the small landfill was impacted by changes in state regulations, throwing the future of these services into question.

In an exclusive interview, Mayor Margot Garant summarized the nature of the permit dispute between the village and DEC. For decades, the government has renewed its DEC permit every five years to continue operating the landfill. With its permit set to expire on Dec. 11, the village reapplied but met unforeseen resistance.

“Unbeknownst to us in 2017, there were changes in some of the regulations concerning landfills throughout New York state, and they became much more strict,” Garant said. “We got a letter that we weren’t meeting the needs of the new statutory regulations for landfills.” She added, “They basically had classified our little kettle hole to be regulated like a landfill equivalent to the Town of Brookhaven [landfill].”

Garant referred to the pre-2017 regulations as manageable for the village, requiring breakdown and transport of the debris, among other workable conditions. The new rules, however, will “be impossible for us to comply with,” the mayor said.

An unusual landfill 

David Tonjes is a research associate professor at Stony Brook University’s Department of Technology and Society. His research focuses on solid waste management and the environmental impacts of landfills.

While the Port Jefferson site is officially listed as a landfill regulated under the Long Island Landfill Law, Tonjes described it as distinct from other landfills throughout the area.

“It’s unusual because it doesn’t have a liner system, which is required for all landfills on Long Island,” he said. “As far as I know, it doesn’t have any landfilling functions, which is to take things in, cover them up, and manage the gas and leachate [that are] generated when you do that sort of thing.”

Garant agreed that the landfill does not fit neatly into a conventional classification category, given its prior use. Consequently, the village government is considering entering into negotiations with DEC to reclassify the landfill as a transfer station.

Garant said a change of classification could enable the village to continue using the site. “We realized we were managing this more like a transfer station than we were a landfill, and that’s going to be our approach with the DEC,” the mayor said. “As a transfer station, it means that [branches and leaves] are held here on a temporary basis, broken down and relocated, just like we were doing.”

She added, “If we have to abandon the kettle hole, we then have to put a barrier down, backfill it with clean fill, bring up the grade, and that’s going to cost us approximately $500,000 to do that, to abandon it.”

Tonjes said the Port Jeff landfill seems to fit some of the conditions for a transfer station. However, he noted that DEC guidelines for transfer stations are generally restrictive.

“Typically, a transfer station is a site where waste comes in and is kept under a roof for a period of time, and then it’s moved out to either a reuse point or disposal point,” he said. Depending on the materials stored, that temporary window of time could be as small as 24 hours.

An uncertain future

‘It calls for a degree of technical oversight and awareness that may be too expensive for the village to do.’

— David Tonjes

Conflicts with DEC over the long-term storage of branches and brush are not unique to Port Jefferson. Tonjes said several towns along the East End had met stiff opposition from DEC due to accumulations of storm debris. 

Such materials, if processed promptly, could have been reused. “When they grind it up, they end up with a pile of wood chips that no one really wants,” the associate professor said. “They’re really low-value material, they end up with stuff that should have been reused.”

Tonjes suggests Port Jeff is entangled within a broader conflict within New York state over the reuse of organic waste. By cracking down on the long-term storage of organic waste, DEC aims to reuse these materials before their reuse value diminishes.

While municipalities have historically been responsible for waste disposal functions, this may soon change. Given the ballooning costs associated with managing solid waste, Tonjes suggests these may soon be too burdensome for a small municipality such as the village.

“With the village being such a small entity and trying to run its own — in a sense — disposal facility, it calls for a degree of technical oversight and awareness that may be too expensive for the village to do,” he said.

Further complicating matters is the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. This 2019 law mandates New York to reduce economywide greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030 and no less than 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. 

Enforcing these standards, Tonjes said, would require the complete overhaul of the state’s waste management apparatus.

Under this law, “all government actions have to comply with the notion of minimizing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. “Almost all solid waste activities involve greenhouse gas emissions, so it’s clear that solid waste management will have to change dramatically to account for this new law.”

Meanwhile, Garant admitted that the changes in state law blindsided the village. For her, the permit controversy with DEC offers a window into the challenges small municipalities encounter when interfacing with higher levels of government.

“When large government makes change to a section of the code, they really don’t know the trickle-down impacts that they are making,” she said. “Wanting to be in full compliance, making an application six months ahead of time, now I’m in a situation where I’m in the middle of branch and leaf pickup, and I’m going to have a permit expiring.”

Tonjes said conversations surrounding solid waste management are only getting started. He suggests that finding a workable solution to these complex problems requires significant coordination between all levels of government.

“The future is going to get very interesting in terms of regulating how the state manages its garbage,” he said.

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