THE ENVIRONMENT

State promises $150 million to better treat sewage

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New York state has pledged to fund the installation of a $150 million nitrogen-removal system at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, which will reduce the environmental harm of the sewage the plant discharges into Nassau County’s Western Bays, state and county officials said on Feb. 12. The officials, speaking at a Mineola news conference, also called on the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide $550 million more to build an outfall pipe to carry effluent from Bay Park into the Atlantic Ocean.

Jon Kaiman, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s special advisor for Long Island storm recovery, appeared with Ed Mangano, the county executive; Todd Kaminsky, a state assemblyman from Long Beach; and Shila Shah-Gavnoudias, commissioner of the county Department of Public Works, at the news conference at the county’s Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building. Jamie Rubin, executive director of the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, also attended, but he sat in the audience.

Kaiman said that Cuomo was committed to allocating the funding for the nitrogen-removal system at Bay Park, but the state had not yet determined the source of the funding.

“Because this is a disaster recovery process, different sources flow … through the federal government to the state of New York to the local governments to resolve problems that we’re facing,” Kaiman said. “As we spend these dollars, and as we discern how best to use our resources, we amend out action plan.”

The announcement was a reversal for Cuomo’s administration, which did not include the $150 million project in plans for a third installment of storm-recovery money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, though federal officials said last May that the HUD money would cover the project.

Asked for comment, Gerry Ottavino, who leads the environmental committees of the Point Lookout Civic Association and the Coalition of Nassau Civic Associations, said, “How do you lose $150 million?”

“It really brings into question if New York State is being proactive about Nassau County sewage,” Ottavino said. “If this was such an important thing, it would’ve been highlighted.”

On Feb. 11, Norma Gonsalves, presiding officer of the County Legislature, and three other county legislators held a press conference at the Theodore Roosevelt Building to call on the governor and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer to restore the funding for the nitrogen-removal system and secure funding for a Bay Park ocean outfall pipe. Gonsalves said that the Legislature’s Public Works Committee would hold a hearing on the Bay Park plant in the coming weeks.

Kaiman and Mangano, who has had a close working relationship with Cuomo, emphasized that the county and state have both long seen the need for cleaning up Bay Park’s discharges in the Western Bays and worked together toward this goal.

“In this day and age, we should not be dumping treated effluent into the bays,” Mangano said on Feb. 12. “We already know that that affects recreational opportunities in those bays. It affects fishing. It affects the commercial boating industry. And now’s the time to make this investment.”

The officials said they did not know yet when construction of the nitrogen-removal system would begin. Mangano said that Shah-Gavnoudias would oversee the process and could begin the planning now that the state has promised the necessary funds. Kaiman said it could take years to “upwards of a decade” for an ocean outfall pipe to become a reality.

Rubin and Joseph Martens, commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, sent a letter to FEMA on Feb. 11 urging the agency to fund an ocean outfall pipe. It stated that sewage pollution in the Western Bays currently violates the federal Clean Water Act.

“This project would dramatically improve and protect the coastal resiliency of densely populated areas of southern Nassau County and dramatically improve water quality,” Martens and Rubin wrote.

Asked for comment after Kaiman and Mangano’s announcement, Gonsalves said, “I am grateful for the funding for the nitrogen-removal system, which had already been promised to us.

“But we are still waiting for an open discussion on the funding for the ocean outfall pipe,” Gonsalves added. “Given the vital economic engine that Nassau is for the state and federal governments, we are prepared to fight for our fair share of funding.”

Kaminsky said after the news conference that an ocean outfall pipe would be a boon for Long Beach, because the city could send its effluent miles out into the Atlantic via the same pipe. “I hope this is the latest good news in the redevelopment of Bay Park,” he said. “It’s a once-in-a-generation opportunity.”

Robert Weltner, executive director of Freeport environmental group Operation SPLASH, has called on both the state and federal government to fund an ocean outfall pipe. He pointed out that New York Rising, Cuomo’s Hurricane Sandy reconstruction program, plans to spend federal monies to rehabilitate the South Shore’s marshes, and that an ocean outfall pipe is essential for this goal.

“We are disappointed that out of the $5 billion New York State received from the loan scandal settlement there is no money set aside for an ocean outfall pipe,” Weltner said. “We know that the governor expects the feds to pay for this, but we believe the state also needs to step up. Our feeling is that if the feds see the state has put up some money, this will encourage the feds, and even Nassau County, to do the same.”

Ottavino said nitrogen-removal and an ocean outfall pipe are vital steps, but effluent should also be treated to a higher standard for many contaminants, from pathogens to pharmaceuticals and heavy metals.

“These are baby-step fixes, but we have giant-step problems, so the chasms are getting bigger and bigger,” Ottavino said.

Laura Schofer contributed reporting.