A New Clean Water Initiative

Cleaner bays and harbors? That's the plan in the 

The plan the installation of new storm drain inserts that filter storm-water run off and prevent sediments, oil, and garbage from seeping into Manhasset Bay and Hempstead Harbor. 

along with other elected officials announced a clean water initiative on Tuesday that boosts the Town's ongoing efforts to local waterways clean.

Designed to help protect and improve water quality in Manhasset Bay and the Long Island Sound, the initiative is working in accordance with the goals of the Long Island Sound Studyand the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee.

In the works since 2006, the initiative features a partnership with North Hempstead and Nassau County, which granted funding through its Environmental Bond Act.

"The wheels of government grind but, grind slowly," Kaiman said, referring to lapse in time since program's beginnings. "In 2006 we started a process where we were looking to utilize new technology, new products that can help us help our community." 

In recent years contaminated storm water has been identified as a major cause of water quality impairment across coastal waters on Long Island. In 1997, the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee was founded to deal with issues just like this.

"The reason inserts like this are so important is because the bulk of what effects the water quality is what comes from the upland," said Jennifer Wilson Pines, of the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee. 

"We're taking the existing infrastructure and changing it so that it now becomes a water quality treatment system,"  said Jeff Fullmer, the watershed and regulatory coordinator from Farmingdale-based Fabco Industries, which designed the filters. "This is very consistent with the whole idea of green infrastructure." 

"These [filters] will be less obvious but an even more effective vehicle to ensure the continued improvement of our bays and harbors," said Leg. Wayne Wink, D-Roslyn. 

"You're not going to see this as you're driving by," Wink added. "But the effects are going to help us for generations to come."