What's An IA/OWTS? Great South Bay Word of The Week Wednesday

BABYLON, NY — No, it's not a texting abbreviation. But it does help everyone.

"IA/OWTS" or Innovative & Alternative Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems, is Save the Great South Bay's phrase of the week.

The treatment systems are high efficiency replacements for outdated, conventional cesspools which are a major source of nitrogen pollution in Long Island's groundwater.

According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), while nutrients, such as nitrogen, are a natural part of aquatic ecosystems, excess amounts can cause water systems to become polluted.

Excess nitrogen from septic systems and other human activities can threaten estuaries, wetlands, drinking water sources, and freshwater ponds as they contribute to algae blooms, low dissolved oxygen, degradation of seagrass, impaired freshwater, estuarine ecosystems, and in extreme cases, fish kills, its website said.

"Nitrogen pollution from cesspools and septic systems has been identified as the largest single cause of degraded water quality contributing to beach closures, restrictions on shell fishing, toxic algae blooms, and massive fish kills," Save the Great South Bay website said.

IA/OWTS reduce nitrogen pollution by up to 70 percent over traditional cesspools.

If you live in Suffolk County and own one of its 400,000 cesspools, your water most likely makes ends up in the Great South Bay.

Save the Great South Bay, a non-profit organization dedicated to the revitalization of Long Island's Great South Bay, urges Suffolk County residents to replace their cesspools with IA/OWTS.

Under its Reclaim Our Water Septic Improvement Program, homeowners who replace their cesspool or septic system with the new technologies will be eligible for a grant of up to $30,000 from Suffolk County and New York State to offset the cost of one of the new systems.

Homeowners can also qualify to finance the remaining cost of the systems via a loan, payable over 15 years at a low 3 percent fixed interest rate. Financing up to $10,000 is available.

In November, Governor Kathy Hochul and the Long Island Sound Study announced an initial $2.25 million in new federal funding to improve water quality on the island, its first installment aiming to replace outdated septic systems in both Suffolk and Nassau counties.

To learn more about cesspools, how they affect the Great South Bay, and to learn about the program, click here.