Two environmental groups in Long Island are accusing New York State Parks and Stony Brook University's Southampton campus of polluting local waterways, the Times Beacon Record reported.

The Peconic Baywater and Soundkeeper filed duel lawsuits against the two entities in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Nov. 8 and 11, accusing them of violating three federal environmental laws - the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act - by polluting estuaries and rivers with excess nitrogen and other pollutants without proper permits.

In a press release, Soundkeeper said the five state parks in Suffolk County - Robert Moses, Belmont Lake, Sunken Meadow, Heckscher and Wildwood - and the university's campus operate large capacity septic systems that pollute estuaries and rivers via groundwater without a federal Clean Water Act permit. They're also accused of endangering underground sources for drinking water without an Underground Injection Control permit required by the Safe drinking Act, and causing an imminent and substantial endangerment to health and the environment.

"If you can demonstrate ... a connection exists and that excessive levels of pollutants are entering already degraded water bodies and not meeting water quality standards, then it requires best available technologies," to remedy, Kevin McAllister, president of Peconic Baykeeper, told the Times Beacon Record.

McAllister said the water waste treatment systems at the five parks and Stony Brook Southampton only filter out half of the nitrogen in wastewater, resulting in 60-70 parts-per-million in nitrogen. The best available technology would reduce that to 3 parts-per-million.

High nitrogen levels in waterways can result in hypoxia, reduced oxygen content or when oxygen concentrations fall below the level necessary to sustain most animal life. It can kill fish and promote the growth of bacteria, according to Times Beacon Record.

Although state parks and Stony Brook University are not the sole causes of high levels of nitrogen that contaminates water - Suffolk County have a total of almost 1.5 million septic systems - the lawsuit alleges they are major contributors.

McAllister said the size of the state parks and the university made them targets in the lawsuit clean water activists filed. In October, the state parks department announced that it would modernize its septic systems at the five parks in question.

"That department entered into a consent order with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, requiring the parks department to immediately initiate the design and installation of replacement systems, to assure all septic systems comply with current standards within three years," according to a press release from the parks department.

According to the release, 30 of the 100 septic systems are outdated and will be modernized.
They are expected to spend more than $5 million on this project. The department will also pay a $25,000 fine.

"The state parks are touting that they're going to spend $5 million in upgrades that don't reach the goal," McAllister said. "The goal is to [remove nitrogen from] the water so we're not polluting."