(HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.) – Standing outside the Hempstead Water Works on Juneteenth, Nassau County Legislature Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Siela A. Bynoe (D – Westbury) and Nassau County Legislator Scott M. Davis (D – Rockville Centre) joined Hempstead Village elected officials, community leaders and activists outside the Hempstead Water Works to demand that Nassau County Executive Bruce A. Blakeman allocate desperately needed aid toward upgrading the Village’s outdated drinking water infrastructure and treat its efforts to remove 1,4 dioxane from drinking water with the urgency and equity it deserves.
Hempstead Village is working to comply with recently implemented and unfunded State mandates governing acceptable levels of 1,4 dioxane – a suspected human carcinogen. To help address this issue, Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Bynoe and Legislator Davis requested more than $1.75 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from the County administration to aid in the construction of a state-of-the-art water treatment facility.
For months, the Blakeman administration has failed to act upon the Democratic legislators’ request for the funds necessary to confront this crisis. Yet, several requests for water quality funding in neighboring Republican districts encompassing Farmingdale, Hicksville and Great Neck, are passing swiftly through the Legislature. To date, the Republican Majority has received or will soon receive over $4 million in ARPA funding for projects, of which over $2 million is for water treatment projects in their districts. Meanwhile, the Democratic Minority has requested over $3.3 million in ARPA funding – but have received nothing.
“As a breast cancer survivor, I’m keenly aware that we must be conscious about what is in our drinking water,” Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Bynoe said. “I had genetic testing and that proved I was not predisposed to breast cancer, but yet and still, I was diagnosed like countless other people in the community in which I live. I don’t want that for the people who live here in the Village of Hempstead, and I am calling on County Executive Blakeman to do the right thing. File it in the Legislature so we can vet the item and pass it through so the Village can start the important work of restoring good quality drinking water to the good people of Hempstead.”
Nassau County received over $385 million in ARPA funding for the federal government – resources that are to be applied toward aiding post-pandemic economic recovery, bolstering water and sewer infrastructure, and addressing health, educational, economic, and other disparities exacerbated by the pandemic. Of that sum, $15 million was set aside for legislative initiatives – with no guarantee from the Legislative Majority that the resources would be allocated equitably across the Legislature’s 19 districts, and no guidelines for how to formally apply for the money despite multiple requests from the Minority.
“When we were made aware – through the County Executive’s administration – regarding the issue of 1,4 dioxane in Hempstead, Legislator Bynoe and I spoke about this and made this our number one priority among all priorities – this is the only thing Legislator Bynoe and I have put in a request for,” Legislator Davis said. “To date, we have received nothing – and that speaks to why we are here today. We know what the problem is. We know how to fix it. The only thing we need is resources – and we have the money. The only thing left is the will to do it.”
Hempstead, which is the oldest and most populous incorporated village in New York State, has one of the region’s most antiquated water infrastructure systems.
“When we look at the ARPA funding the County received, a lot of that number is because of the density here in the Village of Hempstead,” Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs, Jr. said. “Every time I see the County Executive, he always says to me – ‘Mayor, if you need something, let me know.’ Well, we’re here today to let you know that we need you to release those funds so that we can do what’s right by the residents here in the Village of Hempstead.”
“What’s being done in the Village of Hempstead is a great injustice to the community,” NAACP Hempstead Branch President Barbara Powell said. “We are bathing in this water – we are using this water to brush our teeth. It’s horrible. I don’t know why we’re being treated this way – County Executive, do what is needed to be done here in the Village of Hempstead.”
As stakeholders reiterated the need for immediate support from federal, state and county governments, Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Bynoe urged County Executive Blakeman to apply some of the more than $50 million remaining in the County’s ARPA allotment toward improving Hempstead Village’s water infrastructure.
“That ARPA money is for the express purpose of improving the quality of health for residents throughout Nassau County. Today, we’re in a crisis, and now is the time to show and prove that you understand equity and equality and the plight of this Village,” Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Bynoe said.
PHOTO CREDIT – Office of Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Siela A. Bynoe