By Kayleigh Anderson
Alternate Deputy Minority Leader Siela A. Bynoe (D-Westbury) and Nassau County Legislator Scott M. Davis (D-Rockville Centre) held a press conference outside the Hempstead Water Works on June 19 to demand that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman allocate desperately needed funding toward upgrading the Hempstead Village’s outdated drinking water infrastructure and removing 1,4 dioxane from drinking water.
Bynoe and Davis accused Blakeman of ignoring requests to provide funds for improving the village’s water quality. While the Blakeman administration is failing to act on Democratic legislators’ requests, neighboring Republican districts received or will soon receive over $4 million in American Rescue Plan (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,” 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.”
According to Bynoe, 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.
Davis said he and Bynoe made the elimination of 1,4 dioxane from Hempstead Village water supply, “our number one priority among all priorities… 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.”