A resolution sponsored by Lindenhurst Democrat David Bishop to help clean up pollution in the Great South Bay could be approved at the legislature’s August 8 meeting in Riverhead. The bill would authorize the allocation of just over $2 million to filter storm water runoff through the purchase and installation of stormceptor devices in Suffolk storm drains, thereby reducing the amount of pollutants reaching the bay.

Although Bishop, who is facing a Democratic primary for a shot at the Second Congressional Seat being vacated by Republican Rick Lazio, said the bill has support among both parties in the legislature, his primary opponent Huntington Democrat Steve Israel believes it is too little, too late.

The resolution is co-sponsored by Democrat Ginny Fields (Oakdale) and Republicans Mike Caracciolo (Riverhead) and Cameron Alden (Bay Shore).

Bishop said that implementing the stormceptor filtration system and creating stricter regulation of boat discharge would help alleviate brown tide problems in the Great South Bay. Brown tide, a microscopic alga, is at its highest level in 14 years. Some areas of the bay have been adversely effected by brown tide, which has been exacerbated by storm water runoff.

Under the legislation, stormceptor devices would be placed at various drainage points along the south shore to filter out grease, oil, litter and other pollutants.

The bill calls for the purchase of up to 69 stormceptor devices, which cost between $4,500 and $34,000. Funding would be provided through the use of a small portion of the county’s quarter percent water protection sales tax.

Just over $1 million would be used along the Great South Bay and the balance of the $2 million allocation would be used in a similar manner along the Peconic Bay.

However, not everyone agrees that the Bishop bill is the answer to the problem. Huntington Councilman Steve Israel, who is challenging Bishop for the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District, said the biggest factor in the runoff problem is over-development. "In other words, we wouldn’t be needing stormceptors if we had more open space,"

Israel explained. Israel charged that in the past Bishop had voted to remove $15 million from the capital budget that would have been devoted to open space preservation and that Bishop later voted to override a county executive line item veto to restore the $15 million. He said preserving open space would have prevented the problem to a greater degree.

"Stormceptors (or the lack of them) are just part of the problem," Israel said. "We have to be far more ambitious, especially when it comes to brown tide. I have a five-year plan to dramatically improve the entire south shore estuary (system). And that’s the direction in which we should be heading."

Israel has been credited with the cleanup of Huntington Harbor and adjacent waterways. Under Israel’s latest plan open space acquisitions would be increased, which would lessen the amount of development in the area. He also called for increased federal involvement to control "non point" pollution and the creation of federal "no discharge zones for boaters), which is what we did in Huntington," and the acceleration of habitat restoration. "When I get to congress," Israel said, "I will lead the effort to tap a south shore estuary reserve plan. The government has an obligation to reclaim our wetlands."

Bishop, however, denied Israel’s charge that he voted to remove $15 million from the capital budget that would have been directed at open space preservation. "I am an acknowledged leader in environmental issues," Bishop said. In the last few years Bishop has been responsible for habitat restoration efforts and the preservation of open space at Ketchams Creek and other sensitive areas throughout the Town of Babylon.

"Obviously, my environmental record speaks for itself," Bishop added. "This (the stormceptor resolution) is a good bill and people know I’ve always been there for open space. The present bipartisan legislative coalition has pumped more money into open space that ever before."

Islip Town Clerk Joan Johnson, the Republican choice to succeed Lazio, was unavailable for comment. Bishop’s bill could be voted on at the legislature’s August 8 meeting.