Legislature Candidates' Positions: Sewage Plant and Leak

Republican incumbent Denise Ford and Democratic challenger Darlene Tangney, the candidates in Nassau County’s 4th Legislative District race, took part in the Candidates Forum at the Long Beach Library Oct. 20. Among other issues, constituents asked the candidates about the East Rockaway-based Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, which disbursed excessive sewage into Reynolds Channel in 2010, an issue that was made public by a Long Beach resident who lives by the bay.

• Question: Why did it take so long for the legislature to respond when sewage was seeping into Reynolds Channel? And what is your position on the Reynolds Channel clean up?

Tangney, a trustee on the Long Beach Board of Education, accused Ford of standing by while the plant leaked the sewage into the bay for at least 18 months, and when a new law was proposed to notify residents when those waters were polluted and not to swim or fish there, Ford let the bill fail.

“She has refused to sign that bill, and that bill is no longer put forth in the legislature,” Tangney said.

Now, three weeks prior to the Nov. 8 election, Ford and Howard Kopel, the legislator representing the Five Towns, have instituted a policy that the county will notify residents via email when there is sludge in the water. “It should have been done a long time ago,” Tangney said.

Ford, a West End resident and eight-year incumbent, said that once she and the county discovered how serious the sewage spill was, County Executive Ed Mangano immediately responded and found the equipment at the plant was in great disrepair.

“It wasn’t until Mangano took over as county executive did we get into that plant to find out that very little was working properly,” Ford said.

Ford said that it was more important to buy new equipment and fix the problems first, “to make sure we don’t need to notify anybody that there is raw sewage going into Reynolds Channel.”

She said that the bill calls for the county to mandate agencies and other municipalities that the county has no jurisdiction over to report or notify residents about raw sewage.

• Question: Please comment on the county’s proposal to sell its sewage treatment plants.

Ford said that while she has not yet seen a proposal to sell the Bay Park plant, she would not necessarily support such a measure.

During Hurricane Irene, the plant flooded and staff there worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to ensure that the plant continued to work, she said. “I don’t feel necessarily that I want to turn my back on them."

Earlier in the forum, Tangney said that Ford had approved to increase the county’s sewage fee, and Ford defended her vote.

“One of the reasons we did that was we are running out of money to take care of the sewage treatment plants,” Ford said. “And that is one source of revenue to be able to do the repairs [that are needed there], so we don’t end up with the condition we had from years of neglect from the previous administration.”

A lot of money has already been spent to fix the Bay Park plant, Ford said, and much more is needed to continuing fixing it.

Tangney said she, too, doesn't believe in selling the sewage treatment plant.

“This is another example of this administration holding a fire sale on public assets, and this is irresponsible,” she said. “Well get a one-shot, lump sum in revenue, and then we’ll run it back into deficit years down the road. It’s like selling your stove and hiring a chef to do your cooking.”

* Patch will continue to post stories about the candidates’ positions on various issues raised at the Candidates Forum and future forums leading up to Election Day Nov. 8.