Section 2 of the DGEIS 05-03-06

Suffolk County Vector Control and Wetlands Management Long-Term Plan Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement May 3, 2006 2 The Long-Term Management Plan This section discusses the existing mosquito management program, those programs found in neighboring jurisdictions (including programs developed specifically to address West Nile virus), Suffolk County mosquitoes, laws and regulations that bear on mosquito control, and aspects of the Long-Term Plan, including a mission statement for the Long-Term Plan, its goals and objectives, and a summary of its contents. 2.1 Existing Program The following discussion of the existing SCVC program is based on the Task 4 report, Current Operations, prepared by CA (Cashin Associates, 2004a), as supplemented and updated by personal communications from Dominick Ninivaggi and Tom Iwanejko, SCVC, and Dr. Scott Campbell, SCDHS, in 2005 and 2006. The current Suffolk County vector control program is conducted by two departments of County government. SCVC is the division of SCDPW that is responsible for controlling mosquito populations that may be an infestation or public health threat in Suffolk County. SCVC has a staff of approximately 45 people, including the Division Superintendent, clerks, compliance and laboratory staff, and field crews. The Superintendent manages the Division. A principal environmental analyst, biologist, computer programmer and analyst, and lab technicians work under the Superintendent to organize information for quick decision making. The four field crews, made up of a foreman and four to eight equipment operators and laborers, execute the plans and decisions set forth by the Superintendent. The field crew are full-time, year-round employees of the Division. SCVC operates out of the County Office Complex in Yaphank, a facility it shares with Arthropod-Borne Disease Laboratory (ABDL) (see below). The building contains offices for staff, a conference room, a kitchenette, and a garage for the repair of machinery. In addition, SCVC also has a free-standing garage used for storage of pesticides and equipment. At present SCVC is renovating a former pesticide mixing shed into a storage shed for the pesticides. Cashin Associates, PC 33 Suffolk County Vector Control and Wetlands Management Long-Term Plan Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement May 3, 2006 SCVC works with SCDHS to educate the public, identify health threats, and plan control measures. SCVC is answerable to the Commissioner and Chief Deputy and Deputy Commissioners of SCDPW, and ultimately to the County Executive and Suffolk County Legislature. SCVC conducts work under the authority of the NYS Public Health Law, Article 15, Sections 1500, 1501, 1502, and Section C8-4 of the Suffolk County Charter, and Part 380 of the Suffolk County Code. The Legislature approves the SCVC Plan of Work and budget in November each year as part of the County budget. The SCVC Superintendent prepares the budget each year and submits it to the Commissioner of SCDPW in May. The budget is included with the overall SCDPW annual budget and is then sent to County Executive in June to be included in the County Budget, to be voted on in November by the Legislature. The SCVC 2005 budget was $2,750,935, broken down as: · $1,986,273 for personnel services · $46,800 for equipment (office equipment, calibration equipment, radio and communication, furniture, etc.) · $704,500 for supplies and materials (books and research materials, computer software, pesticides which accounts for $370,000 of the $704,500, rental fees for office equipment, etc.) · $13,362 for travel expenses. The Plan of Work is a written description of the SCVC purpose, history, current operations, and goals for the following year, and into the future. The Plan of Work is prepared by the Superintendent and submitted to the Legislature in October for approval in November. SCVC operations are based on the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Generally, IPM relies on a hierarchical approach to any pest problem, where addressing a problem early, using methods that have the least potential impact, and targeting efforts so as to address the specific pest as directly as possible are overall guides to best operating procedures. However, all Cashin Associates, PC 34 Suffolk County Vector Control and Wetlands Management Long-Term Plan Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement May 3, 2006 IPM programs are individualized to one degree or another to ensure that treatments used are most appropriate for the problem and setting. SCVC relies on public education to reduce exposure to mosquitoes, surveillance to determine if mosquito problems represent a human health or public welfare problem, source reduction to remove breeding habitat (including water management, especially in salt marshes), larval control if required, and, if other measures have not been successful and the problem is deemed to be serious enough, adult control. Typically, in fall, winter, and spring SCVC focuses operations on water management. At the current time, SCVC water management has been limited to maintaining the legacy grid ditch system. Millions of feet of ditches were installed in salt marshes and some upland wetlands in the 1920s and 1930s to control mosquito populations. Ditch maintenance consists of the removal of debris from and general regrading and refurbishing of the existing ditches so as to return hydraulic functions to the system. SCVC made small additions to the legacy ditch systems in the 1970s and 1980s, and an even smaller amount in the 1990s, to address areas of marsh supporting mosquito breeding, but no longer installs any new traditional ditches. Under the scaling back of the Plans of Work, beginning with the 2002 Plan of Work, ditch maintenance activities were also limited in extent compared to past activities. In 2005, the County Executive announced a moratorium on machine ditch maintenance. Other jurisdictions use other means to conduct water management to control mosquitoes. These other means are generally considered to be more progressive than ditch maintenance, and are generally known as Open Marsh Water Management (OMWM). SCVC has not generally adopted OMWM practices, primarily due to an inability to receive appropriate permits for such work. Ditch maintenance is expressly permitted under existing State regulations; NYSDEC staff has openly expressed concerns regarding potential impacts to marsh health under OMWM. In addition, there is concern that earlier, permitted OMWM demonstration projects were generally not adequately monitored and documented. In spring, as mosquitoes emerge, SCVC undertakes its extensive surveillance program. Regular surveys of over 2,000 potential breeding locations are made, and, in conjunction with the ABDL, monitoring of 27 fixed New Jersey light traps and 27 fixed location CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) light and gravid traps is conducted. Additional CDC traps are added Cashin Associates, PC 35 Suffolk County Vector Control and Wetlands Management Long-Term Plan Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement May 3, 2006 throughout the season, with maximum weekly trap placements set outs approaching 80 at peak pathogen presence times. Inspectors are sent, within a day or two, to visit the location of every complaint call received (approximately 3,000 calls are logged each year). Approximately 10,000 catch basins are monitored, and those with standing water receive time-release methoprene briquets to suppress mosquito breeding there, and certain recharge basins are stocked with Gambusia fish (or, if water quality is too poor, treated with time-release methoprene or Bacillus sphaericus (Bs) briquets). Beginning in spring, and continuing to September, larval control of mosquitoes, if justified by surveillance, is conducted in certain areas by contract helicopter and in others by hand applications of larvicides. Although the majority of acreage treated is in salt marshes, the focus of effort is on fresh water settings. Approximately 75 percent of the sites treated from 2000 to 2005 with larvicides were fresh water, upland locations (Table 2-1). Bacillus thuringenesis var israelensis (Bti) is typically used early in the season as the larvicide of choice. Methoprene is predominantly used in the middle of summer. Bti needs to be consumed to be effective, and so can only be used when younger larval instars are present. Methoprene is effective on all stages of larval mosquitoes. Sometimes a duplex formulation of Bti and methoprene is used. Bs formulations also are used, particularly in “permanent water” environments. Approximately 80 percent of the treatments from 2000 to 2005 in regulated fresh water wetlands were either Bti or Bs. Dominant methoprene use in catch basin treatments meant that the overall fresh water balance was 51 percent methoprene-based larvicides, and 49 percent bacterial products. For salt marshes, slightly more treatments contained methoprene (51 percent) than bacterial products (49 percent) (Table 2-2). Water management may also be carried out at locations with breeding problems, but in summer water management is only conducted at spot locations requiring simple actions, generally on an as-needed, emergency basis. Table 2-1. Distribution of larvicide applications by habitat type, 2000-2005 Treatments Catch basins Total Fresh water 17,748 7,601 26,349 Salt water 8,373 8,373 Total 26,121 7,601 33,722 Cashin Associates, PC 36 Suffolk County Vector Control and Wetlands Management Long-Term Plan Draft Generic Environmental

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