SPLASH responds to controversy

Rob Weltner, of Freeport, and the executive director of the not-for-profit Operation SPLASH, said the recent controversy about VIP SPLASH Waterways Recovery Group, a for-profit company formed after Superstorm Sandy to remove construction debris from the Western Bays, is all about the similarity of names.

The two entities, Weltner said, are separate, sharing part of a name but performing different kinds of work.

“I guess it’s a problem with the name,” he said, referring to an article that appeared in Newsday about ties between the for-profit VIP SPLASH and the not-for-profit Operation SPLASH. “This whole name thing was supposed to bring kudos to Operation SPLASH and now it’s backfired.”

The two entities also share some of the same principals, and questions have been raised about whether the for-profit VIP SPLASH Waterways Recovery Group used the reputation of the non-profit Operation SPLASH to win a $12 million clean-up contract from the county, especially after Operation SPLASH, a critic of the county’s plan to privatize Nassau County’s sewer system, reversed its position after Superstorm Sandy.
Weltner said Operation SPLASH’s decision to support the county’s plan to bring in United Water to run the sewage plants had nothing to do with VIP SPLASH’s contract.

“I had been hopeful that the county could get it together and make improvements at the plants,” said Weltner. “But after Sandy it was an even bigger mess. We had sewage backing up into people’s homes. This seemed to be the only reasonable solution to save the Bays. I stand by that decision. Things are better at Bay Park. ”

Donald Harris, Operation SPLASH’s longest serving member who has no ties to VIP SPLASH, said, “We are apolitical. Initially privatization made the hairs stand up on my neck. But then I learned about private entities upstate and water treatment there and I changed my mind.”