Fish kills, algal blooms and oxygen-starved “dead zones” have affected nearly all of Long Island’s bays and estuaries this summer, according to scientists who monitor water quality at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences.

More than 24 lakes and ponds have experienced blooms of blue-green algae, which can be toxic to humans and animals.

Stony Brook researcher Dr. “That (number) will almost certainly be twice or more than any other county in New York State,” Chris Gobler said at a news conference Wednesday. “The most common thing that happened on Long Island was dogs got into these bodies of water, drank that water, and got sick.”

The dire water quality report is due to nitrogen from wastewater runoff causing harmful algal blooms that suck oxygen from surface waters.

Gobler Laboratory

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Stony Brook University

Gobler said this summer Long Island surface waters had a record 36 “dead zones,” areas where dissolved oxygen is too low to support marine life.

“This problem will not solve itself,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “And we don’t have a Plan B. We just have a plan to expand sewers where appropriate and replace outdated septic tanks and septic tanks wherever possible. As grim as this news is, the silver lining is that we plan to make a difference.”

He urged Suffolk County voters to approve a law. voting referendum This election season we will raise the sales tax by 0.125% to fund sewer expansions and high-tech septic tanks.

Kevin McCaffrey, chairman of the Suffolk County Legislature, said the new tax is about 12 pennies for every $100 spent and will help the county reverse the effects of nitrogen pollution.

“Over $50 million a year will be put into a special fund that we can use to match funds from the state and federal government to grow that fund exponentially even further,” said McCaffery, who supports the tax increase. will allow the county to “do the things we need to do to address these concerns that we see here today.”