Water company must resubmit filtration plans

County’s Department of Health still has not approved plans

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After a Malverne Architectural Review Board “special exception” meeting that lasted over two hours last week, the village told New York American Water executives that they needed to provide more, detailed information about the water filtration plant they are proposing before the board could make any decision on going forward with the plant. The company is seeking village approval to build a plant on property it owns on Cornwell Avenue in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

To the surprise of the village board, water company executives said during the meeting that they did not yet have Nassau County’s Department of Health approval to build the Malverne plant, something water company executives said was commonplace in the course of events that happen during a plant’s construction on water company property. New York American Water is almost finished constructing a filtration plant on Chautauqua Avenue in Lakeview, which is almost a replica of what is being proposed in Malverne, and that too does not have Department of Health approval yet. Currently, the Lakeview plant does not have housing covering the filtration tanks, but will eventually, Richard Kern, a production manager for the company said.

During the meeting, Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald told water company executives that she would like to see a permanent plant built on the facility, instead of the temporary plant being proposed. A temporary plant — which executives said could last as long as 20 years — cost roughly $1.5 million to construct and will take only 3-4 months to build once approved. A permanent plant would cost upwards of $8 million, executives said, and could take much longer.

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