State DEC hit with lawsuit over water pollution

Citing polluted runoff that closes beaches and makes shellfish unsafe to eat, advocates sued the state Department of Environmental Conservation this week for failing to clean up troubled waterways on Long Island and elsewhere.

At issue is the way the agency regulates pollution from municipal storm drains that carry contaminated runoff from local streets into streams and bays. Environmental officials consider storm water runoff a leading cause of water quality problems.

The National Resources Defense Council says the DEC violates the federal Clean Water Act because it does not require many towns and villages to reduce storm water pollution - even when current levels hurt water quality in sensitive areas, such as the Great South Bay.

"There are no monitoring requirements, so there is no real way to evaluate effectiveness," said Lawrence Levine, a senior attorney with the National Resources Defense Council.

The DEC had no comment on the suit, spokeswoman Maureen Wren said in an e-mail. She added that DEC had "provided numerous opportunities for stakeholders to give input and discuss potential concerns with the permit."

NRDC filed the suit Monday in Supreme Court in Westchester on behalf of Peconic Baykeeper and other regional water quality groups. The same day, Peconic Baykeeper released a report that said nitrogen from storm water runoff, cesspools and sewage threatened Long Island bays and estuaries.

Pollution from storm water and urban runoff has landed dozens of Long Island bays and ponds on the state's list of impaired waters. On Tuesday, the EPA approved the final 2010 list for New York, adding several South Shore bays plagued by algae blooms that researchers think are partly due to runoff.

The lawsuit focuses on a general permit the DEC issues every five years to govern municipal storm water discharges in communities outside New York City. The lawsuit said untreated runoff from communities regulated by that permit has fouled local waters with bacteria and debris and caused oxygen levels to plummet.

Advocates say the permit does not ensure pollution cleanup targets are met even for waters for which the state has set maximum pollutant limits, such as Long Island Sound and the Peconic Estuary.

Wren said that in the past five years, 34 communities have signed "consent orders" with the DEC over permit violations.

NRDC wants the state to supervise local storm water plans more closely and to outline specific remedies to improve water quality, such as using planted vegetative swales and rain gardens to soak up excess water and filter pollutants.

"Without improvements in storm water infrastructure in towns and cities across the state, we will continue to see urban runoff causing beach closures, areas to be closed for shellfishing and causing degradation of environmental quality," Levine said.