A pipe dream come true?

We are losing coral reefs and stuff in the Caribbean because of stuff like this.”

Phil Franco Cedar Creek Oversight Committee co-chairman

Engineers have determined that the 110-year-old aqueduct running underneath Sunrise Highway is in “very good condition,” and county officials are preparing for the next stages of a proposed project to refurbish and upgrade the pipe to transport treated sewage from the South Shore Water Reclamation Facility in Bay Park to the ocean outfall pipe at the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant on the Wantagh-Seaford border.

“The pipe is structurally sound and has maintained its oval shape,” said County Executive Ed Mangano. Most of the aqueduct has been studied, and officials say the remainder of the pipe — which was constructed between 1890 and 1892, and enlarged in 1900, to bring fresh water from Long Island’s streams, ponds and lakes to New York City — is expected to be analyzed within the next two weeks, according to Mary Studdert, a Nassau County Department of Public Works spokeswoman. 

The Bay Park plant currently discharges treated wastewater into Reynolds Channel from a cement pipe north of the Long Beach fishing pier. Carl Lobue, a marine scientist with the Nature Conservancy, explained that treated wastewater is loaded with nitrogen, which accelerates seaweed growth. The seaweed, called ulva lactuca, breaks apart in the tides and rots. As it does, he said, it robs the saltwater of dissolved oxygen, killing marine life.

Some environmental activists support the aqueduct plan because they say that moving treated sewage to the ocean  would help rehabilitate the bays. But Wantagh-Seaford civic leaders and residents have expressed concerns about the impact they think it would have on the local area and the Atlantic Ocean. 

Once the $2.4 million study is completed, the county will issue a request for proposals to hire an engineering firm for detailed design services, Studdert said. The plans will include a new pumping facility at the Bay Park plant, a new pipe from Bay Park to the aqueduct, rehabilitation of the aqueduct with an internal lining and a new pipe from the aqueduct to Cedar Creek.

The estimated cost of the project, Studdert said, is $360 million, which would mostly come from state and federal grants, and it likely would not be completed until 2022. She added that detailed design is set to begin this summer and should be completed, along with an environmental review, by early 2019. Construction is expected to begin by mid-2019 and will take up to two and a half to three years to complete.

The Bay Park plant now discharges treated wastewater into Reynolds Channel from a cement pipe north of the Long Beach fishing pier. The sewage is loaded with nitrogen, which has caused significant damage to the marsh and marine life in the Western Bays.

“The project will be designed to meet all environmental requirements,” Studdert said. “We will focus on construction methods that have the least impact to the environment and residents, such as using trenchless technologies for the rehabilitation of the aqueduct and installation of the new pipes from Bay Park to Sunrise Highway and Sunrise Highway to Cedar Creek.”

Local concerns 

The Bay Park plant discharges 50 million gallons of sewage per day into the Western Bays, according to Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. She added that the plant is now implementing new denitrification technologies that will reduce the harmful nitrogen levels by 60 percent, and that she was “thrilled and relieved” that the aqueduct is in good condition. She said that even though the pipe is more than a century she expected good news.

“I’m not surprised, because that’s when we used to build things that last,” Esposito said. “We know it’s a steel pipe. We know it’s only been used for transporting clean water, so it makes sense that it would be in high-quality condition.”

But Ralph Spagnolo, of Wantagh, said that he is skeptical about the aqueduct’s condition. Spagnolo worked at Cedar Creek from its opening in 1974 until his retirement in 1998. He remains a member of the Oversight Committee, a group of citizens who meet at the plant four times a year to get updates on the facility and raise any concerns.

Spagnolo said he thinks that relying on the aqueduct would be “a big mistake.” He is concerned, he said, because it runs through the same area as an aquifer — a body of permeable rock — that supplies much of the county’s water. 

Phil Franco, president of the Seaford Harbor Civic Association and co-chairman of the Cedar Creek Oversight Committee, also expressed concern about the plan. Comparing the connection of piping to a Rube Goldberg machine, Franco said he was concerned about how the construction and eventual effluent transport process would affect Wantagh-Seaford. 

“This is our community,” he said. “If something happens to these pipes, we’re going to get dumped on, and it is going to be our bays that get messed up. They are asking for a problem.” 

Studdert said that one of the new pipes — which would run south along the Wantagh Parkway to Cedar Creek — would be installed by tunneling, so local homeowners would not be disturbed. The exact path is still to be determined, she added. 

Franco was also concerned that the Cedar Creek’s ocean outfall pipe would be “maxed out.” Studdert said that the county periodically inspects the outfall distribution chamber and diffusers in the Atlantic Ocean, adding that the there have not been any leaks in the past decade. The outfall distribution chamber cover was dislodged in 2013 and was reinstalled, she noted.

The ocean outfall pipe is 2 ½ miles from the shore at Jones Beach. The additional treated effluent from Bay Park would be limited to a maximum of 75 million gallons per day, Studdert said, and any additional treated sewage would be discharged through the existing Bay Park outfall. 

Franco said he believed that adding a tertiary treatment system at Bay Park would have been safe way to remedy pollution problems in the bays. He is concerned that discharging treated sewage in one spot in the Atlantic could impact the water and ocean life in the area. 

“We are losing coral reefs and stuff in the Caribbean because of stuff like this,” he said. “If you put it in the ocean, it is going to be bad in the long run. The only thing that is making this plan go forward is that they say it’s going to cost less money.”

Esposito stressed that CCE, other environmental groups and county officials have sought a solution to the Bay Park issue for 15 years, and firmly believe that piping the effluent into the ocean is the most viable solution.

“We’re not moving the problem. We’re solving the problem,” she said. “That’s why we’re reducing the nitrogen by half, and the only other option is to keep putting it in the bay. Then scientists are telling us that even if we put it in the bay at that level, the bays will still die. This will be the cleanest effluent going into the ocean, and we believe the bays will recover in about two years.”

She also expressed confidence that there would be enough funding for the project through state and federal grants, and that some of the $830 million that the county received for Hurricane Sandy relief could also be used for the project. Esposito’s group, along with groups like Operation SPLASH, based in Freeport, previously lobbied for funding to construct an ocean outfall pipe at Bay Park, but the groups were unable to secure the more than $550 million needed for the project.

The next steps

State Sen. Todd Kaminsky said he was confident that state and federal funding would come through for the project. He emphasized the importance of bringing back the bays. “We’re looking at, for the first time, the possibility of bringing the Western Bays back to life, and that’s very encouraging,” Kaminsky said. 

The study of the 9.5-mile pipeline began on March 15 in Freeport, west of the Meadowbrook Parkway exit ramp. Aecom USA Inc., the firm contracted by the county to perform the study, has documented the condition of the steel, rivets, joints, connections, valve chambers and manholes. The study also included the creation of a topographical survey of the manholes; a visual survey of the exterior and interior of the aqueduct; and reports of all visible damage and structural damage of the pipeline, complete with photo and video records.

Esposito said that CCE’s next meeting is scheduled for June 27 at Operation SPLASH headquarters in Freeport, and that the group would discuss the next steps in the project.