Cedar Creek possible site for materials lab

A $2.5 million building materials lab could be built near the Cedar Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant in Seaford to test nontoxic materials used in Nassau County road projects. Cedar Creek is one of two possible sites. Cantiague Park in Hicksville is also under consideration.

But Mike Martino, spokesperson for Nassau County’s Department of Public Works said, “no decision has been made at this time. We don’t even have a time frame. It’s all a big if right now.”

The East Meadow Herald, a sister paper, reported that Eisenhower Park had been suggested as a site for this laboratory but the proposal was nixed by County Legislator Norma Gonsalves, who said the lab was not suitable in Eisenhower Park.

“Any park is not a great place for a lab,” said county Legislator David Denenberg. “It could be a misuse of park land and that could open Pandora’s box.”

A building materials lab, which tests concrete, asphalt, steel and rebar as well as other materials used in building roads, had been at a facility just outside the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant in East Rockaway. But that facility was destroyed during Superstorm Sandy. Since then, the county has been using an outside vendor for testing. The county will seek funding for this project from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

If the Cedar Creek plant is chosen as the site for the new laboratory, “how will that fit in with the privatization of the plants,” Denenberg asked. “How will the county get in there? It seems to me there are more questions than answers at this point.”

Martino said the project would have no environmental or health impacts. “It is purely materials testing to make sure it’s sound,” he said. “Any hazardous materials — mold or asbestos or PCBs — are a separate process handled by a private contractor. We don’t do that. This lab will have zero to do with toxic materials.”