Representatives of the nine municipalities of the Hempstead Harbor Protection Committee met last Thursday at the Bryant Library to discuss the implementation of its newly-completed Water Quality Improvement Plan. After being in existence for only three years, the members touted the committee's ability to bring home the grant money necessary for any extensive harbor cleanup.

The nine municipalities----which include Roslyn, Roslyn Harbor, and Flower Hill---have received over $5 million from state and federal sources to support a variety of projects all designed for environmental cleanup and protection projects.

In addition, the total list of grants for water quality improvements, habitat resources, public access, and brownfields development that have been received by the nine Hempstead Harbor communities total over $16.5 million.

Of course, such grants were made possible by having numerous allies in Albany and Washington. One of them, Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli, praised the efforts of the municipalities, while noting it will "take years to fully implement the [water quality improvement] plan."

Mr. DiNapoli said the only solutions to the pollution problem in Hempstead Harbor could come through "intermunicipal cooperation." He praised the committee for identifying sources of pollution and taking varied steps to act on the problem. "Collectively, everyone in the [North Shore] area has contributed to the pollution [problem]," he said, adding that by working together, the same communities can rectify the situation.

The assemblyman said the idea of municipalities working together is the first of its kind in the entire state. In addition, its success has become a model for other communities in both Westchester County and upstate New York. Mr. DiNapoli also cited the joint plan by the New York State Department of State and the US Army Corp of Engineers to dredge the lower harbor for habitat restoration purposes. This, too, the assemblyman said, is a first in the process for any harbor cleanup.

Town of North Hempstead Supervisor May Newburger made a brief appearance, mostly praising Sea Cliff Mayor Ted Blackburn for helping to secure impressive grant totals. The turning point in the grant process came, Ms. Newburger claimed, "when Ted convinced [New York] Secretary of State [Alexander] Treadwell to go on a boat ride around the harbor." Only then did the secretary of state realize the size of the harbor and the enormity of the cleanup task.

On a local level, Liz Kay, village treasurer for Roslyn Harbor explained her own village's cleanup efforts. She said the committee had made her village more aware of the pollution problem in the harbor. The village, since then, has inaugurated both an education program for its residents and a review of village zoning laws.

An educational brochure has been drawn up and sent to village residents, encouraging changes in "daily habits" and discouraging homeowners to use fertilizers and pesticides at certain times when doing yardwork.

The village's current zoning laws, Ms. Kay noted, were established in 1958. Such laws, she maintained, were not "environmentally sensitive." For future residential development in the village, all run off from gutters and driveways will go into dry wells rather than into the harbor.

Likewise, the Village of Glenwood Landing has begun storm water control projects by creating a new wetland and a new "muscle bed" to help with both water infiltration and water cleansing.

Other projects cited by the committee include:

* Volunteers planting 2,000 sq. ft. of Spartina alternifloa at Morgan's Beach.

* Surveying and testing the hard clam population in the lower harbor for human consumption.

* Volunteers stenciling "the Harbor starts here" on hundreds of storm drains, including those in downtown Roslyn. (The purpose is to prevent garbage dumping in such drains.)

* Harbor-wide public education project about waterfowl.

* Public education brochure about nonpoint source pollution.

* Expansion of a water quality monitoring program by the Coalition to Save Hempstead Harbor.

* Free soundkeeper pumpout boat beginning in the summer of '99.

The meeting on Thursday night was well attended and Assemblyman DiNapoli expressed hope that such meetings be held on an annual basis.