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By: Opinion, Fred Van Heems June 24, 2022 Comments Off on Van Heems: Climate change has entered the house

Climate change is not knocking at the door. It has entered the house.

And nowhere is that more apparent than in the heavily populated suburban environment of Long Island. With some 2.8 million people living at what is often a hurricane’s destination of choice, severe weather has come more often, and in more categories, than previous recorded.

Companies that are tasked with environmental protection face a variety of challenges: the immediate that is urgent and the equally crucial future.

For Veolia, a strategic decision was made last year to merge and acquire Suez for the purpose of creating an entity that now has the significantly expanded resources needed to meet 21st Century climate change.  From the introduction of new technology, to our ability to recruit professionals capable of creating effective green solutions, Veolia recognized that the merger of two environmental leaders created the means to offer innovative, transformative, and systematic strategies that engage all stakeholders.

Veolia’s Long Island assignment of maintaining, improving, and strengthening Nassau County’s wastewater treatment facilities is just one of the company’s areas of expertise, but it is a considerable responsibility. One plant alone, South Shore Water Reclamation Facility (formerly Bay Park), will treat 70 million gallons per day (MGD), so we need to get it right every minute of every day, 365 days a year. Cedar Creek will process 75 million gallons a day. So there is a vast ecological system residing just outside these plants that is dependent on the professionals operating these sprawling facilities. That includes the days when nor’easters and hurricanes threaten the integrity of its infrastructure. That would explain why there is now a protective sea wall at South Shore that can take on a “500 year” flood.

Elsewhere in North America we are also responsible for municipal water systems, along with recycling, reusing, and extracting energy from the infrastructure under our stewardship. At Cedar Creek, we have introduced a recycling system that preserves 300 million gallons of precious groundwater every year, and biogas now has the means to run elements of these facilities.

The ability to do any of this is based on the strength of a public-private partnership with local government. An effective public-private partnership has the means to respond to emerging threats to our water supply, a particularly critical issue for Long Island, which depends on underground aquifers for its water.

While there is currently a comprehensive response to legacy pollution from Long Island defense manufacturing, emerging issues including microplastics and the chemical PFAS will compel municipalities and water providers to look promptly at effective solutions. With the availability of water now a marker of climate change, the ability to respond to these threats only reinforces the need for effective partnerships.

Veolia will continue to aggressively identify and recruit a new generation of environmental protectors. Their professional training and personal commitment to confronting climate change through transformative technologies will ensure our sustained success. That effort couldn’t come soon enough as we are seeing a “silver wave” of retirement in this specialized field and we need to ensure that there is no potential loss of acquired institutional knowledge.

However, no public-private partnership can exist within a silo. The environmental community along with the families and individuals who depend on these environmental safeguards need to be part of an alliance. As a result, Veolia invites challenge from the environmental leaders on Long Island and throughout our North American markets. We need to hear their questions and differing points of view that make us seek ever more effective solutions.

Long Island, with its unique geography, large population, and water quality challenges, is a region that is vulnerable to the effects of climate change. For Veolia, it is where our success will be defined.

Fred Van Heems is president and CEO of Veolia North America

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Unless the proposed schedule for the Oyster Bay line is revised, however, I am deeply concerned that the City of Glen Cove’s ongoing revitalization will be left waiting at the station.