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Overcast Senator calls on EPA for bay fix
Schumer urges release of $20 million to stop sludge
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency to reimburse Nassau County for more than $20 million in federal sewer construction funds so the county can end the flow of sludge leaking into Reynolds Channel.
The illegal sewage discharge into the channel from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant — owned and operated by Nassau County — has left residents, local community groups, boaters and fishermen alarmed, with many saying that it has become a serious quality-of-life issue.
Since March, the State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued the plant numerous violations for the discharge. William Spitz, the DEC’s regional water manager, recently explained that the agency is conducting an investigation after discovering in October that the plant was discharging more sewage, or suspended solids, than allowed by environmental law. Brown plumes of effluent have been seen in the channel, Spitz said. DEC officials said that because two of the facility’s six tanks are inoperable, the sewage is being discharged into the bay.
In a Nov. 30 letter to the EPA, Schumer renewed his call for the agency to reimburse Nassau County for sewer repairs it made two decades ago so that funds are available for the county to repair the Bay Park facility.
According to Schumer’s office, the EPA awarded the county more than $20 million in grant money in the mid-1980s. The funds, which were administered under the now-defunct EPA Sewer Infrastructure Program, were reimbursements for multi-million-dollar upgrades undertaken by the county at the Cedar Creek and Bay Park wastewater treatment plants. But the EPA, according to Schumer, has yet to release the funds to Nassau County.
“Every day the EPA fails to pay the millions it owes Nassau County, Reynolds Channel grows more and more toxic,” Schumer wrote. “This is a potential environmental disaster for Nassau residents and the EPA must immediately refund Nassau County to allow it to fund emergency repairs to the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Facility.”
