As preparations are well underway for the America 250th event this summer, Lake Ronkonkoma is currently toiling over a separate display set for Memorial Day Weekend that has raised concerns from community members.
The initiative sponsored by Suffolk County Legislator Trish Bergin (R-East Islip) is set to include a fireworks show over the lake in what the Legislator describes as the revival of an age-old community tradition, as well as using funds that would otherwise be left on the table.
However, members of the community don’t agree and environmentalists, animal welfare experts, and Veterans organizations are raising concerns.
On Eagle’s Wings
The primary point of concern is the welfare of newly-spotted eagles that are nesting around the lake. Environmentalists’ findings not only point to a healthier lake that is slowly being remediated, but also a semi-rare spectacle in central Suffolk that has become a treat to the average passerby.
John DiLeonardo, founder and Executive Director of Humane Long Island, said that eagles, among other species around the lake, have capture myopathy, a non-infectious disease brought on by extreme stress, fear, or panic. It can cause severe muscle damage, heart failure, kidney failure, paralysis, or even death.
“These are things we deal with after fireworks every single year, New Year’s and the Fourth of July,” DiLeonardo told The Messenger. “Thankfully, it’s not something we deal with on Memorial Day because it’s not historically celebrated with fireworks.”
Ellyn Okvist, President of the Lake Ronkonkoma Heritage Association, who has been following the eagles’ presence closely, stated concerns for the already-vulnerable eaglets who might surrender to capture myopathy or be abandoned by their parents due to the fireworks.
“What about all the other wildlife that’s been brought back and cultivated to make a home here?” Okvist told The Messenger. “Lake Ronkonkoma is a primary water body on the eastern flyway, a migratory bird route, and we got Lily Pond County Park dedicated as a nature preserve, specifically because there are hundreds of thousands of birds that are migrating. You’re going to put this fireworks show right smack in the middle of a time when they’re in the midst of their movement.”
DiLeonardo added that rescue efforts post-fireworks show would be “very difficult.”
“There’s very little you can do, just cleaning up the damage after it’s done and trying to save the orphans before they die. It would be a disaster.”
He also said that protecting the bald eagle, the symbol of the United States, would be fitting for such patriotic fervor.
Lake Ronkonkoma Improvement
For the variety of Lake Ronkonkoma civic groups, as well as Suffolk County Legislator Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset), restoring the lake to its former glory has been a decades-long project. Only in October did the County announce their procurement of a Lake Keeper, a team of freshwater specialists whose sole purpose is to clean up Lake Ronkonkoma, the upper glacial layer of the County’s groundwater. Environmental studies graduate students from Columbia University have even started pitching their own ideas to improve Long Island’s largest freshwater lake.
All are concerned with the dozens of chemicals and irritants that are emitted by fireworks, especially those that fall into the water itself.
“Perchlorate, copper, aluminum, barium, lead – heavy metals,” Joanne Carignan, a volunteer with the Lake Ronkonkoma Improvement Group, told The Messenger. “Perchlorate can also affect thyroid functions in organisms.”
Legislator Kennedy added that her conversations with a marine biologist found that as the waste from the fireworks degrades, it removes oxygen from the Lake.
“The biggest problem in the lake is there’s only oxygen in the first eight feet of water. All the rest down to 65 feet has no oxygen whatsoever,” Legislator Kennedy told The Messenger. “That’s what keeps the fish and turtles alive, and we’re going to be taking away from the minimum oxygen that we have.”
Veterans’ Affairs
Fred Tartaglione, Commander of American Legion’s William Merritt Hallock Post #155, represents the area’s Veterans – four posts altogether – whom he says are universally opposed to the show.
“Memorial Day is a solemn day when we remember the fallen, those who came before us, those who died for the service of this country. It’s not a celebration,” Tartaglione told The Messenger. “I understand the context of this being the 250th anniversary of the United States, and on July Fourth, that should be celebrated.”
Tartagilone added that it’s becoming a “flagrant disregard of the solemnness of the holiday.”
“We remember the dead; we don’t celebrate them. We honor them. There’s a difference.”
Technical Technicalities
Other members are concerned with permits and amenities for the event. Legislator Bergin stated to The Messenger that she is arranging for such features, as well as rounds of buses to shuttle spectators from the Ronkonkoma LIRR station parking lots to the lake.
“There’s one public restroom at the Lake – on the Brookhaven side. There’ll be food, no bathrooms, and people drinking,” said Carignan.“Fireworks bring alcohol. Alcohol brings trouble. Trouble just metastasizes.”
Electric trolling motors are allowed on Lake Ronkonkoma, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). However, gasoline-powered motors are prohibited and boats must be launched from the DEC boat ramp off of Victory Drive. The Town of Islip would also have a say in the matter, as the Town owns the bottom of the lake. Its shores, however, are split between the towns of Smithtown, Brookhaven, and Islip, as well as Suffolk County.
Carignan, a thirty-year member of the commercial insurance industry, also invoked the need for an event policy, standard fare for large-scale municipal events. She also mentioned the side of Pond Road, a drop-off point for hypothetical buses, being too small to host heavy vehicular traffic.
Legislator Kennedy also noted that the Lake Ronkonkoma Advisory Board’s stance on the show was not promulgated by a vote, rather a poll of residents who were not in support due to the ramifications.
Moreover, residents around the lake are known for putting on their own shows on July Fourth, but the concerned citizens find that the cleanup, pollution, disturbance to wildlife, and difficulty for battle-tested Veterans are much easier to handle. Additionally, those displays are individuals lighting off fireworks in backyards, not a fully-produced show launched from barges on the lake itself.
At its end, the citizenry does not believe there is malice at play behind this proposal and they find the patriotic and nostalgic overtones well-intentioned. Instead, they attribute the discord to a lack of communication and proper planning.
They instead suggest, perhaps, a drone light show over the Lake for Flag Day, June 14. That way, the U.S. and its Veterans can be honored, the 250th celebrations can come to the area, and the community can get a taste of the past with a lights show over Lake Ronkonkoma.
