Funding that was cut years ago for a critical water-monitoring program in Nassau has been restored.

The program had monitored the quality and quantity of the water in Nassau County's underground aquifers until its funding was cut four years ago.

County Legislator David Denenberg is among Democratic lawmakers who are blaming county Republicans for cutting off the monitoring program. "We lost 4 years of valuable data which would tell us what's affecting our water quality," Denenberg says.

A spokesman for the Legislature's Republican majority says the program wasn't necessary because other parties were collecting data on Nassau's water.

Today, the county reversed its position and renewed its water-monitoring contract with the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS says more than a dozen electronic observation wells will monitor the county's ground water.

Suffolk County and Queens have continuously had the USGS monitor their aquifers.