Bay Park Sewage Plant Consolidation Questioned

Nassau County residents and legislators expressed deep concerns on Monday over the Bay Park sewage treatment plant, which has been the cause of ire due to a brown plume made up of waste solids being illegally into Reynolds Channel.

"These are not issues that just creep up out of nowhere," said Kristen Ochtera, who represents the Green Bay Parkers, a community group of residents who live near the Bay Park plant, at the regular meeting of the Nassau Legislature. "It is vitally important that the Legislature structure some kind of oversight or some kind of accountability so that issues like this never happen again so that we don't ever have to ask you for three years to take a closer look at Bay Park and then a closer look finally comes when brown plumes of sludge are being dropped into Reynolds Channel."

Three years ago, the Legislature voted in favor of consolidating the treatment plants at Lawrence and Cedarhurst, a deal that then-Legislator Jeff Toback trumpeted as a win-win for the towns. However, Bay Park residents were outraged that the county would bring in more waste to the facility when it had so many problems. The facility is responsible for handling 43 percent of Nassau's sewage and is considered to be dangerously over capacity.

Legislator Denise Ford, R-Long Beach, said she regretted the consolidation decision. "It was based on information that was given to me that made me believe that Bay Park would be able to take the extra sewage from both Lawrence and Cedarhurst," Ford said. "It's very distressful to find out that the information was incorrect." Plans at the time also called for the Bay Park facility to take sewage from Long Beach.

Village of Lawrence Trustee Joel Mael, a proponent of the plant consolidation, said that the current situation of the plant doesn't affect the plan. "One and a half million gallons on top of 60 million gallons is not going to change the issue," he said. "They're going to have to address the problems regardless of us." He added that the county had also talked about installing a relief pipe further out into the ocean and never followed up on it.

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said that the facility is "in grave need of upgrades and attention" as an additional release of treated sludge has leaked into the Western Bays in recent months.

"Treated sludge doesn't mean safe sludge," Esposito said. "It's still contamination." She added that if sludge were being dumped onto land, it would not be tolerated.

Treated sludge contains 27 different heavy metals, nitrates and nitrites, volatile organics, prescription drugs, flame retardants, barium, beryllium, silver and other chemicals, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, is reportedly trying to obtain between $10 million and $20 million for Nassau to clean up the site. Esposito implored the Legislature to use the funds for upgrades and a discharge pipe into the ocean and not conduct another study. "This is the only sewage treatment plant on Long Island of this magnitude that discharges into a [bay] like this," she said. Cedar Creek in Seaford and Bergen Point in Suffolk County both discharge into the ocean.

Nassau Commissioner of Public Works Shila Shah-Ganordia told the Legislature that the Bay Park facility has seen "a lot of neglect, a lot of disrepair, a lot of lack of maintenance." Shah added, "We were appalled to see the state of disrepair at Bay Park."

There had been a "tremendous" lack of supervision at the facility and the commissioners could not promote from in-house since no employee had the appropriate qualifications to supervise the facility, Public Works officials said.

To alleviate the pressure on Bay Park, some sludge is being hauled to the Cedar Creek facility. About 46,000 gallons are being moved by tanker truck every day and fed into the plant off of Merrick Road near the Meadowbrook Parkway, said Deputy Commissioner of Public Works Richard Millet.

Legislator Francis X. Becker, R-Lynbrook, requested that the Legislature be given updates every six months on the maintenance being done at the plant. "I for one would like to know what the heck is going on myself," he said. "I'd like to have an understanding of the progress that's been made."

Stephen J. Bronner contributed reporting.