http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=192qRRKFCA0
The award for Environmental and Historic Preservation goes to Operation SPLASH for their efforts in protecting Long Island’s waterways and shorelines.
Based out of Freeport, Operation SPLASH is a nonprofit that cleans garbage from the water and advocates for marine life.President Rob Weltner said polluting the area’s ecosystem for decades has cost Long Island precious resources.
A Freeport native, Weltner grew up fishing and clamming with his father. But when it came time for his children to enjoy the water, years of pollution eliminated many maritime opportunities. More than 65 million gallons sewage are dumped along Long Island’s bays and shorelines every day, while storm drains route oil and other waste directly into the water.
Operation SPLASH was founded in 1990 with a beat up old boat and a handful of volunteers to pick debris out of the water. Fast-forward to 2014, and the organization now features 3,500 volunteers and six boats docked at the Town of Hempstead’s Guy Lombardo Marina in Freeport, Nassau County’s Wantagh Park Marina and East Rockaway’s Town Marina. Captains go out once a day, taking volunteers from all walks of life wherever they feel there is the most garbage.
Every year Operation SPLASH removes about 125,000 pounds of debris. They’ve rescued more than a million pounds of plastic bags, plastic bottles and bottle caps, juice boxes, styrofoam cups and food containers, BBQ grills, hot water heaters, flat screen TVs, engine blocks and coconuts. But after Superstorm Sandy, the nonprofit picked up more than 300,000 pounds of debris in 2013.
The storm also crippled the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant with nine feet of storm surge. The plant serves 550,000 Nassau County residents and processes about 50 million gallons of sewage daily. Weltner has joined the contingent calling for an ocean outfall pipe at the plant. Reynolds Channel is too stagnant to handle normal release of treated sewage without increasing nitrogen
levels, but the ocean can easily dilute the effluent.Weltner said the outfall project had originally been discussed 36 years ago, but was put on hold. Not only would the upgrades protect water for Nassau County, but he also said it would create temporary jobs for Long Island workers.
When the federal government created the “Rebuild by Design” contest for tri-state areas to win additional Sandy relief funds, the nonprofit worked with the team representing Long Island. They hosted boat and bus tours to proposed project sites in Nassau County.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHt0sTEdnQ
