Bay Park Sewage Plant operational

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Members of the health department handed out information about the state of emergency in impacted areas on Nov. 15 and 16, Laurain said. “They went door-to-door in all the areas in which there was evidence of sewage,” she said. if residents were not home, information was left in their mailboxes.

Under the state of emergency declaration, affected homes can be cleaned out and decontaminated. The sewer main breaches occurred at Barnes Avenue, in Baldwin, and North Boulevard, in East Rockaway. Martino said that there have been no reported instances of sewage coming up from manholes since the state of emergency was declared.

The number of homes that needed to be cleaned out and decontaminated near the plant is still being determined, according to Martino. “The county is still visiting homes to assess any possible sewage-related damage,” he said.

“They did nothing to inform us when it happened,” said Janine Wayar, a resident of East Boulevard in Bay Park, who said she was not one of those received a notice. “I don’t believe it’s cleared up, they’ve been saying that for years. It’s raw sewage, and we’re getting the runaround.” She and her husband, Gorge, and their three school-aged children are living indefinitely with family in Baldwin because their Bay Park home is structurally unlivable.

Nassau County Health Commissioner Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein and Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, along with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, visited the residents who were impacted when the state of emergency was declared, assuring them that the county would help address their health concerns. An environmental hygienist was also made available for site assessments of homes in the affected areas.

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