Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford, R-Long Beach, backed U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s call on the federal Office of Management and Budget to increase funding for New York’s water and sewer infrastructure — including Nassau County facilities — in the President Obama’s 2013 spending plan that he is expected to unveil next month.

Gillibrand wrote a letter to OMB Director Jack Lew on Jan. 19 calling for the department’s allocation of at least $2.1 billion for the federal Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $1.4 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, the Long Beach Herald reports. Gillibrand, who in her letter said that the costs for construction, repair and expansion of rural water wastewater infrastructure in the state alone are projected to be nearly $70 billion over the next 20 years, named the Bay Park, Cedar Creek and Glen Cove sewage-treatment plants as needing upgrades. About Gillibrand’s efforts to obtain money from these two funds, Ford said:

“It’s important for us to get federal funding. Locally, we can’t sustain a lot of major changes we need. I’d like to see these plants upgraded.”

Last October, Ford, County Legislator Howard Kopel, R-Lawrence, and County Executive Ed Mangano, announced a new system that notifies residents via email about incidents that result in wastewater spills in waterways near the aforementioned facilities, including the East Rockaway-based Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant that emits its sewage into Reynolds Channel between Long Beach and Island Park.

The issue of the Bay Park plant, which disbursed excessive sewage into Reynolds Channel in 2010, turned into central issue when Ford ran for re-election and defeated Democratic challenger Darlene Tangney in November. Later that month, the Cedar Creek Oversight Committee requested that State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli investigate a planned privatization of Nassau County's sewage treatment system.