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Great Neck’s Plan to Become Reality at
Cedar Creek
Originally published in the 2004 January 15 edition of The
Wantagh-Seaford Citizen. On November 28 of last year, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) approved a project based upon a grant application which “contemplates diverting flow from the two currently operating sewage treatment plants in Great Neck to Cedar Creek,” reads the letter from William H. Spitz, Regional Water Manager for the DEC. The DEC wrote that “the diversion project has important implications for improving water quality in Long Island Sound and Manhasset Bay. It is a critical project with respect to achieving Nassau County’s Waste-Load Allocation [called WLA] specified in the Long Island Sound Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for nitrogen.” “What about us?” asked Rob Weltner, President of Operation SPLASH (Stop Polluting, Littering And Save Harbors). “We’re being choked by effluent here on the South Shore.” But Governor George Pataki in a press release issued last March signed a Memorandum of Understanding to fund 12 projects for the Long Island Sound. “The high levels of nitrogen and other nutrients are a priority concern in the Sound because they contribute to hypoxia, a condition where dissolved oxygen levels are present in the water, making it difficult for aquatic animals to survive.” “We have enough,” said Mr. Weltner. According to Operation SPLASH, “our beautiful South Shore estuary extending from the East Rockaway Inlet at Atlantic Beach to the Wantagh Parkway was once teeming with marine life. Now, there are six waste treatment plants emptying millions of gallons of effluent daily into the relatively small body of water. Most of that marine life is gone. The West Bay is dead, the Middle Bay is almost dead and the East Bay (where Cedar Creek is located) is beginning to die,” reads their public awareness bulletin. “We’ve become a toilet bowl,” said Mr. Weltner. “Now we’re being asked to handle another four million gallons of sludge a day.” The grant amount is for $15,362,050 and consists of Segment 1 and Segment 2. According to the DEC’s letter, in Segment 1 there will be two phases. Phase I includes conceptual/preliminary design, related field studies and refined cost estimates. Phase II includes detailed design bidding and contract award and construction inspection. Mayor Richard Deem of Great Neck told The Citizen that the village has received no funds so far but should “hopefully by the end of the month for $3.3 million,” he said. He will look at all the options open to the village under Phase I of the project. “The scope of work for Segment 2 consists of the Phase III diversion construction,” wrote Mr. Spitz of the DEC.
History of the diversion project Each of the Great Neck STPs is under a separate authority. The larger STP, called the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District (GNWPCD) is under the control of a three person Board of Commissioners. It is led by Deena Lesser. Ms. Lesser told The Citizen that “diversion is only one option.” In a letter Ms. Lesser provided to The Citizen that appeared in the Great Neck Record and Great Neck News she wrote that “What the board of the GNWPCD is committed to is a joint feasibility study with the Village [of Great Neck] of ALL possible ways of addressing the nitrogen removal mandated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation – not only diversion to Cedar Creek as Roslyn Village has done, but on-site upgrades as at the Belgrave Water Pollution Control District...Both short-term and long-term costs must be evaluated carefully. A third option that will be explored by the study is to combine the operations of the village and the district by connecting the village facility with the district plant for treatment.” In closing Ms. Lesser wrote that “no rational choice of a method of denitrification can be made without the data that this study will produce. We have heard residents argue, ‘stop the study and forget about flow diversion!’ We have also heard from residents telling us ‘Get it out of our Bay – send it to the Atlantic Ocean’.” But this project has been in the works for years. According to Bill Fonda, spokesperson for the DEC, the Great Neck Water District was awarded $36,000 from the Clean Water Clean Air Bond Act in 1999 to “complete a feasibility study to divert to a regional plan with ocean discharge. “The study was completed in 2001 and it concluded that diversion to Cedar Creek was technically feasible and less costly by approximately $17 million over the 20-year life cycle. In 2001 they applied for additional grants for the diversion project and demolition of their plant,” said Mr. Fonda. The smaller plant is under the authority of the incorporated Village of Great Neck. Then-Mayor Stephen Falk was fully in support of the diversion plan. Together, in 2003 the incorporated Village of Great Neck and the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District applied for a grant to divert their sewage from Great Neck to Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment Plant in Seaford.
Vote against diversion Similar plants along the North Shore have upgraded their facilities instead of diverting sludge to a South Shore facility. In March, the DEC granted the Port Washington Water Pollution Control District $11,007,500 for a nitrogen removal system. Oyster Bay Sewer District received $2,979,250 for a nitrogen removal facility. Another upgrade recently took place in the City of Glen Cove.
Why Cedar Creek? “We only have eight to ten million gallons left before we reach full capacity,” said Christine Marzigliano, Chairperson for the Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee. “Now we are running fine; with an increase there could be problems. Right now there’s talk of only a three percent increase [in capacity if Great Neck diverts its sewage] but no one has looked at other factors.” Mrs. Marzigliano pointed to future needs for capacity because of economic and population growth in the immediate areas as well as the use of additional chemicals and air discharge to treat the effluent. The sludge is not dumped into the water. A truck takes the sludge to a facility in Virginia. What is dumped almost two miles out into the ocean is effluent, treated water. Mrs. Marzigliano also said that the northern parts of Sewer District 3, which are within Cedar Creek’s sewer district, have not hooked up to Cedar Creek yet. “The DEC is addressing diversion only because that’s the only thing ever applied for,” she said. Julian Kane, a Kings Point resident and a longtime advocate to protect Cedar Creek and the people in Wantagh/Seaford, told The Citizen that “Everybody says they are going to do the right thing but why did Ms. Lesser apply for a diversion grant? She’s the lead applicant,” he said. In the past Professor Kane has called the project “unethical and unfair to the people on the South Shore.”
Who will help ? “If this comes to the legislature I will oppose it and I will ask my colleagues to oppose it and if I have to I will request our state representatives and town representatives to look into this. I’ll go to Congressman Peter King if I have to,” said Mr. Dunne. According to Legislator David Denenberg, 19th Legislative District, noted that Cedar Creek is a Nassau County facility. All Nassau County residents pay towards the use of that facility. “It was also funded with state and federal money,” he said. “We have a Mayor [Richard Deem] who doesn’t want diversion. The people of Great Neck don’t want diversion but the state is only offering money for diversion,” said Mr. Denenberg. What about the newly formed Water and Sewer Authority; does it have any say? “The authority doesn’t have the powers originally envisioned. It’s more of an asset and debt consolidation instead of human resource savings and environmental planning and control authority.” He added that he believes the county doesn’t have too much to say. “If this is what the state wants they’ll probably get it. They are holding a lot of the cards on this.” Mr. Denenberg said he would continue to work with the people in Seaford and Wantagh, even though they are no longer within his district. But Bill Fonda of the DEC says, “If the county says no, then it’s no.” In the meantime, Philip Franco, who is a PTA member of the environmental committee at Seaford Harbor School, said he has already talked to people. “Seaford is ready. We didn’t mobilize before but now we have to look out for our children. It means more traffic, more odors, more problems and just when we thought everything was under control,” said Mr. Franco. “We’ll have to pressure them to upgrade and amend their application,” said Mrs. Marzigliano. “There will be public hearings.”
Not necessarily. Bill Fonda said that Great Neck will probably be the lead
agency in the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA) process. “They will
probably authorize a positive declaration which will appear in the
Environment Notice Bulletin, Region 1 under SEQRA process. At that point,
there is no requirement for publication of a scoping session for content of
the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Although we encourage the public
to comment, it is not required. Once the notice of a complete draft of the
EIS is published in the Environmental Notice Bulletin, then the public has a
30-day period for comment but a hearing is optional.” |