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Getting the Point...1
Parkside...What's it all About?
Contributed by Ruth
Fenner Barash
How many times have you
rounded the corner between the rescue station and the rec hall
and wondered what that un-Point-Lookout-like building with
"Department of Conservation and Waterways" on the
front was all about?
We set out to find out and had
our eyes opened by Ronald W. Masters, the commissioner of said
department, whose actual office is in that stunning low-slung
building in the West Marina, on the far side of the Loop
Parkway.
"We've just had a
spill," he greeted me, as good an intro as any to the
duties and responsibilities, the headaches and the pleasures of
Conservation and Waterways.
The department keeps tabs on
the water quality in our wetlands, channels, inlets, bays and
pipes; and it is charged with protecting and nurturing the
wildlife that lives in the waters and on the beaches of the Town
Of Hempstead.
To these ends, the department
does science in a warren of labs at 1 Parkside; it determines
appropriate procedures to further its goals; it regulates
dredging, bulkheads and other structures and cranes, barges,
tugboats…; it issues permits, assigns slips in the marinas and
runs educational programs, including the Marine Nature Study
Area at 500 Slice Drive in Oceanside. It licenses clammers; it
provides information to Nassau County about the many species of
mosquito larvae that breed here (the one good aspect of a
drought is that it keeps mosquito populations down); and it
employs Bay Constables to enforce its rules and regulations.
The department has joined with the
Hempstead Baymen's Association to revivify the local clamming
industry. With the Baymen, the department purchases seed - about 1
million 1-millimeter spat in a plastic milk container – and
grows them to thumbnail size in vats or on rafts in the bay. In
the autumn they're sown in beds, where they'll spend the rest of
their lives, hopefully ingesting nutrients balanced to suit the
needs of all the water-dependent creatures who share the local
environment.
That involves constant water
testing and that's what's done at 1 Parkside Avenue, looking out
on some of the best views in town!
On the site of a former
restaurant, 1 Parkside was erected in 1964 for the newly
established Department of Conservation & Waterways. When the
administration building in the west marina was built, in 1978,1
Parkside was given over to a bit of biology and a lot of
chemistry. Laboratory Director Michael R. Foley showed us an
amazing array of test tubes, pipettes, Waring blenders,
autoclaves, and other gear used for testing. Water samples are
taken daily and tested for a tremendous number of compounds; and
from testing for parts per thousand ten years ago, the lab is
now, through the miracle of computers, able to test for parts
per billion (nine zeroes!).
The department tests for
bacteria – the infamous coliform – as well as carbon
compounds; trace metals such as lead, arsenic, mercury; and
inorganic compounds such as nitrates, nitrites, phosphates,
chlorides – sounds just like all the stuff that supposedly
does wonders for our veggies and flowers and grass.
Are these all pollutants? and
are they all our fault? Many compounds occur naturally in
the water, and they vary with the seasons, the rainfall and the
general climate. Others come from storm drains, road
runoff, lawn care products, the feces of animals – not just
our pets, but raccoons, possums, foxes and all the other
critters on our barrier island and the lands surrounding the
water to the north. Recently a deer was spotted as near to
us as the former gas station on the Meadowbrook!
And are these
"nutrients" the cause of the smelly green algae that
have been building up in the water, piling ever deeper in the
coves, giving us headaches when the wind is from the east? Mr.
Masters was diplomatic: nutrients and light are necessary.
Now that the waters are cleaner, which they definitely are, they
allow more sunlight to filter through, encouraging the growth of
ulva, which is what the green gunk is called. It's a hard
balancing act, he said.
The preservation of the
wildlife, specifically endangered and threatened species such as
the piping plover, is another charge of this department, jointly
with the state's Department of Environmental Conservation and the
Federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Plovers come to the
shores of Long Beach Island in late March through late June or
early July. Their preferred breeding areas are stretches of
rough cobbled beach; temporary ponds like the ones at Malibu;
wherever there's sea wrack that's washed up on the shore. These
places are patrolled by ten permanent Bay Constables, augmented
by nine more during the summer. Once members of the public are
informed about the plover habitat, they are generally
cooperative
and give the areas wide berth, says Commissioner Masters.
The constables also are on the
lookout for intoxicated boaters and fishermen who don't hew to
the size regulations of their catch. They enforce
environmental and other laws out to the high tide line; seaward
of that is the responsibility of the state.
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READ MORE
ABOUT IT
Available at the Long Beach
Public Library:
Living by the Rules of the Sea and The
Crops and the Shore by Orrin Pilke Against the Tide by Cornelia
Dean Not
available through our Library system:
Coastal Processes with Engineering Applications by
Robert Dean |
What about the proposed groins
west of our town beaches, we asked. Does the department
think
it's a good idea to build them, given that there's been so much
written about the negative consequences of interfering with the
natural flow of sand? Commissioner
Masters pointed out that we are very far from the "natural
flow" of anything on this highly developed and populous
barrier island in the shadow of the Jones Beach jetty.
Attend the Civic Association's
meeting on this subject on Thursday, April 18th and learn lots
more! The decisions that are made will have vital and lasting
effects on our bit of paradise. See you there!
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