Save water and make LI prettier, wind delays, Trump

Extension educator and nursery andlandscape specialist Mina Viscera works in a greenhouse at the Long Island Horticultural Research and Extension Center in Riverhead. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.

Mindy Germain is to be applauded for being a forward-looking water commissioner in Port Washington who has been at the forefront of raising the alarm on water pollution and depletion [“Move the needle on water conservation,” Opinion, Aug. 22].

We can start by creating beautiful, low-maintenance landscapes with native perennial plants around our houses. Today’s default landscape is the lawn, wastefully maintained with gas-hungry equipment, fracked chemicals and copious amounts of water pumped out of the aquifer.

By switching to native perennial plantings and deep-rooted shrubs, we can use less water and effort to create beauty that sustains birds and butterflies.

As noted in “Landscaping sold the house, but at what cost?” [LI Real Estate, Aug. 18], sustainable landscaping is also more cost-effective.

Save money and save the aquifer with a beautiful native perennial yard. What’s not to love?

The writer is president of ReWild Long Island, which works to improve biodiversity of ecosystems centered around native plants.

The green grass we covet on our manicured lawns and landscapes belies a hydrological landscape that is not as inviting with its emerging contaminants and saltwater intrusion. Mindy Germain’s op-ed portends the serious concern of our Long Island groundwater supply.

The impacts of overpumping our groundwater on coastal communities such as Port Washington, Long Beach, Great Neck and Roslyn are just the tip of it. All Long Islanders put their straws in the same groundwater source.

Nassau County and the state should enact policies that will put an end to decades of patchwork efforts on water conservation and overpumping, particularly, due to outdoor irrigation.

Although we have been told for decades that there is plenty of water on Long Island, the bearded sailor cries in “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”: “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.”

— Michelle Schimel, Port Washington

The gist of an article that the cost of building offshore wind farms is rising and ratepayers will be on the hook for overruns leaves me uneasy [“How wind projects will affect electric rates under scrutiny,” News, Aug. 7].

The takeaway for many readers will be that wind farms will jack up rates. I fear that this narrative will help fossil-fuel interests and their political allies, who would like nothing more than to thwart the growth of renewable energy. In reality, we can’t afford to delay building wind farms. The projected increases to fund the projects off Long Island range from 73 cents to $1.60 per month. Even at higher levels, these amounts are reasonable. Ratepayers benefit when wind energy replaces gas-burning power plants for many reasons, including by breathing cleaner air.

Offshore wind is part of an urgently necessary energy revolution. It is crucial that the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority and the Public Service Commission ensure the prompt completion of these projects.

Delay will mean a swifter advance of climate catastrophe, with devastating heat and storms. The costs that those events would impose on all of us are much greater — both emotionally and economically.

The writer is a member of the Sierra Club.

I agree with the editorial “Put wind in this proposal’s sails” [Opinion, July 28].

Climate change is happening, and the naysayers and those who claim it is all a hoax are dead wrong. Since this is a global phenomenon, it benefits the U.S. science and technology communities to lead the world in developing alternatives to our dependence on fossil fuels.

Long Beach residents should be excited about being a major site for an offshore wind farm.

I do not understand those who express fear about underground power cables in the Empire Wind 2 project, which I enthusiastically support. Are those who are protesting this project now going to demand that National Grid and PSEG Long Island remove all of their underground cables? What then?

— Thomas Patton, Long Beach

After only two days, I already had enough of seeing the “mug shot heard around the world” [“Historic mug shot taken of Trump,” News, Aug. 25].

Almost every time the TV news is on, it’s there, and apparently in every news publication and on the internet. It is just free publicity for former President Donald Trump.

I’m sure most mature adults have seen that look hundreds of times. It usually appears on the face of any child who has been told, “No, you cannot have it just because you want it.”

I am a grandmother and have voted for no particular political party, only for the person who I feel can best serve America and what we used to stand for.

— Joan Deutsch, North Massapequa

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