Krupski Calls for Examination of Shellfish Closure Process

Some East End creeks might have been mistakenly closed for shellfishing.

So said Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski, who invited Southold Town engineer Michael Collins to speak at a recent meeting of the legislature's environment planning and agriculture committee.

Collins outlined reasons why waterbodies are closed for shellfishing and how a misunderstanding of this process has resulted in the over-regulation of municipal stormwater runoff on the East End.

Based on this analysis, many towns and villages could reduce their regulatory burden or be entirely exempt from federal and state processes which regulate municipal stormwater runoff, Collins said.

Krupski said he invited Collins to speak before the EPA committee because he worked closely with him when he was a Southold Town councilman and was “very impressed with his evaluation of the MS4 requirements and how they were being misapplied in Southold and other East End communities.”

MS4s, or municipal separate storm sewer systems, are regulated under the National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System, or NPDES, permit process at the federal level, Krupski said.

In New York State, MS4s are regulated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation through the State Pollution Discharge and Elimination System, or SPDES, permitting process.

The DEC’s general SPDES permit for municipalities includes a number of EPA-approved pathogen total maximum daily loads, which are required reductions in pathogen loadings to shellfishing waters that are currently classified as impaired by pathogens.

The goal of TDML implementation is to reopen impaired waters to shellfishing, but, according Collins’ research, some waterbodies on the East End were closed for reasons other than stormwater run-off, like close proximity to a marina or sewage treatment plant discharge pipes.

In other cases, the required pathogen load reduction was calculated based on insufficient or outdated data and "grossly overestimated contributory areas," Krupski said.

The net result was the establishment of mandatory municipal pathogen load reductions that in most cases are either unnecessary or could not be achieved, Krupski said.

“The burden of MS4 requirements have significant implications for towns and villages, and when misapplied, take resources, both in terms of money and staff time, away from projects that could better protect the East End’s surface waters,” Krupski said.

Southold, he had, has worked to quantify the current quality of the town’s waters by having staff members trained in obtaining water samples, which were then tested by the DEC.

The program has resulted in two areas being recommended for reopening for shellfishing: Wickham’s Creek in Cutchogue was recommended to be completely recertified and portions of Mattituck Creek were recommended for an upgrade from conditionally certified to seasonally certified for shellfishing.

"Government has to communicate more efficiently across all levels," Krupski said. "Mandates from ‘higher levels’ of government eliminate the options of local governments and don’t always accomplish their goals."