Major Improvements Needed at Bay Park Plant, Officials Say

This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. 5.15.13.

East Rockaway residents Kathleen Acuti and Linda Carman know all too well that the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant needs immediate repairs.

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The pair of mothers attended a Nassau County press conference Tuesday at the plant dressed in full hazard suits, including face masks, to emphasize their illustration of their community, which endures with a constant sewage smell as a result of the plant, they said. Their children’s school is a five-minute drive from the facility.

“It’s gotten worse since Sandy, but it’s been bad for years,” Acuti said. “It’ll get exponentially worse when the weather heats up.”

County Executive Edward Mangano, addressing community members and reporters, said local representatives are putting pressure on state and federal officials to provide $740 million for odor control and electrical systems and other improvements at the plant, as well as $500 million for a new outfall plant to deliver sewage to the ocean.

“Clearly, the Bay Park Wastewater Treatment Plant has been a bad neighbor to this community and our environment,” Mangano said.

He added: “To truly recover and ensure our neighborhoods and local waterways are protected, significant work must occur.”

While Mangano touted that his administration has implemented about $70 million in improvements to the Bay Park plant, he said Hurricane Sandy dealt a major setback to the facility when nine-feet of saltwater flooded it.

A Federal-State-County Critical Response Team got the plant up and fully processing sewage by mid-November and meeting all Department of Environmental Conservation guidelines by December. But just last Thursday, the plant experienced an electrical failure due to saltwater corrosion in the electrical system, according to the county. The outage may have caused three million gallons of sewage to be dumped into Reynolds Channel. The facility is now running on generator power.

The county executive said that issues will continue until major repairs are undertaken.

Scott Bochner, a Long Beach resident and member of the organization Sludge Stoppers/Operation Splash, likened the county's situation with the state on this issue to homeowners who have failed to receive reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairs to their storm-damaged homes.

“They are dragging their feet,” Bochner said after he attended Tuesday's press conference. “We need to start rallying to demand the funds. One gallon of partially treated sewage is unacceptable; imagine three million. Without action it will get worse.”

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said: “The bottom line is we can’t live like this. We need state and federal help to follow through. Our message to Gov. Cuomo: Show us the money. We’re asking for a sewage system that works.”

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