Test sounds false alarm at sewage plant

The plant’s current construction schedule that Peter Glaus said was continuing mostly on schedule — with the exception of the community park.

United water spokesman Mike Martino said that his company is undergoing an “aggressive review” of its testing process.

Herald file photo

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Test results that showed high levels of a contaminant flowing out of the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant in January were a false alarm, according to representatives of United Water, the company now in charge of the plant’s day-to-day operations.

“It was a lab issue,” said Mike Martino, United Water’s communications and community affairs manager. “United Water is currently undergoing an aggressive review of our testing process to ensure that a false high test like this does not happen again, and that we have the best testing process possible.”

In January, just days after United Water took over the operations of the plant from Nassau County, a routine test of the effluent leaving the plant and flowing into Reynolds Channel showed high levels of coliform, an umbrella term for many types of bacteria, some of which can make humans ill. It has been found in food and drinking water, and its presence is an indicator of other contaminants.

However, at the most recent community meeting focusing on the plant, held at the Bay Park Civic Association building on March 24, Martino said that United Water had investigated the test and determined that the results were false, due to an error at the lab that had done the testing.

After United Water took control of the plant in January, Pace Analytical Labs, a private company with facilities in Melville, was hired to take over testing for the plant from the Nassau County Department of Health. After the failed test, six new tests were ordered and performed, in order to determine if the high reading was caused by a testing error. In February and March, United Water sent samples to both the Department of Health and Pace in an effort to double check the results.

Trisha Kearney, a Bay Park resident who attended the meeting, said she was glad to hear that the pollution flowing from the plant had not increased. “Hopefully they’re right, and this one test is the end of it,” she said. “It would have been tough to stomach more pollution so quickly after United Water took over the plant from the county.”

“We didn’t understand what had gone wrong, because United Water did not alter any of the procedures or operations at the plant,” said Martino. “We were also surprised because none of the other elements that we expect to change with this rise changed. The fact that this is a lab issue answers both of those questions.”