Sewer deal could be boon for county

Nassau County’s aging sewage treatment plants –– the Bay Park plant in East Rockaway, the Cedar Creek plant in Wantagh and the Glen Cove plant –– have for years been a proverbial yoke around the county’s neck. They’re costly to run and often break down. At times when Bay Park has malfunctioned, it has released partially treated sewage into the Western Bays.

Now we’re hearing a proposal by County Executive Ed Mangano that could, if all goes well, relieve Nassau of the financial burden of running the plants and rid the county of a third of its $3 billion debt –– the highest of any county in New York state. And it might even improve service.

In what can only be described as a complicated deal, Mangano wants to lease the plants to a private company –– United Water of New Jersey –– while also bringing in a third-party financier to fund the deal long-term, giving the county a $750 million lump-sum payment that would pay down its ever-ballooning debt.

Mangano is calling the deal a public-private partnership. The county would own the infrastructure, but would pay a company to maintain and operate it. We don’t want to comment too strongly one way or another on the deal until its details have been fleshed out. Suffice it to say that it sounds promising.

The takeover of MTA Long Island Bus by a private company, Veolia Transportation, earlier this year does not appear to have hurt bus service thus far. There’s no reason to believe that sewer service would be diminished under a private entity.

There are stickier questions, however. There was earlier talk of selling off the plants, and critics of a private takeover have for months contended that average citizens would be unable to obtain the plants’ records through Freedom of Information requests if a private company owned them. But Mangano says that the county would continue to own the plants under a lease agreement, so they would be subject to the FOI Law, meaning people could still get plant records.

County Legislator David Denenberg, a Democrat from Merrick, adds that United Water would charge homeowners a rate, rather than a sewer tax, as is currently the case. Annual rate increases would be capped at the Consumer Price Index –– usually around 3 percent. But according to Denenberg, the county hasn’t raised its sewer tax in a decade. A number of civic groups are rallying around the issue, saying that Nassau homeowners could see their sewer payments rise dramatically in the coming years if a private company were to take over the plants.

Denenberg goes so far as to say that Mangano is pushing this deal to mask an inevitable sewer tax hike as a rate increase charged by a private company, which would enable him to tell residents with a straight face that he hasn’t raised taxes.

The critics may be right that Nassau residents would have to pay more for sewage treatment if it is done by a private company. By retiring a third of Nassau’s debt, though, the county could save millions in interest payments, ultimately lowering property taxes over the long run.

County workers also wonder whether a private takeover of the plants would lead to layoffs. It’s a good question, given that the county has cut hundreds of jobs in recent years. Mangano has pledged that the deal would not bring layoffs. Still, we have to wonder.

Mangano has scheduled three public hearings on the issue. One took place on May 9 at the Cedar Creek plant. The second was set for May 16 at Bay Park, and a third was scheduled for May 17 at the Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building in Mineola. Then the proposal will go before the County Legislature, which will hold its own hearing. If the Legislature OKs the deal, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority must sign off on it as well.

Clearly, Mangano is making a good-faith effort to involve the public in this process. That’s a far cry from his past proposals, which he tried to push through with little to no public involvement. We saw that end badly last summer, when residents voted down a $450 million plan to restore Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Here’s hoping that things go better with this deal. Mangano is off to a better start this time around.