Federal environmental officials working on Long Island have settled with New York over claims that state agencies violated the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Thirty-six large-capacity cesspools operated in state parks above the aquifer that supplies most of Long Island’s drinking water. All the cesspools were closed between 2017 and 2019 — more than a decade after the water act required them closed.
Walter Mugdan is the Acting Regional Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. He says cesspool sewage systems use “centuries-old technology that can cause serious pollution of groundwater and drinking water.”
A State Parks spokesman says the agency "took aggressive action to ensure they were brought up to all modern environmental standards.”