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Sewage plant is now Suez

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United Water, a water resources and wastewater service company that runs the day-to-day operations at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, will now go by the Suez brand — but, according to officials, nothing else has changed.

“There is absolutely no difference,” said Mike Martino, manager of communication and community relations for SUEZ. “We are the same company … [United Water] has always been a part of Suez. We just united all the companies under one name. It shows a worldwide strength.”

In July 2014, Nassau County hired United Water to maintain the sewage plant’s around-the-clock operations — no small task, especially in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, which blasted the plant with a nine-foot tidal surge, throwing it offline for two days and sending raw and partially treated sewage into nearby homes and streets.

The plant processes 55 million gallons of sewage per day — 40 percent of the county’s sewage.

Under a 20-year agreement, United Water — now Suez — manages the county’s three treatment plants: Bay Park, in East Rockaway, which serves some 532,000 residents; Cedar Creek, in Wantagh, serving 600,000; and Glen Cove, which serves 27,000. The county paid the company $57.4 million this year, and maintains full ownership of the facilities.

“Our name has changed, yet our commitment to our customers, to preserving clean water supplies and to making sure that we make the most of increasingly scarce resources, has not,” said Eric Gernath, CEO of Suez North America. “This integration brings together our technology and organization in ways that will bring tangible benefits to customers, and enable Suez to be a stronger steward of water and other resources.”

Gernath said that the company helps local authorities face environmental and resources challenges “by designing and operating smart, resilient and sustainable cities, conserving resources and reducing environmental footprints, adapting to climate change and creating alternative resources, in particular in regions where water is scarce, or developing local and renewable energy sources by waste recovery.”

About SUEZ North America

With 3,430 employees, Suez North America, a subsidiary of Paris-based Suez, operates across the U.S. The company owns 15 regulated water utilities, provides contracted public-private partnership services to 84 municipalities (including Bay Park, Cedar Creek and Glen Cove), and offers water treatment and network solutions to 16,000 industrial and municipal sites. It provides drinking water, and wastewater and waste collection services, to nearly 7.5 million people, and processes 55,000 tons of waste for recycling. The company posted revenues of $1.1 billion in 2014.

The Bay Park plant

Martino said that all current projects at the Bay Park plant are on schedule. “There’s a new electrical distribution facility, and we’ve restored the grit building, where the solids and grit start to settle,” he said. The sludge digesters have also been cleaned — something that, Martino said, has not been done in two decades, and all eight are in working order. A major component of the odor control process has been completed, and the project to restore the primary tanks is under way.

“Under [United Water’s] management,” he said, “the plant has performed extremely well, and will continue to do so.”

Martino added that he still meets with members of the Bay Park Civic Association each month, at meetings that the public is welcome to attend, to keep residents up to date on the plant’s progress and the renovation of the park, and to answer questions. For more information, email bayparkcivic@gmail.com or visit the civic association’s Facebook page for meeting information.

For more information about Suez, go to www.mysuezwater.com or the corporation’s website, www.suez-na.com.