South Shore rallies to support ocean outfall pipe

They came from towns and villages all along the South Shore to a rally at the headquarters of Operation SPLASH in Freeport on Monday, calling on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to fund an ocean outfall pipe from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant.

Next week the governor will announce $5 billion worth of infrastructure projects statewide. Operation SPLASH — Stop Polluting, Littering and Save Harbors — organized the rally to let the governor know that Bay Park should be one of those projects.

The construction of a pipe leading to the ocean, proponents contend, would lead to long-term jobs in shell fishing when cleaned-up clam, oyster and mussel beds were reopened. After an outfall pipe was built from the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant into the ocean two and a half miles off Jones Beach in 1973, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation reopened clam beds in Jones Beach’s Zachs Bay after they had been closed for 25 years.

Nassau County Legislator Dave Denenberg pointed out that a new outfall pipe would mean hundreds of new short-term jobs during construction.

The Bay Park plant failed during Hurricane Sandy, and the outflow of sewage continues into Reynolds Channel to this day.