Environment

At a ribbon cutting at the new Bay Shore facility, Michael Sachse, CEO of Dandelion Geothermal, explains how the company's geothermal heating and cooling solutions will help save Long Islanders on their monthly costs.

DOT workers took part on LI, on Heckscher State Parkway near Exit 45 in East Islip.

For Earth Day, NYSDOT workers got together to collect and dispose of litter along roads,...

In the week leading up to Earth Day, experts interviewed gave their view of Long Island's environmental future as it grapples with climate change.

Neighbors fear the new anaerobic digester would contribute to the area becoming the 'garbage capital of Long Island without any public planning process.'

But critics say the vision keeps gas-burning systems in place longer than state goals, and sustains a gas distribution network that should be phased out.

Grumman will pay the federal government for cleanup at the company's former Bethpage plant under an agreement reached this week.

A consent judgment filed in federal court would settle litigation and provide the district with enough money to operate treatment systems, retire construction debt and drill a new supply well outside of the plume.

Department of Environmental Conservation draft rules could give wild turkey hunters a 2023 spring turkey season in Suffolk.

The $20 million cleanup had previously taken out more than 80,000 tons of soil and sediment, the DEC commissioner said. The property is being redeveloped.

The chemicals, perflourinated compounds also known as PFAS, have been linked to immune system problems, cancers and other health impacts, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Owners of private water wells are concerned over a lack of testing and an increase of contaminants on Long Island. Newsday's Steve Langford reports. 

Southampton Town police were able to surround and rescue the harbor seal after it made its way to a Riverside intersection.

After years of scallop die-offs, harvesters are reporting an uptick in recent landings.

A slew of new birding trails opened Thursday across Long Island, part of a program by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to accommodate "one of New York's fastest-growing recreation and tourism activities."

A new federal class-action lawsuit alleges Grumman's most significant exposure to carcinogens and extensive release of toxic chemicals in Bethpage came from not the water or the soil, but the air. Newsday's Shari Einhorn reports.

Lawyers seeking to create a medical monitoring fund are arguing that the aerospace giant annually released thousands of pounds of hexavalent chromium and millions of pounds of TCE into the atmosphere. Grumman's corporate successor, Northrop Grumman, says the case is without evidence.  

Report by Boston-based Clean Air Task Force also says emissions will cause an estimated $1 billion in local economic damage.

In the nation's largest wind-energy auction, six new areas -- nearly a half million acres -- will be offered to developers next month.

Aerial photos show the breach is less than half of what it was following Superstorm Sandy.

Intrigued after seeing rehabilitated seals and sea turtles released last summer, volunteer Robert Moraghan took the New York Marine Rescue Center's training last year, so he knew just what to do when he spotted the Atlantic green sea turtle last month at Towd Point, about 5 miles north of Southampton.

Two East End nonprofits - the Marine Rescue Center and the Hampton Bays-based American Marine...

Long Island has 445 potential spots where PFAS may have been used or are being used, possibly polluting the air and drinking water, according to a map created by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. 

The project, which will connect nearly 6,000 homes to the sewer system, is aimed at preventing such cesspool pollutants as nitrogen from emptying into the southern bays.

After the heavy rains of Henry and Ida, Stony Brook professor Christopher Gobler said: "The dead zone expanded all across the Long Island Sound, from the city all the way well into central Suffolk."

Too much rain and still way too much nitrogen were the twin causes of this summer's overly abundant algae blooms and critically low-oxygen dead zones, scientists said.

The state will over the next 30 days accept public comments on the plan, which includes $60 million for the state and local water districts.

The spotted lanternfly may be pleasing to the eye, but the invasive insect, which has turned up on Long Island, can be very destructive. Experts explain why they are asking the public to slay them on sight.

The algae flourished in warm, nitrogen-polluted waters and sharks chased recovering bunker fish populations toward shore.

Approximately half of the sites tested on Long Island this week had fair water quality, while the other half were about evenly split between good and poor quality.

The oft-eroded state park in Babylon beloved by four-wheel drivers, anglers and surfers reopened Friday at 4 p.m. after a brief closure.   

Many beaches across Long Island have been subject to advisories over the past week after heavy rains.

Three areas on the North Shore are typically closed to shellfishing around this time due to increased boating activity

Tropical Storm Henri caused surprisingly widespread bacterial contamination in Long Island's waters and thus likely fueled algae blooms, though the storm's winds and rain were far less destructive for Long Island than initially feared, scientists said. 

About 70% of the 29 sites tested on Long Island this week had fair water quality, and four were deemed to have poor conditions.

A retired 55-foot luxury cruiser named "Big Time" is the latest steel hulk to be added to the reef as part of the state's effort to beef up Long Island's coastlines.

The state DEC on Thursday announced the deliberate sinking of the vessel "Big Time," a 55-foot steel luxury Feadship cruiser built in 1956, on the Fire Island Reef as part of the state's ongoing efforts to expand New York's network of artificial reefs.

Tropical Storm Henri churned up waters around Gilgo State Park so much that it is too narrow in some sections to allow two-way traffic at the site where off-road vehicles tread.

Northport Harbor was the only site on the North Shore to register poor water quality in the latest round of testing by a team from Stony Brook University.

Continued erosion is just one of the local impacts of human-caused, greenhouse gas emissions and the consequent shifts in the weather that's changing the planet and Long Island.

A harmful algae is blooming near the Fort Pond boat ramp, shortly after a possible septic leak from a nearby business, officials said on Friday, while 14 spots in that village and others in East Hampton Town have medium or high levels of bacteria.

The app, developed by Stony Brook University scientists who study the environment, tracks and displays real-time information about Long Island's waterways and shores.

Just two out of the 29 sites tested this week were deemed to have poor water quality.

A second beach, Philip Healey in Massapequa, also remained shut because of elevated bacteria levels, the Nassau Department of Health said in a statement.

The long-legged insects have bored into and killed thousands of trees around the country, the DEC says, so it is asking New Yorkers to help out with a late-summer survey.

This variety of red tide, called dinophysis, "can get into shellfish; so far there is no evidence that's happened yet — but we're going to be testing for that," said Christopher Gobler, endowed chair of coastal ecology and conservation at Stony Brook University. 

The pair of swans, with their midnight plumage and red, white-tipped beaks, were caught by kayaking volunteers and neighbors.

Eight sites were deemed to have poor water quality in this week's Long Island Water Quality Report, up from seven last week and five the week before that.

The advisory will be lifted tomorrow unless more heavy rain falls or testing reveals unhealthy levels of bacteria, Nassau health officials said in a statement.