Hempstead residents seek action on polluted water
Ongoing concerns of water contamination in Hempstead village have yet to be rectified, and residents and local leaders are continuing to be vocal about their outrage. Many attended the Nassau County’s legislative meeting on June 24 to further push for the situation to be addressed.
The residents and others asked that the legislators encourage County Executive Bruce Blakeman to release over $1.75 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act for new water infrastructure.
“We need the necessary funding to address this crisis certainly in our community,” Pastor Sedgwick Easley, pastor of the Union Baptist Church of Hempstead, said at the meeting.
Recent testing on Hempstead village water wells found that the water supply contains more 1.4-dioxane than the amount safely allowed by New York State’s maximum contaminant level. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has deemed 1.4-dioxane a likely human carcinogenic.
This affects individual residents, businesses, and the community as a whole, LaShawn Lukes, president of the Hempstead Chamber of Commerce, said at the legislative meeting.
“Think about this at home tonight when you’re drinking water with your families. Would you want to drink the water in Hempstead?” she said.
This meeting comes days after County Legislators Siela Bynoe and Scott Davis joined the village’s elected officials, community leaders, and activists outside of the Hempstead Water Works on June 19 to demand ARPA funds be allocated towards a water treatment plan.
“As a breast cancer survivor, I’m keenly aware that we must be conscious about what is in our drinking water,” Bynoe said at the gathering.
Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, $12.75 billion was provided to the state of New York for “critical response and recovery efforts related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” according to the Budget.ny.gov.
Nassau County received $385 million, and according to the Nassau County government website, the funds must be allocated by the end of 2024 and fully expended by the end of 2026.
ARPA funds have been allocated to Great Neck, Farmingdale, and Hicksville for similar water treatment plans in past months. However, Bynoe and Davis filed their requests on May 3 and no action has been taken so far.
“We all took an oath as elected officials to do the right thing, and we’re asking for your help to speak on our behalf to ask the county executive to please assist us with the funds that we need in order to take care of the water in the Hempstead Village,” Village of Hempstead Trustee Clariona Griffith said at the meeting.
As of press time, the county did not return a call for comment.
