County trucking sewage across the South Shore

Updated: Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. The Nassau County Department of Public Works is trucking up to 80,000 gallons of raw sewage each day from the Bay Park treatment plant in East Rockaway through Baldwin and Freeport to a red brick pumping station in Merrick.

From the Merrick Road station, the sewage, which is in liquid form, is then piped to the Cedar Creek treatment plant in Wantagh for processing, according to county and state officials.

Nassau County has shipped sewage from Bay Park to Cedar Creek for weeks, ever since the state Department of Environmental Conservation mandated that it do so.

According to DEC officials, equipment at the Bay Park plant has been malfunctioning since March, and the county has been forced to release partially treated sewage into Reynolds Channel as a result. Rather than discharging all of the sewage into the channel, the DPW is carting part of it away, which the county and DEC agreed was the most cost-effective way to reduce the amount of sewage flowing into the waterway until the plant can be repaired.

Sewage entering the channel contains solids that color the water brown, though it has been disinfected with chlorine, explained Bill Fonda, a DEC spokesman. He added that the DEC has inspected the Bay Park plant to ensure that the sewage has been sterilized.

Public outrage

Bay Park’s cement outflow pipe is located in the waters off Long Beach, two miles south of the Bay Park plant. The pipe can be seen from Long Beach’s fishing pier at the north end of Magnolia Boulevard.

Releasing partially treated sewage into the channel violates state environmental law. The plant is supposed to emit only treated water, without solids. The situation has South Shore homeowners, fishermen and environmental activists up in arms. The channel connects Baldwin Bay, Middle Bay, Randal Bay and Parsonage Cove, all of which abut the fragile wetlands that hug the South Shore, where a host of birds and marine creatures nest and breed.