Great Neck’s Plan to Become Reality at
Cedar Creek
by Laura Schofer
Originally published in the 2004 January 15 edition of The
Wantagh-Seaford Citizen.
Published online with kind permission from our friends at The 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
The Citizen first learned about the diversion project early last year when a
Great Neck rezoning proposal was announced. The rezoning proposal was slated
for East Shore Drive, the site of the two sewage treatment plants (STPs).
The plan was to remove the sewage treatment plants to make way for 285
housing units, a waterfront park and shops. Their plan included having
Nassau County install 6.2 miles of pipeline to connect Great Neck’s sewage
to South Shore sewer lines and have Great Neck’s sewage processed by Nassau
County’s Cedar Creek Sewer Treatment Plant.
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
Last June the people of Great Neck spoke out against diversion and voted
Stephen Falk out of office. He was replaced by Mayor Richard Deem, who ran
his campaign on the virtues of upgrading the plant. In an August 19 letter
sent to the DEC from both Great Neck facilities, they mentioned the
possibility of upgrading their plants. Mr. Spitz of the DEC wrote on
November 28 that “Should the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District and
the Village of Great Neck elect to proceed with a different project, such as
upgrading one or both existing plants as described in your August 19 letter,
you would need to submit a formal request to use the balance of the Segment
1 and all Segment 2 funds to implement the new project. Essentially this
would constitute a new grant application process.”
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?
“Permitted flow for Cedar Creek is 66 million gallons of sewage per day,”
said Mr. Fonda. “Cedar Creek is averaging 56 million gallons per day.
According to the Great Neck Water Pollution District they produce 2.7
million gallons a day and Great Neck Village produces 900,000 gallons a day.
Cedar Creek has the capacity,” he said.
“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 ?
Nassau County Legislator Dennis Dunne, 15th District, said, “I am totally
against this. I sent a letter to the DEC about this. I believe they [Great
Neck] should refurbish what they have and make it environmentally safe.
Sure, we have this great treatment plant but it’s still more effluent, more
chemicals and what about our beaches and bathing water? What about our
children?”
“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.”
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