Come down to the Nassau County Legislative Building in Mineola on Tuesday, July 7th at 5:30 to join with the Green Bay Parkers as we rally on the front steps of the Theodore Roosevelt Building to let Tom Suozzi know we won't back down until the county performs the necessary upgrades and gets an ocean outfall pipe for the Bay Park Plant to ensure that the bay is rescued from seeing its impending demise.

Now that Tom Suozzi's consolidation plan was passed through by the legislature by a 11-8 vote, the county will be bringing the stink to Bay Park. It's time the concerned citizens of Bay Park/East Rockaway and the surrounding communities bring the stink to Tom Suozzi and let him know our bay is in peril and is facing an ecological disaster if the county neglects to upgrade the Bay Park plant.

So tell your friends and family to make up their Save The Bay signs and put on the walking shoes as we let Nassau County know - CONSOLIDATION? NO WAY! WHAT DO WE WANT? SAVE THE BAY!

And remember to

WEAR SOMETHING GREEN!!!

The Theodore Roosevelt Executive and Legislative Building is located at 1550 Franklin Avenue in Mineola, NY 11501 on the corner of Old Country Road. The best route to get there is Ocean Avenue to Peninsula Boulevard (North) go to Franklin Avenue in Hempstead, make a left and go all the way to Old Country Rd. make a left, then make another quick left and park in visitors lot at far end of building or make a right onto 15th Street and park along there.

There will be a MINI VAN CARAVAN going to the rally that will meet in the parking lot behind the Capitol One Bank on Main St. at 4:45PM. If you would like to carpool or if you have a mini van or big truck then please meet up with us at the parking lot. The mini van caravan will be leaving the parking lot at 5:00PM to go to Mineola for the rally.

THE RALLY WILL HAPPEN RAIN OR SHINE!!!

So gather up the family, tell all your friends and neighbors, and stand up for your community. By raising our voice loud enough maybe the county will understand what we've been saying all along -

FIX THE PLANT & SAVE THE BAY!!!

• Legislator Toback Takes Hypocrisy to New Heights •

There was a recent Newsday article about Legislator Jeff Toback leading the charge in a protest about the stink of grass clippings from the Town of Hempstead waste transfer station in Oceanside. Toback was there with a handful of residents to complain about the foul odors that prevents them from enjoying time in their backyards and forces them to have to keep the windows closed on warm days. Isn’t this the same guy who’s been arguing with Bay Park residents for over 18 months that the odors from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant are not that bad? Isn’t this the same guy who said the Bay Park plant only received 6 calls for odor complaints in an entire year and adamantly defended the plant’s odor control until he realized he was looking at the complaint records from a different sewer plant? Isn’t this the same guy who said to residents at a legislative meeting, “Gee, if the odors coming from the plant are as bad as all you people in the community say they are then we should really do something about it.” Isn't this the same guy who mailed out magnets to some Bay Park residents and said if the plant stinks call them to complain? Isn’t this the same guy who recently voted “YES” to consolidate the sewage Cedarhurst and Lawrence into Bay Park, which will inevitably increase the plant’s fetid stench in our community? How can this hypocrite have the stones to stand there with constituents of one community and lead the charge in saying it’s unfair to residents to have their quality of life affected by the nasty smells from grass clippings at the Town of Hempstead facility, while completely ignoring the heartfelt pleas of other constituents who wallow day after day in the disgusting, fetid stench emanating from the COUNTY sewer plant located in our backyard?

Suffolk County to Install New Ocean Outfall Pipe for $152 Million

(Help Us, Steve Levy! Help Us!)

Below is an article that was printed in the 5 Towns Herald.

It's funny how wonderful sewer consolidation looks through their eyes

5 Towns sewer plants to close Waste will be diverted to county facility, saving money

By Stephen J. Bronner June 11, 2009

The Cedarhurst Sewage Plant, located on Hanlon Drive and Peninsula Boulevard, will be closed within the next few years. Waste will then be diverted to Inwood with a gravity pipe.

The Nassau County Legislature approved a bill Monday that will close the sewer plants in Lawrence and Cedarhurst and transfer the waste to the county’s treatment facility in Bay Park, according to Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside).

“This is a real win-win for the residents of Lawrence and Cedarhurst,” Toback said. “They’re saving money on upgrading their facilities, and it’s better for the environment. It’s a really great project for everyone in the county, especially for residents of Lawrence and Cedarhurst.”

The bill was approved 11-8, mostly along party lines, with Republican Denise Ford (R-Long Beach) joining Democrats in support of it.

A pumping station will be built in Lawrence to send the sewage to Inwood, then to the Bay Park facility, according to the county’s commissioner of public works, Ray Ribeiro. Gravity would take the sewage from Cedarhurst toward Inwood, he explained, and then it would be pumped into the Bay Park facility as well. The Bay Park plant processes sewage more efficiently than the other two plants, Ribeiro said, removing 95 percent of solids, 10 percent more than the local plants.

Upgrading the treatment facilities in the two villages would have cost $30 million. The approved plan will cost $18 million, which will cover Lawrence’s pump station, Cedarhurst’s gravity pipe and upgrades to the Inwood facility. Federal stimulus money will be used to pay for up to half of the total cost of construction, Toback said, but the county will not find out how much the federal government will pay until the end of the year — around the same time construction is set to begin.

The rest of the project’s costs will be covered by 30-year bonds worth up to $12 million and $14 million issued by Cedarhurst and Lawrence, respectively. The project is expected to be completed by Jan. 1, 2012.

Residents of Lawrence will see a projected reduction of 20 percent in their sewer taxes, according to Lawrence Mayor C. Simon Felder. Lawrence’s and Cedarhurst’s sewer rates were also locked in with this deal — their rates will not change even if the rest of the county’s does.

Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise said he was happy that the legislation passed, but disappointed that political lines were drawn. He added that the plan was not meant to be a political issue, saying, “It’s the right thing to do.”

• County Votes YES To Ram Sewer Consolidation Down Residents Throat •

On Monday, June 8th, by an 11 to 8 vote, Nassau County voted YES to enter into an inter-municipal agreement with the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence to close down their sewage treatment plants, convert them to pump stations and send the sewage from those two villages to the county run Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant despite the pleas of concerned citizens from the Bay Park/East Rockaway community that feel the sewer plant is already overburdened and major upgrades are needed at the facility to prevent an environmental disaster and the impending demise of the marine ecosystem in the bays and estuaries of the South Shore.

Despite the fact that over the past 18 months hundreds of Bay Park/East Rockaway residents gave elected officials first hand accounts of the many environmental and quality of life issues that already impact us negatively due to living within yards of a sewage treatment plant that processes over 60 million gallons of raw sewage each day, the county voted YES.

Despite the fact that hundreds of questions from concerned residents of Bay/East Rockaway pertaining to the future environmental impact consolidation would have upon the bay went unanswered over the past 18 months, the county voted YES.

Despite the fact that the county's "back door" funding of the consolidation project may prove to be illegal, they voted YES.

Despite the fact that all Nassau County residents will see increased sewer rates due to the consolidation project and only the villages of Lawrence and Cedarhurst had their sewer rates frozen for 10 years as part of this deal (their rates will not change even if the rest of the county’s does), they still voted YES.

It is a sad day in Nassau County for all of its citizens when the voice of the people falls upon deaf ears as elected officials choose to ignore the concerns of their constituents and impose their will upon the very people they were elected to represent.

Stay posted as news of our valiant effort to stop the consolidation plan from happening goes forward. In the meantime please email or phone the county legislators who voted YES to sewer consolidation and tell them you are a concerned citizen that is against sewer consolidation and demand the county provide significant upgrades to treat the effluent and secure the funds to build an ocean outfall pipe from the Bay Park plant before any more sewage is added.

Legislators Who Voted YES To Sewer Consolidation

Jeff Toback - (516) 571-6207 • email: jtoback@nassaucountyny.gov

Kevan Abrahams - (516) 571-6201 • email: kabrahams@nassaucountyny.gov

Roger Corbin - (516) 571-6202 • email: rcorbin@nassaucountyny.gov

Denise Ford - (516) 571-6204 • email: dford@nassaucountyny.gov

Joe Scannell - (516) 571-6205 • email: jscannell@nassaucountyny.gov

Judy Bosworth - (516) 571-6210 • email: jbosworth@nassaucountyny.gov

Wayne Wink - (516) 571-6211 • email: wwink@nassaucountyny.gov

Dave Mejias - (516) 571-6214 • email: jmejias@nassaucountyny.gov

Judy Jacobs - (516) 571-6216 • email: jjacobs@nassaucountyny.gov

Diane Yatauro - (516) 571-6218 • email: dyatauro@nassaucountyny.gov

Dave Denenberg - (516) 571-6219 • email: ddenenberg@nassaucountyny.gov

• Toback Sends Letter Saying Sewer Plant Consolidation is Coming •

Legislator Jeff Toback recently mailed a letter to certain residents of his legislative district to inform us about legislative committee meetings pertaining to the consolidation of the Lawrence and Cedarhurst sewage plants into the Bay Park facility. During the meeting of the Public Works Committee on Monday, May 18th, 2009 Legislator Toback told residents he knew nothing of the plan to have either the county or the villages of Cedarhurst and Lawrence bond the money needed to push the consolidation plan through until it was voted on by the villages Tuesday, May 12th and thusly sent the letter out as soon as he heard the news. If that's the case, then why is Legislator Toback's letter dated Monday, May 11th and why did residents not receive the letter until two days before the May 18th meeting? Is Legislator Toback trying to keep things under the rug so as not to give residents a fair chance to voice their opinion? He may state it was just a typo or that he drafted the letter with hope of the villages voting YES to bond the money. The truth is Legislator Toback knew this was going to happen way before May 18th and neglected to notify Bay Park/East Rockaway residents until the last possible minute. Please read a copy of the letter below.

May 11, 2009

Dear Constituents:

In an attempt to keep you abreast of the most current information regarding important issues in our neighborhoods, I am taking this opportunity to let you know that on Monday, May 18th, 2009, starting at 2 PM, the legislature’s Public Works, Finance and Rules committees will entertain items in relation to the consolidation of the Cedarhurst and Lawrence sewer operations into the county’s wastewater system.

As you may recall, the county’s 2008 Capital Plan, which was unanimously adopted by the legislature, contained a $1.4 million project for the technical design of the consolidation. That design project is substantially complete, and calls for the consolidation of the villages’ sewer operations into the county’s system, with no construction taking place in East Rockaway and Bay Park.

Now, federal stimulus money is potentially available for the construction that is necessary to tie the villages’ systems into the county wastewater operation. The two items that will be heard on May 18th, will allow for the funding of the construction, taking advantage of the Federal stimulus funding and a low interest loan from the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation.

Once the consolidation is effective, the western bays will “breathe easier” as the county’s wastewater systems are far superior to those of the villages, but we are all mindful that our work is not completed. In fact, a draft of the county’s wastewater master plan calls for $200 million in upgrades to the Bay Park facility over the next 20 years.

I will continue to keep you posted on this, and other important issues. If you have any questions, as always, please feel free to call me at 571-6207, or email at jtoback@nassaucountyny.gov.

Very truly yours,
Jeff Toback
Legislator, 7th LD

Please take the time to contact Legislator Toback by email or telephone and let him know how you feel about the county's ill-conceived consolidation plan.

On Monday, April 20, 2009 members of greenbayparkers.org attended the legislative meeting in Mineola and presented County Executive Tom Suozzi and all 19 Nassau County Legislators with the Green Bay Parkers.Org Save The Bay Proposal.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PDF FILE

GREEN BAY PARKERS.ORG SAVE THE BAY PROPOSAL

• County Vows To Push Forward With Consolidation Plan •

On Tuesday, April 7th, a few members of Green Bay Parkers.Org attended a meeting hosted by Operation SPLASH which featured a presentation by Nassau County DPW Commissioner Ray Ribiero about the county’s master plan for sewage treatment.

Imagine our surprise when we found out that 90% of the presentation was just about the county’s master plan for the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). This plan was described by Ribiero as sort of a “part 2” to the county’s original sewage system feasibility study that was jointly conducted by the consulting firms Malcolm Pirnie, Dvrika & Bartilucci JV, and Cameron Engineering LLP, all of which are big political contributors to County Executive Tom Suozzi.

The meeting opened with an introduction by Operation SPLASH president Rob Weltner, who then quickly handed the mic over to Ray Ribiero so he could begin his presentation. The other people sitting at the dais along with Ribiero and a couple of his droogs were Adrienne Esposito and an associate from Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a woman from the EPA and some guy from the NYSDEC.

Ribiero’s presentation quickly established that the county’s master plan for the Bay Park STP is basically the same plan as the one originally foisted upon us last year, with some new bells and whistles added to the plant to remove ammonia from the effluent. The ammonia would be removed through a process called “nitrification”.

When asked if adding more nitrates to the effluent because of this process could cause algae blooms that would eventually choke the life from the bay, the EPA lady chimed in “The ammonia is toxic to fish.” When pressed on this process and its future impact, the EPA lady kept repeating the mantra “Ammonia is toxic to fish.”

Ribiero then got back to his presentation. As he hemmed and hawed his way through the presentation it was amazing to watch him deftly maneuver around the word “consolidation” whenever he mentioned the plan to convert the STP’s in Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach to pump stations and have their effluent pumped into the Bay Park facility. This time around the county is calling it a “diversionary plan” instead of a consolidation plan to avoid the negative connotations that word has with residents of Bay Park/East Rockaway and the surrounding communities.

Ribiero then discussed an ocean outfall pipe for the Bay Park plant, but stated that the cost of building it would be $431 million. Wasn’t it just last year the cost was $200 mil? Ribiero stated that the high cost of constructing an ocean outfall pipe would prevent it from ever becoming a reality.

Upon hearing the audience grumble with this statement, he quickly back-peddled and offered some ways to raise funding for a pipe such as consolidating the two sewage plants in Great Neck into the Cedar Creek STP, then selling “nitrate credits” to STP’s in Westchester so they could dump more effluent into the LI Sound. There was also the obligatory “Ask the Federal Government for Funding” bullet point shown as a way to get money for the pipe. How creative!

Ribiero stated throughout his presentation that the county wants to be a good neighbor to Bay Park residents, but how can they be good neighbors by holding a meeting pertaining to the Bay Park plant at a recreation center in Freeport and then not even extend an invitation to anyone from the community? And to top it off, our supposed county representative, the legislative lunkhead Jeff Toback, was nowhere to be found during the meeting. Even better, after emailing Toback to find out why he didn't notify his constituents of this important forum, he claimed ignorance saying no one told him about it!

As the meeting ended Ribiero opened the floor to questions. When he was asked if the plant had implemented any of the processes that were promised to residents of Bay Park/East Rockaway at the meeting at East Rockaway High School last year, he denied anything was promised. Adrianne Esposito from CCE informed Ribiero that she too was at that meeting and there were things that were indeed promised, such as applying UV light to the effluent before it goes into the channel to kill bacteria. Ribiero then just shook it off and said he doesn’t think any of those upgrades had yet happened.

When Ribiero was asked how the county would get the funds to proceed with this plan when the money for the consolidation plan was removed from the budget, he stated “We’ll get the money from somewhere and we are going to do this project.”

Ribiero was then asked why the county refused to do its due diligence and research the many alternatives to sewage treatment that are available. He dismissed this by saying “Well, anyone can go on the internet and find radical solutions to sewage treatment that are done by some scientist in his basement by filtering a gallon of sewage through a magic black box that turns it into drinking water. In reality though, it wouldn’t work on a large scale.”

He was then informed of technologies in sewage treatment that have been utilized for years by huge municipalities like Boston, MA and Orange County, CA and offer proven results of cleaner effluent but he then dismissed this too simply saying, “We’ve done some of those processes in the past and stopped because they are too expensive and unnecessary.”

After the meeting ended the members of Green Bay Parkers.Org approached Ribiero and his henchmen and asked if we could get a copy of “Part 2” of the county’s sewage treatment master plan. We were told the book is not allowed to be given to the public because of security issues due to the inclusion of sensitive and confidential information contained within. They did state that the entire power-point presentation that was shown at the rec center that night would be posted on the DPW page of the county website (www.nassaucountyny.gov) by Monday, April 13th.

So where does this leave the residents of Bay Park/East Rockaway and the surrounding communities? Does the county think they can prevent our efforts to stop consolidation from happening or does they truly believe we will accept their ill-conceived consolidation plan this time around? The county may think they have the power to impose their will upon the residents, but they neglected to recall the secret weapon available to us – ELECTION DAY 2009!!!

• Nassau County's Environmental Bond Scam •

At the Nassau County Legislative Meeting on August 18, 2008, Legislators Dave Denenberg, Jeff Toback, Judy Jacobs and Judi Bosworth proposed a $150 million Environmental Bond Act for open space preservation with $50 million set aside for a sewer project.

The sewer project would consist of upgrading the Cedar Creek and Bay Park sewage treatment plants, or extending the outfall pipe from the Bay Park plant from Reynolds Channel into the ocean.

The environmental bond passed through all the committees, essentially along party lines, and a public hearing was set for September 2nd at the legislature in Mineola. After the public hearing, the bond then would come to a full vote before the county legislature on Wednesday, September 3rd.

However, in the days leading up to the hearing, the Republican legislators, Democratic Legislator Dave Mejias and local environmental activist groups, such as Citizens Campaign for the Environment, The North Shore Land Alliance and many others, stated they would fight to stop the bond from going through because the sewer project should be part of the county's capitol budget, as well as potential voter backlash against a bond issue due to increased taxes in what already is some tough economic times for most Nassau County residents.

Legislator Jeff Toback, frantically phoned several Bay Park residents during the week and over the Labor Day weekend asking them what the feel of the community was. He even sent a letter to Bay Park residents asking them for their support of the environmental bond and listed the phone numbers of all the legislators who voted against it, urging residents to call and harass them into changing their minds.

Toback's letter was followed by a letter from Town of Hempstead Councilman Tony Santino to East Rockaway/Bay Park residents urging them to ask Toback if this was just a ruse to get what the county really wanted, the consolidation of the Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach sewage plants into the Bay Park plant.

Mr. Santino, as well as Minority Leader Peter Schmitt, raised the issue using the environmental bond as a smokescreen to cover up the county's true intentions, which of course, was the consolidation plan. Members of the Green Bay Parkers got together and looked at the positions of all the involved party's and figured out the county's environmental bond scam.

It works simply like this, by getting the $50 million for the design and study of an ocean outfall pipe for Bay Park through an environmental bond, as opposed to designating it a Department of Public Works project in the county's capitol budget, the county has a lot more wiggle room with the money. If this was put into the capitol plan, then the money allotted for an ocean outfall pipe could only be used for that purpose. The funds associated with a budgeted line item in the county's capitol plan can only be used for something else if it is presented and passed through committees before a final vote before the county legislature.

The county then takes the $50 million and does a feasibility study for an ocean outfall pipe for the Bay Park plant. The study, which would cost about $5 million, would surely be conducted by a firm that is friendly to the administration. The report would then indicate that the only way an ocean outfall pipe makes financial sense would be to consolidate the sewage treatment plants of Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach into Bay Park. This would leave $45 million left over, and guess how much it would cost to turn Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach into pumping stations? Yep, approximately $45 million. So now the county says, well we don't have the money for an ocean outfall pipe because that can cost anywhere between $200 to $300 million and where would they get that kind of money?

The county would then spin the whole thing by stating that by performing the consolidation they indeed helped the environment because now all the crap from those sewage plants is no longer emptying into the bay at different points and instead it's all coming to Bay Park because our sewage treatment plant is better than theirs so all those millions of gallons of sewage each day are being centrally located to one outfall area - Reynolds Channel. Only then, the county would state, could we seek out the funds needed for the ocean outfall pipe from the state and federal government because of the good faith showed by doing the consolidation (Several legislators have stated this on record back during the Jan. 14th legislative meeting on consolidation).

The truth of it is, the county would get what they so desperately want, the consolidation of Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach and all that extra sewer tax money that goes along with it. The people of Bay Park, East Rockaway and the surrounding communities would get nothing more than increased smells from the plant, additional sludge truck traffic, and whole lot more effluent dumping right into our bay! And knowing how diligently the county has worked towards getting funds needed for an ocean outfall pipe since this past January when all this consolidation nonsense began, well I'd wager that an ocean outfall pipe for the Bay Park plant will never become a reality.

The second part of the scam is this - all Nassau County residents already pay a pretty decent amount of taxes to the county. Our tax dollars are then divided up into different county departments' budgets and put into the capitol budget. Part of our taxes go to the Department of Public Works, and their sub-departments like the Sewer and Storm Water Authority. The Sewer and Storm Water Authority has a reported surplus of $60 million this year, but instead of using that money towards an ocean outfall pipe, the county wants us to dig even deeper into our pockets and front them $150 to do the same work as part of an environmental bond.

And speaking of environmental bonds, there is still at least $60 million left over from the last 2 that we voted to pass (the open space bonds from '04 and '06, which totaled $150 million). Although this money has been allocated to other projects, like fixing up baseball dugouts in county parks, it seems kind of greedy to me to hit up county residents for more money for another environmental bond when they haven't yet gone through the money we already voted to hand over to the county the other two times.

Add to all this the fact that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has already stated that a TMDL study is set to happen in our bay. This study, which our state taxes already go to pay for, costs about $2 million and will positively identify the causes for the destruction of our bay and will make requirements on what is needed to fix the problem, like reduced nitrogen levels being pumped into the bay by the sewage plant and an ocean outfall pipe for the Bay Park plant. My question is why should we pay more money to do a study that is already slated to happen?

So anyhow, September 2nd finally arrived and several members of the Bay Park/East Rockaway area came to the county's hearing on the environmental bond to express our opposition to this ill-conceived plan. After starting more than an hour passed the scheduled start time of 9:00 AM, Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro opened the hearing in the most bizarre way. Instead of the legislators speaking about the environmental bond then opening the floor to public comment, she asked the speakers in the audience to come up first and state their peace.

The concerned citizens from Bay Park/East Rockaway, along with representatives of various environmental groups, hammered the legislature with their concerns about the environmental bond and clearly stated an ocean outfall pipe is good, it is necessary, but it should not be part of an environmental bond and should be included as part of the capitol budget.

As for the bond's sponsors, Legislators Jeff Toback and Dave Denenberg fought in vain and offered lame reasons why this bond must be passed and put on the ballot this November but they were attacked with logic at every turn and got cut down every time they tried to extol the benefit for doing it. Legislator Judy Jacobs said something along the lines of "we need to do this" but it took her about 10 minutes to say it and she offered no real reason why we should. Legislator Judi Bosworth motioned to speak, then realized she was better off ducking the public's arrows and declined to speak when called upon by the Presiding Officer.

The meeting went on for over 2 hours with the concerned citizens in the audience, the Republican legislators, Legislator Dave Mejias, and even some of the very legislators who originally voted in favor of the bond, all on the attack against the environmental bond and the dopey legislators who were still in favor of it. Eventually, Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro called the meeting into recess and got up to leave. She then hurried back to the mic to tell the audience, "It's in recess until tomorrow's legislative meeting".

As the Democrat legislators retreated to their caucus room, they were quickly followed in by County Executive Tom Suozzi and two of his top aides. After about twenty minutes, Presiding Officer Diane Yatauro emerged from the caucus room and announced, that the $150 million environmental bond would be pulled and would not be put on the ballot this November due to the strong opposition from environmental groups and the fact that it really had a good chance of failure in these tough economic times.

Thankfully this battle was over a lot quicker than the first one, but as we all now know, it will only be a matter of time before the county comes back at us again in their relentless quest to consolidate Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach into Bay Park. But we remain vigilant, and whenever the day arrives that we must fight the county's ill-conceived consolidation plan again, rest assured, the concerned citizens of Bay Park/East Rockaway will be more than ready to do battle once more.

WHY DO WE BELIEVE THE COUNTY IS BEING LESS THAN TRUTHFUL ABOUT WHAT THE $50 MILLION IS FOR?

Here are some quotes concerning an ocean outflow pipe from the Bay Park plant from Legislator Dave Denenberg and his other bond act sponsoring, legislative cohorts taken from the minutes of past Legislative meetings.

January, 14, 2008 Legislative meeting

Legislator Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) - "...in order to get federal or state money for that ocean outflow would be for the smaller plants to be combined with the larger plant and then have one outflow, which is still a while away because of the $200 million. It's something that can never happen on a plant by plant basis with all the smaller plants".

Legislator Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury) - "From what I'm hearing, this beats out having to bond for something like this".

Legislator Denenberg - "We absolutely need an ocean outflow. Are we going to get it if we consolidate into Bay Park? You have a better chance than if we don't. If we don't consolidate, we won't get it at all".

Legislator Denenberg - "The DEC (Dept. of Environmental Conservation) urges consolidation as a necessary step, almost a prerequisite to apply for state funding of ocean outflow".

January, 28, 2008 Legislative meeting

Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) - "I believe to get federal funds together we have to show that the consolidation is actually happening".

February 11, 2008 Legislative meeting

Legislator Toback - "The process to start the outfall pipe is to consolidate the sewer operations so there is not six places where you need an outfall pipe, you only need one".

~ CLICK HERE TO SEE THE GBP IN THE MEDIA ~

• 2009 Beach Closings Due to High Bacteria Levels •

• FRI., JUNE 5th & SAT., JUNE 6th • RE-OPENED - SUNDAY JUNE 7th •

• SAT., JUNE 20th & SUN., JUNE 21st • RE-OPENED - MONDAY JUNE 22nd •

Hewlett Point Beach is located in Bay Park at the end of Hewlett Point Avenue. The park is operated by the Town of Hempstead and open to all Town of Hempstead residents from Memorial Day to Labor Day each summer. From time to time, mostly during heavy rainfall, the Nassau County Department of Health closes the beach as a precautionary measure due to elevated bacteria levels.

The blame is put on "Storm Water Run-off". While it is true that storm water run-off does add to the elevated bacteria levels in the bay due to all the lawn pesticides and chemicals, street debris, oils, etc. that get flushed down into the sewers that empty into the bay, it is really just half the story.

The outflow pipes from storm drains are separate from sewage pipes, but both empty into the bay. During heavy rainstorms, the storm drains are inundated with water, causing a torrent of rushing water, pesticides, debris, etc. to forcefully spew through the pipes until they reach the bay and empty out.

The storm drain effluent, which is toxic in its own right, comes rushing out into the bay then mixes with and churns up all the nitrates, choliform, poop molecules and sediment from the sewage treatment plant that's already being pumped into our bay on a daily basis. Mix these two outflows together in the same big mixing bowl (our bay) and you've got the makings of a perfect human health hazard.

According to data in the county's consolidation feasibility study, the beach was closed due to high bacteria levels seven times in 2004, six times in 2005, six times in 2006, a whopping 15 times during the summer of 2007 and six times again in 2008.

Last one in is a rotten egg!

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