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Great Neck Proposal to Divert Effluence to
Cedar Creek
Originally published in the 2003 March 13 edition of The
Wantagh-Seaford Citizen. Hempstead Town officials were bristling at Great Neck Mayor Stephen Falk's proposal to divert sludge from the village's own sewage treatment plants' along Manhasset Bay to the Cedar Creek sewage treatment facility in Wantagh for processing - by way of a series of underground pipes still to be built.
But Seaford resident Peter Ruffner, immediate past chair of the Town of Hempstead Democratic Committee. said, "why would Supervisor Murray wish to politicize something as important to the Seaford and Wantagh communities as the Great Neck sewage issue? This is a matter that environmental and engineering experts need to review prior to public hearings, which I am sure will be held before any contracts are signed." "Ms. Murray's statement shows her lack of knowledge about the history of the Cedar Creek facility," added Mr. Ruffner. "The plant was designed in the late 1960s to cover a large area of Nassau County, including large sections outside of the Town of Hempstead. The facility originally received, and continues to receive sewage daily from all of the Town of Oyster Bay between Syosset and Massapequa as well as from the southeast Town of North Hempstead communities of Westbury, New Cassel and Carle Place. Furthermore, when Roslyn and North Hills began sending their sewage to Cedar Creek during the Gulotta administration, the residents of Seaford and Wantagh did not see Ms. Murray's predecessor in Town government protesting that expansion of Cedar Creek's sewage. "Ms. Murray should not attempt to make this important issue an election year publicity stunt using fancy quotes and toilet bowl props. It is too important to Seaford and Wantagh," said Mr. Ruffner. However Tom Gallagher, member of the Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee, said the committee would provide a tour of the Cedar Creek plant on May 14 to show concerned residents the current state of the plant, saying it is currently undermanned and leaking. He also said that each manhole cover has a hold in the middle of it that emits odors, which plant managers can do nothing about. The plant needs millions of dollars of upgrades as it is, he said, suggesting it could never handle the estimated millions of extra gallons of sewage a day. He maintained more effluent would dramatically increase odors. Yet, Mayor Falk said much of the reaction from town officials and residents appears to come from misconceptions over the plan. "The two plants are not going to be dismantled," he said, but would remain as collectors and distribution plants. "Development of new homes does not hinge on diversion, he said. As an elected official he said he had an obligation to the village, in which the plants service some 6,000 residential homes, the majority averaging a $45,000 annual income, to save money by studying the feasibility of sending its 3.6 million gallons-per-day effluent to the 50 million gallon-per-day Cedar Creek facility. The facility has the capacity to handle 70 million gallons. He said only after a $3.4 million contracted study with the state to determine the feasibility of diversion is complete can he approach the county to begin negotiations. He said he envisioned saving approximately $10 million for the village by diverting effluent to Cedar Creek, because it would cost $30 million to rebuild the plants, and $20 million to build pipes to link to Cedar Creek. While the village would pay the county for use of the Cedar Creek facility, he said it would never add up to the $10 million being saved, and that Nassau County could then re-distribute any collected fees back into the communities as it saw fit. He added that, concerning the odor Ms. Browner and Mr. Gallagher sense, the odor is already there. Legislator David Denenberg (19th LD) said this issue underscores the importance of revising the geography of sewage treatment within the county's master plan, first devised in 1998 and now being redrawn by County Executive Thomas Suozzi. He said the 1998 master plan was light on sewage, transportation and open space plans. Perhaps with a revised master plan, sewage could be better processed up in the north shore communities with new plants, rather than sent to Cedar Creek, or at least sent to closer locations such as Bay Park in southwest Nassau, he said. He maintained Mr. Suozzi is currently addressing consolidation of sewage treatment facilities to provide for better county efficiencies. Meanwhile Supervisor Murray said the Great Neck plan would have to be approved by the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, the county administration and the Nassau County Legislature. We urge residents to contact their legislators to voice their opinions, and at the town level we will collect petition signatures from mailings we send out, and advance those results to the county, she said. Laura Schofer contributed to this story. |
Both
Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray and Town Councilwoman Angie Cullin said on
Monday, March 10, that they would strongly oppose any use and transfer of
effluent into the Cedar Creek facility. Among several reasons, they took
umbrage is the mayor's desire to dismantle the plants, to build luxury
homes. "This is a truly bad governmental plan to close and replace two
sewage plants with six miles of new pipeline that would pipe sewage from
12,000 Great Neck homes into the Town of Hempstead and into the waters of
our south shore," remarked Supervisor Murray. "We adamantly oppose the
proposal to close the sewage treatment plants and divert waste to the Nassau
County sewage treatment facility at Cedar Creek," she continued. She said
she and other town officials are offended by the mayor's attitude toward
Hempstead Town, and particularly the communities of Wantagh and Seaford.
"The mayor indicated he would like to close the sewage treatment plants
because they are not in keeping with the community's residential character,
and we are offended he has no aesthetic sense in pumping his waste into the
middle of beautiful Wantagh and Seaford neighborhoods", she added.
Councilwoman
Cullin was equally blunt. "The plan stinks and we're not going to take it."
She said residents of Wantagh and Seaford had already accepted their fair
share of municipal waste and would not be dumped on any more. I have no
sympathy for the concerns of a mayor who would attempt to make his community
more desirable at the expense of our communities," she protested. Wantagh
resident Olga Browner said the Cedar Creek plant was already an eyesore, and
that she didn't want to see another one. She said Great Neck should take any
monies earmarked for other projects and instead put those monies into
modernizing the existing sewage plant's. "The women and children of Wantagh
and Seaford have to live with enough odors from the plant and mercury dumped
into the water that comes back into the food chain. We don't want any more,"
she stated. Another Wantagh resident, Fred Parola, said that he didn't want
to see any more sewage coming through the plant. "Just think about the
toxicity of the sewage. We're adding to the inflow and outflow. Why us?
Aren't they [Great Neck] closer to Far Rockaway? We don't need any more
effluence coming over this way," he said.