The Wantagh-Seaford Citizen, 2011 June 2, Progress at Cedar Creek

Progress at Cedar Creek
by Laura Schofer

Originally published in the 2011 June 2 edition of The Wantagh-Seaford Citizen.
Published online with kind permission from our friends at The Citizen.

Improvements are being put in place at the Cedar Creek sewage plant in Wantagh, a county consultant reported last week. On a tour of the facility, Mark Wagner of Cameron Engineering, a consultant hired by the county to oversee operations at Cedar Creek, told residents that in the last six months, “things are really being done. It’s beginning to look like it did 40 years ago. We are getting overtime and these guys are putting their hearts and souls into this place. When something breaks, the guys are in the tanks to fix it,” he said.

Mark Wagner,
Cameron Engineering

Improvements
To date, most of the equipment has been repaired. Four of the presses are online and there are plans to have a total of 10 presses at the plant. The valves on the digesters have all been replaced; the bar screens are in working order. There were no hanging wires or broken and leaking pipes; even the concrete floors were swept clean.

The county has hired eight new operators for the plant: two men in diesel, four in maintenance, and even several groundskeepers. There are close to 100 employees, up from a low of 75 employees.

The plant has resumed confined space training: the workers are receiving their shots, when necessary. There have been no spills this year. The plant has almost always made its 85% removal rate for biological oxygen demand (BODs), a reliable gauge of organic pollution, as is required by its permit. That number is now well into the 90s. “It’s easier to make the numbers now that we have begun to address maintenance issues.”

Mr. Wagner added that some of the doors weren’t working and “some odors are escaping depending on how the wind blows. But we are in the process of repairing them.” Additionally, the backlog of preventive maintenance will “soon be addressed. We are still cleaning out a tank that had a year’s worth of sludge in it,” said Mr. Wagner.

About Cedar Creek
The Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant, one of two county sewage plants on the South Shore of Long Island, has a permit to process 72 million gallons of sewage a day and actually processes close to 60 million gallons a day; 240 tons of sludge are removed from the plant each day. The plant has been in the public’s eye since 2005, when it was discovered that the plant’s infrastructure was in need of repair. Since then, more than $150 million has been put into the plant, said county Legislator David Denenberg. Some of those improvements included $23.4 million for air floatation facility rehabilitation, $9 million for roof repair and an $18 million project for gravity belt thickeners.

Photo by Ann Parry
Mangano at a 2010 Press Conference announcing that the county will make $10 Million available for new equipment at the Cedar Creek Sewage Plant

Security Beefed Up
In addition to the infrastructure improvements made to the facility, Nassau County’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) brought in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Homeland Security to do an assessment of the plant. After these groups did a walk-through and made their recommendations, the county decided to re-open the guard booth at the top of the hill, a booth that had been abandoned by the previous administration for an electronic gate system. “There is a guard there 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” explained Craig Craft from the county OEM.

Barriers were installed at all the openings along the perimeter of the plant; locks were installed at the pump house and generator. “New security fencing was placed at the back of the plant, by the waste oil and methane storage tanks, and vegetation was cleared from sensitive buildings so [they could] be secured by cameras. Additional cameras were also installed,” said Pete Vita from the county OEM. Funding for these improvements came through a grant from FEMA and Homeland Security, said Mr. Craft.

Will Improvements Continue?
The Capital Improvement Plan, including the sewer and storm water improvement plan for $70 million, came before the Nassau County Legislature for a vote on May 24. A super-majority, 13 votes out of a total of 19, is needed to pass the plan, but the eight Democrats there abstained from voting on it. This is the first capital improvement plan, including the sewer and storm-water management plan, that is being proposed by the Republican majority. In total, it is for $102 million; $70 million for sewer and storm-water projects.

Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt, Republican of Massapequa, called the Democrats’ move to abstain from the vote “a shocking display of partisanship. This could have a devastating impact on our waterways, on our environment and on Nassau residents, particularly on the South Shore.” Legislator Dennis Dunne, Republican of Levittown, added, “We’re not talking about ball fields and trees here, this is our county infrastructure you’re holding hostage.”

But county Legislator David Denenberg, Democrat of Merrick, said the Republican majority removed “15 capital projects from the Democratic districts. Mr. Schmitt may call them ‘pet projects’ but road safety and drainage are important all over Nassau County. Isn’t it important to fix Bellmore Avenue or North Main Street in Freeport? What about curbs and drains on Merrick Avenue?” asked Mr. Denenberg. Additionally, he pointed to funds the Republicans were holding up from last year’s capital improvement plan, including a $20,000 grant to Wantagh Schools.

“The plan is usually voted on in January or February, but the county executive added a few amendments in February and then in March, including a $4 million capital plan for the Coliseum,” said Mr. Denenberg. The Democrats did not know their “amendments or projects” had been removed until just before it was brought to a vote, he added. “If this is such an emergency, why did Mr. Schmitt wait until May to call the vote? And they waited until April to issue the bonds for this year’s projects,” he said.

Mr. Denenberg told this newspaper that he “asked Mr. Schmitt to call out any item that was an emergency and we would vote on that, but he wouldn’t do it. I would never hold up any money for an emergency improvement at one of these facilities.” Meanwhile, Cedar Creek is in need of ongoing upgrades and maintenance, officials said.

Phil Franco, co-chair of the Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee, summed up the sentiments of those on the tour. “We are so happy with the improvements. We never thought it would ever be this good. Thanks and keep up the good work.”