Hen Island - Photos of Dubious Septic Systems

Hen Island captures the imagination. Just a short boat ride from Rye's "mainland" it seems a world away. It seems like an idyllic place.

Then you see how most of the 34 homes on the island handle human sewage (they don't). The septic systems (if you can call them that) are crude at best and in many cases just feet away from the Long Island Sound. One would be hard pressed to believe any of us land lubbers would get away with such creative plumbing anywhere else in the city of Rye.

View MyRye.com's photo album of Hen Island's problems. Maybe not, but perhaps Westchester County and Rye City should call for some basic testing as requested from the Long Island Soundkeeper Terry Backer and confirm these systems meet all code requirements.

Comments

[Mr. Floatie]

Mayor French,
I love you, even though you didn’t do any research before you decided to approve composting systems on Hen Island. We all make mistakes, that is why they make erasers on pencils. I asked my friend Barney if he would sing you a song to make you feel better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ClJf7GP2A&feature=related

[Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)]

Hey Ray!!!
I get hungry every time I hear that word hay! I love hay. Best breakfast in the world! Although, I do lose my appetite talking about this human manure.
Anyway.
Here is a little video on what to do with the human compost. Remember on Hen Island they will be doing this X 34 homes. Do you think Mayor French’s wife
would let him build a human compost pile in their backyard if they run out of storage room on Hen Island?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWc-RjuWbs&feature=related

Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDT-VsHDN4&NR=1

[Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)]

Hey Ray,
If Doug French allows everyone on Hen Island to use composting toilets to get rid of Mr. Floatie , Here is what they can do with the urine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbHCqFIXLYk&feature=related

But what will they do with all the other effluents from sinks showers etc..???? I guess they have to go into the Sound after all…….

Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDT-VsHDN4&NR=1

[Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)]

Check out the moves in this dance.
http://www.healtheharbor.com/video/HenIslandMosquitoInfestations.html

Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDT-VsHDN4&NR=1

[Peyton Place]

unfortunately an allegation can't translate into a fact. so far there are

- no facts around so-called pollution in milton harbor
- no facts around so-called pollution or disease in greenhaven
- no facts around so-called pollution or disease on milton point

[Catherine Parker's Facebook Page]

Councilwoman Parker could you please post on your Facebook page this mailer that we just sent out to all Greenhaven and Milton point residents.

The health and safety of your family is still at risk here.

My name is Ray Tartaglione and I have been a longtime homeowner and force for change out on Hen Island. You may have had a chance to see me speaking about Hen Island at the Rye City Council meetings over the last four years. I am writing you here “pre-season” to make sure you’re aware of the present Hen Island issues that are, by their proximity, affecting your property values and risking your personal health and safety and that of your children. These conditions include the continuous weekly release into Long Island Sound of hundreds of gallons of untreated sewage within 400 feet from the Greenhaven association beach and the gestation of swarms of mosquitoes transported to your backyards from our huge water “horse trough” holding tanks on the Island. These illegal conditions and others are the targets I’ve been focused on as I’ve pushed The Rye City Council to enforce the health and sanitary codes on their books year after year after year.

Hen Island Sewage Disposal

If you are a property owner in the vicinity or along the shores of Milton or Mamaroneck Harbors or use the Greenhaven association beach, I am sure you have noticed the eyesore of crumbling Hen Island buildings hoping they would be repaired or frankly go away. The reason you see so many dilapidated buildings is because for years the City of Rye would not enforce their building codes out on Hen Island. Many of those small buildings opposite the association beach are actually abandoned outhouses. Their original function has now been replaced by cottage systems which were illegally installed without any permits or approvals whatsoever. Why you may ask? Well it’s a very good question. Some of these systems are now clogged and not working. Others are less than ten feet from the water line. Many of them are illegally built and discharging untreated waste into the waters that you and your families swim and boat in all summer.

In 1989 according to Rye City tax records there were 11 outhouses in use on Hen Island, today there is 1. That means that 10 outhouses were removed from service and 10 bathrooms were installed on the island without one permit being on file with the City of Rye or the County of Westchester. It’s an interesting fact to note that this makes Rye home to the only known still working outhouse in Westchester County and the City of Rye openly permits its operation.

In 2008 a new house was erected on Hen Island and the City of Rye Building Department along with the Rye City Zoning Board - allowed the structure to be built without meeting any of the health or sanitary codes necessary for potable water or sewage disposal.

As a result of my efforts in the past four years Rye City has begun to enforce their building inspections and construction codes. But the health and sanitary codes are still unaccountably being avoided, ignored and covered up as they have been for many years. If you swim, boat or otherwise enjoy the waters of Long Island Sound either in or near Milton Harbor make no mistake - you are affected by Hen Island.

Hen Island’s Fresh Water Mosquitoes

The Hen Island cottage community (unlike any other community in Westchester County) is allowed to collect water from their rooftops for domestic cottage use. Not only is this use illegal and dangerous to residents but this “non-potable” water is stored in 375 gallon containers, many of which are old galvanized metal horse watering troughs. Almost every home has 3 of these containers totaling over 1000 gallons of fresh “non-potable” water per cottage.

There are 33 cottages on Hen Island which translates to approximately 33,000 gallons of stored fresh water. Mosquito larvacide cannot be employed in these tanks on Hen Island because the stored water is needed for use inside the cottages for dishwashing, toilet flushing and other domestic uses. Every summer, fresh water mosquito breeding in the tanks starts as soon as the temperature is consistently over 50 degrees. If you check The Westchester County website you’ll see that they indicate mosquitoes generally travel between 1 and 5 miles from their place of birth. Hen Island is located less than 450 feet from Greenhaven – and about 1500 feet from American Yacht Club and the rest of Milton Point.

There is in fact no effective mosquito control program in place on Hen Island today. According to Westchester County’s mosquito program - “Operation Sting” - the number one requirement in mosquito control is to remove all standing water. The below is quoted from Westchester County’s website as the first step in mosquito control.
Remove from around your home and neighbourhood anything that might hold standing water. For example: old tires, buckets and wheelbarrows. Report any standing water that you cannot remove by calling (914) 813-5000.

Please note that the County requires that any standing water should be removed even in the smallest amounts. Additionally if it cannot be removed it should be reported. The amount of stagnant water stored on Hen Island today could be compared to the storing of over 33,000 one gallon buckets of stagnant standing water.
According to the Center for Disease Control, New York State ranked number 2 in the highest of the eastern seaboard states for West Nile Virus and the Rye area has been one of the first communities to test positive regularly for West Nile virus. During the height of the last West Nile Virus epidemic in 2001, members of the Board of Directors of Hen Island instructed cottage owners to burry dead birds in effort not to draw attention to the mosquito infestations generated by the Island.

What can you do?

Hen Island residents have resisted drilling centrally located, multi cottage fresh water wells to obtain clean household water for years even though they’ve known they could. Hen Island residents know trunk sanitary sewer and water lines are also available for hook up already in Greenhaven. And they know that there are other installations available.

So please, let your opinions be known. You can e-mail questions and concerns to your Rye City councilpersons listed below. You can come to the city council meetings and voice your opinions. Or perhaps the loudest message you could send is to consider voting out the sitting Rye City council members standing for re-election this November if they don’t act on this matter before we begin another summer cottage season out on Hen Island. Paula Gamache, Catherine Parker and Joe Sack are likely going to run once again this November. They should be receptive to your letters and calls about the cleanup of Hen Island right now.

Douglas H. French - dfrench@ryeny.gov
Richard P. Filippi - rfilippi@ryeny.gov
Paula J. Gamache - pgamache@ryeny.gov
Peter W. Jovanovich - pjovanovich@ryeny.gov
Suzanna S. Keith - skeith@ryeny.gov
Catherine F. Parker - cparker@ryeny.gov
Joseph A. Sack - jsack@ryeny.gov

Very Truly Yours,

Raymond J. Tartaglione

PS. You can view our photos and videos of the deplorable conditions on the Web at www.HEALtheHARBOR.com If you’d would like to reach me to discuss this matter please call me at 948-1100 9-5 M-F or feel free to e-mail me at Ray@HEALtheHARBOR.com

[Peyton Place]

i did. you have nothing

[Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)]

Pee Pee,

“maximum pollutant load or concentration allowed by Hen Island"
Read the article you are posting under.

It’s 0 you silly Hen Islander!!!!

Jack A. (Mr. Floatie's ass-istant)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUDT-VsHDN4&NR=1

[Peyton Place]

i rest my case, no facts. and we have to put up with all of this nonsense?

"Although I have not come across any data that quantifies the maximum pollutant load or concentration allowed by Hen Island"

ray?

[Mr. Floatie]

Mr. Henn, (Island)
I thought you would like to see an example from one of the letters being sent to the Mayor and the City Council and our response to them after the Mayor fails to answer them. The names of the authors have been removed in the interest of privacy. The people of Rye are finally waking up after four years of us trying to expose those of you on Hen Island that have no respect for the environment or the health and safety of the other local residents that surround Hen Island. Maybe you should look at the pictures and read the article that you have posted on, before you claim that the issues we complain of “have no merit”. Have a great Memorial Day weekend; I will see you out on the water, especially if you are going to be on the Island!

Mr. Floatie

----- Original Message -----
From: ray@healtheharbor.com
To:
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 3:01 PM
Subject: Hen Island

Dear,
Thank you for signing our petition and for your concern. After four years of fighting this battle we are finally making progress in leaps and bounds. I have forwarded you a recent letter from another one of our supporters to the Mayor and City Council and my response to him. We encourage you and everyone else to write them and please cc me. I think you will find all the information in both the original letter and my response to him interesting. I have removed our supporters name in the interest of privacy. Find comfort in knowing that your e-mail address and name will be protected in the same way. Please feel free to forward this e-mail (along with mine, the Mayor and the City Council members e-mail addresses) to anyone you feel would be interested. The more that see what has been allowed to go on for years the faster we will get results. Thanks again for being involved, helping clean up the Sound and helping to stop the horrific Mosquitoes that are breeding by the millions on Hen Island.

Ray Tartaglione
Heal The Harbor.com
101 Westmoreland Ave
White Plains NY 10606
Phone 914-948-1100
Fax 914-997-2167
www.HEALtheHARBOR.com
Bringing attention to environmental injustice
one harbor at a time

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential,
proprietary or otherwise protected from disclosure, please notify us
immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer
if you have received this communication in error. Thank you.

From: Ray Tartaglione [mailto:ray@HEALtheHARBOR.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:35 PM
To: jsack@ryeny.gov; cparker@ryeny.gov; skeith@ryeny.gov; pjovanovich@ryeny.gov; pgamache@ryeny.gov; rfilippi@ryeny.gov; dfrench@ryeny.gov;
Subject: Re: Hen Island

Dear Mr.

Thanks for responding to the Mayor and City Council. I am not sure if they answered you, for if they did, they did not CC me on it so I would like to follow up with you.

Mayor French is attempting to tell citizens that Hen Island is a campsite and it is only used for a few months a year and the mosquito infestation only affects the residents of Hen Island. Please see the attached link to the Mayor's update. http://www.myrye.com/my_weblog/2011/05/speaking-french-rye-mayors-city-council-update.html He is also trying to scare residents by saying that the city taxpayers will be responsible for the expenses to rectify the problems. All of his statements are outright lies. He is also attempting to defer enforcement to Westchester County after the County has told him that Rye needs to be the lead agency and needs to write the violations. The county has identified the violations in the following report issued by the Westchester County Environmental Enforcement unit in July of 2007. The City of Rye has neglected to address these issues ever since 2007. A link to that complete report is attached:

http://www.healtheharbor.com/correspondence/WestCounty_FOIL.pdf

In a recent Court decision, after the city claimed that the Health Department was responsible for enforcement of the Hen Island violations, the Supreme Court informed the City that they have the power and the laws to issue violations but only if the City chooses to do so. The City has refused to write violations and the City under the direction of Mayor French is holding closed door meeting with the Hen Island Board of Directors and refuses to release any specific information about those meetings. When asked who has attended and what was said in the meetings the only answers we received was "we are working on the issues and are happy with the progress."

We believe that the City of Rye should issue violations and impose fines for every day the Hen Island association allows the pollution, lack of potable water and mosquito infestation to continue. According to Rye code, the city could impose fines up to 500.00 per day per occurrence and there are thirty three homes on Hen Island. This could result in a win win situation for the city and the neighboring residents as well as Hen Island residents that wish to rectify the illegal uses. The city would receive the fines and the issues would be addressed immediately, as opposed to having to wait another season or even longer with very serious Health and safety issues being neglected. The Mayor and the City council have rejected this, even though issuing violations is standard procedure. Why you may ask.

We believe it is because the Mayor has a personal relationship with a neighbor of his on Meadow Place named Volpe. Mr. Volpe's uncle is the President of Hen Island and his mother is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Island. Mayor French has visited their Hen Island home for drinks before he was elected and tried to say when questioned at the last City council meeting that he visited the whole island and was not sure if it was the Volpe house he was in. (Another lie) If the mayor has responded to you, he most likely stated that he would forward your information to the City manager. I assure you, this is all rhetoric. If you would like to see the rhetoric first hand please watch the last two city council meetings at the attached link. http://ryeny.swagit.com/City_Council/
You may view it in the May 25th meeting under agenda item #6 or you may view it in the May 11th meeting under agenda item # 7 starting about 6:30 into the segment.

If you or any other Greenhaven or Milton Point residents would like to tour Hen Island and see what transpires with regard to sewage, water storage and the worst mosquito infestation in Westchester County. I would be happy to meet. You can also view all the issues we speak of on our website www.HEALtheHARBOR.com under the video/photo section. Please feel free to forward this letter to anyone you feel may be interested and/or you may contact me @ my work # 914-948-1100 anytime.

Ray Tartaglione
Heal The Harbor.com
101 Westmoreland Ave
White Plains NY 10606
Phone 914-948-1100
Fax 914-997-2167
www.HEALtheHARBOR.com
Bringing attention to environmental injustice
one harbor at a time

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

The information contained in this message may be privileged, confidential,
proprietary or otherwise protected from disclosure, please notify us
immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer
if you have received this communication in error. Thank you.

----- Original Message -----
From:
To: dfrench@ryeny.gov ; rfilippi@ryeny.gov ; pgamache@ryeny.gov ; pjovanovich@ryeny.gov ; skeith@ryeny.gov ; cparker@ryeny.gov ; jsack@ryeny.gov
Cc: ray@healtheharbor.com
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 1:20 PM
Subject: Hen Island

Dear Representatives of the Rye City Council,

As a resident of Greenhaven I am concerned with the alleged sewage being discharged from Hen Island. Growing up along the shores of the Long Island Sound it has been a pleasure to see the Sound and its surrounding habitats recover from the degradation it experienced throughout the century. Our state and federal environmental regulations have been implemented and thus, the Sound's water quality has improved both aesthetically and in terms of its effluent discharge limitations.

The Greenhaven community is discouraged to hear that Hen Island, a property practically adjacent to Greenhaven's beloved beach, is being threatened with what seems to be negligent conduct and/or nonfeasance/misfeasance by the City.

The City is constitutionally obligated to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens. By permitting mosquito infested water tanks and sewage discharge to accumulate within 400 feet from the Greenhaven association not only violates this obligation but threatens our property value. With recent precipitation patterns, West Nile Virus is a serious concern in a densely populated area such as Rye. We bathe in Greenhaven Beach with our children and we wish to prevent effluents from washing upon its shores and disease ridden mosquitoes from infesting our community. Although I have not come across any data that quantifies the maximum pollutant load or concentration allowed by Hen Island, the Greenhaven community fears Hen Island may be violating the state's water quality standards.

I understand that Hen Island is small and its discharge may be minute in comparison to other effluents leaching into the greater portions of the Sound. Nevertheless, Greenhaven is directly within the impact zone of the sewage and mosquito infestation and we wish to avoid any negative health effects. The public has grown concerned and we wish for the Rye City Council to address our health and environmental concerns through remedial action.

Best,