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Community Corner

County to Continue Spraying in Port Wednesday

Residents asked to take precautions against the pesticide spray for yet another night.

Many residents were surprised to learn that Nassau County is again spraying pesticides in Port Washington between 7 p.m. on Wednesday night and 5 a.m. on Thursday.

That means that once again, individuals, especially pregnant women and children, should remain inside during the spraying and for about 30 minutes afterwards. And tonight, both Nassau County and Town of North Hempstead have postponed all park programs.

The ground spraying, which was scheduled to finish last Tuesday in the area, could not be completed due to irregular weather patterns.  The county has been working this week to alert the public through press releases, parkway information signs, community groups and public officials.

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The County also used its emergency notification system to contact residents in the spray zone.

Nassau alerted every major news network, said Nassau County Health Department spokeswoman Mary Ellen Laurain.

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Residents give the county mixed reviews on the way they were updated with the information.  

"I got emails and phone calls from both NorthShoreAlert.org and Port Washington North," said Bob Kleinman, a Port Washington resident. "I am pleased that both systems work and I was notified in a timely manner."

Yet others expressed frustration with the way they were updated with the information.

"If you're not signed up with NorthShoreAlert.org or read the news, you wouldn't know they were spraying," said Port Washington resident Sherrill Robinson. "Some of my neighbors had no idea. They weren't called."

Robinson believes the county should have partnered with the town to alert everyone in North Hempstead about the spraying, a strategy executed by one part of Oyster Bay. While Robinson would like to see 311 technology deployed, Oyster Bay distributed leaflets to a designated area. "Legislator Schmitt [R-Massapequa] asked the town to help distribute flyers in his legislative district," a Town of Oyster Bay spokeswoman said. 

Then there's the question of whether spraying will even control the spread of the West Nile Virus. Patricia J. Wood, executive director of Grassroots Enviornmental Education in Port Washington, says that the pesticide does little to stop the problem.

"The only real good way to deal with this West Nile Virus threat that we have here not only in Port Washington but in the Long Island and New York City area is prevention," she said. "What they are doing now is not very effective. In fact less than one percent of the actual spray that is coming out of the plane will actually hit its intended target."

Wood points to research by entomologist and retired Cornell University Professor David Pimentel, which says that adulticiding, the removal of adult mosquitoes through ground spraying, is ineffective.  Woods also says that source reduction and larvaciding are the best ways to stop the spread of diseases like West Nile, whether it is removing stagnant water or providing ponds with fish that eat mosquito larvae.  Woods added that adulticiding also has a negative impact on the environment.

"The environmental impact of what we are going to see is contamination of surface waters," she said. "The chemicals that they are spraying are highly toxic to aquatic organisms."

Wood says that prevention is always the best effort and hopes that the county will shift toward taking those kinds of measures in the future rather than through using pesticides.

"At this point it's too late to say we should've done more," she said. "We are going to continue to have to take more preventative measures if we want to keep our environment healthy."

Adina Genn contributed to the reporting.

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