Environmental advocates and legislators are hoping to rid the Great South Bay of pollution by changing home cesspools over to a sewer system.

Sen. Chuck Schumer says the brown tide in the bay is the worst it’s been since 2017.

The Senate majority leader hopes to secure more funding to expand the sewer system in Suffolk County by either connecting homes to the sewers or updating their cesspools with nitrogen-killing technology.

Officials say nitrogen coming from cesspools from Suffolk homes is destroying the water quality.

“We have to stop it and the best way to stop it is to get appropriate sewage and drainage, so the nitrogen doesn’t cascade into Patchogue Bay and all of the Great South Bay,” Schumer says.

Adrienne Esposito, who works with the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, says work is already underway to change homes in Suffolk County from cesspools to sewers. 

She says they just need money.

Schumer hopes a $55 billion federal infrastructure bill gets through the Senate this month, with some money going to improve the water system in Suffolk County.