VARIATIONS OF STREET SWEEPING PRACTICES ON LONG ISLAND: IMPLICATIONS FOR WATER QUALITY

Street sweeping is often used as a storm water management strategy. It is particularly effective in removing nutrients from streets in urban and suburban settings. In some cases, street sweeping can reduce approximately 25 percent of non-point pollution that would enter storm water. In practice, street sweeping management is highly variable and the purview of local governments that are not often equipped with the knowledge or technical capacity to manage street sweeping operations for reducing stormwater pollution. In Long Island, New York, there are 100 local governments that oversee street sweeping operations in their communities. The waters off Long island have significant nutrient pollution problems and street sweeping could greatly improve surface water quality. In order to ascertain their street sweeping management operations, a survey was sent to individuals in governments responsible for street sweeping. The survey included a range of questions including timing, frequency, maintenance, and purpose for sweeping. The results indicate that there is tremendous variability in street sweeping management. For example, some communities on Long Island sweep their streets daily while others sweep their streets just once a year or not at all. In addition, most respondents stated that the main purpose for sweeping streets was to keep their communities clean and not for pollution or water quality management. Given the results, it is clear that Long Island could make significant improvements in water quality if there was greater education on how to manage street sweeping operations to reduce nutrient pollution.