Letters to the Press: For the Week of May 13 – May 19

Déjà vu All Over Again

Dear Editor,

Your article “Toxic Time Bomb” [April 29], should bring about some much needed and long overdue change to the troubled Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant. In the early ’70s I took a class of mine (Environmental Ecology) from a Nassau County high school on a tour of the newly opened plant. A dye marker intended to surface at the terminus of the effluent pipe off Jones Beach, instead ended up in South Oyster Bay.

Apparently, the outflow pipe had never been connected and now had to be dug up, costing Nassau taxpayers millions. Then there was the sewage sludge tank that exploded, sending toxic waste once more into South Oyster Bay, fouling the waters. Evidently little has changed since those days.

Rereading your excellent article one can only wonder when the next catastrophe from the Cedar Creek Sewage Plant will hit Nassau.

Respectfully submitted by,
William Ober
Huntington

Jerry’s Stink

Dear Editor:

Really getting tired of Jerry’s simple-minded reactionary tone [“Jerry’s Ink”]. The Press can certainly find a more rational, cerebral columnist. To wit, his recent comment about the Times Square Bomber:

“Who, out there, is against waterboarding this bastard until he gives up the rest of the terrorists in his group? If you are, please write to this paper and let your feelings be known.”

Hello? The guy is already talking, and people have been arrested overseas as a result. Further, study after study has shown that torture does not yield accurate information. (Quick question: How many detainees have been convicted on evidence gathered as a result of torture?)

And finally, I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but the USA doesn’t torture people anymore. That was the last guy, remember?

This bomber-guy seemingly constructed a bomb with a Fisher-Price toy clock for a timing device, he failed in his Times Square attempt, and he was caught by alert citizens and police officers. Shouldn’t we really be addressing the issue of how this idiot was permitted to subsequently get on a plane?

Besides, Jerry, why are you still here in the country anyway? I thought Obama’s taxes were forcing you to abandon your Hamptons oceanfront mansion for a Tuscany Villa. It’s really got to be tough being you.

Name Withheld Upon Request

From the Editor

The Fair Media Council honored the Long Island Press’ reporting last month at the annual Folio Awards.

The Press took home the Science/Health or Environmental News Reporting award for Jaclyn Gallucci’s November 2009 story “Troubled Water,” about toxic plumes leaching into LI’s aquifers. The paper also won the Educational Reporting award for “School Fudget,” a May 2009 story about the annual school budget vote by Christopher Twarowski and Timothy Bolger, while Twarowski was awarded for Special Issues Taxes Accountability Feature Reporting with his October 2009 financial analysis in “Nassau’s Balancing Act,” a story that detailed the perilous state of the county budget. Former Press staffer Michael M. Martino, Jr. took home the prize for News Analysis with his September 2009 feature “1010 on 9/11,” a look at how the radio station WINS became the go-to source for news during the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.