• Equipment Failure Sends Raw Sewage into Hempstead Bay •

A small article in a recent edition of Newsday announced that an equipment failure at Nassau County's Cedar Creek sewage treatment plant in Wantagh released 51,000 gallons of raw sewage, some of which spilled into East Hempstead Bay.

In case you are unaware, East Hempstead Bay is part of Hempstead Bay, the body of water that is in our backyards, and where the outflow from the Bay Park sewage treatment plant flows into.

The malfunction at Cedar Creek forced the DEC to close over 500 acres shell fishing areas so as to prevent any human consumption of contaminated shellfish and clearly illustrates Nassau County’s failure to maintain its’ infrastructure properly.

And yet the story disappeared after one day. No public outcry, no environmental groups screaming that this is a travesty, no supposedly “green” politicians stepping up to ensure us this won’t happen again. Nothing at all.

Am I crazy to think that there’s a real serious problem going on when 51,000 gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the bay we all use for our recreation and no one is up in arms about it? That’s 51,000 gallons of raw sewage dumped into the bay where our children go swimming. 51,000 gallons of raw sewage dumped into the bay where we catch fish that end up on our dinner table.

What safeguards are in place to make sure that the equipment at the Bay Park plant will not similarly fail? Cedar Creek handles about 58 million to 60 million gallons of treated sewage daily, approximately the same as Bay Park. What will happen if we suffer an equipment malfunction as well? How much raw sewage can be dumped into the bay before it dies completely?

The county’s practice of placing band-aids on major problems is nothing new, but here we all saw the result of the quick fix and the result is not pretty. The Bay Park plant, which has been running 24 hours a day, seven days a week for several decades to pump almost 60 million gallons of sewage daily, has gotten general maintenance on its equipment, but there have been no major upgrades in the past twenty years. Are we sitting on an ecological time bomb?

Now imagine that the county had gotten their wish of consolidating the sewage from Cedarhurst, Lawrence and Long Beach into our rapidly aging sewage treatment plant at Bay Park. I believe the extra waste pumped into the Bay Park facility from those plants would be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Let’s act before the camel’s back is broken.

• County Executive Tom Suozzi Strikes Again •

So, once again the County Executive, Tom Suozzi, and his lackeys in the Department of Public Works have tried to pull a fast one on the residents of Bay Park/East Rockaway by sneaking a clause into the budget that would allow Suozzi get money needed for sewer plant consolidation without the approval of the Nassau County Legislature.

Buried deep in the back pages of Suozzi's proposed $2.6 billion Capitol Budget for 2009 was a fiscal gimmick that would allow the county executive to float bonds for water and sewer projects without getting the required 2/3's approval of the legislature. This would allow the county's Sewer and Storm Water Financing Authority to get additional bonding for sewer projects, such as the consolidation of Long Beach, Cedarhurst and Lawrence into Bay Park, to be carried out "without further action by the County Legislature."

Thankfully, Republican Minority Leader, Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa), called out the County Executive on this flimflam maneuver and stated at the budget hearings, "I'm putting it on the record that if the budget is passed by a 10-9 vote . . . we're going to litigate." Legislator Schmitt indicated he would not hesitate to file suit against the county executive if the budget approval fell short of the 13 "Super Majority" affirmative votes, and if the "without further action" section was not changed or deleted entirely from the budget.

The next day after the hearings, Tom Suozzi said he would drop the budget maneuver. "We're going to change that language," a Suozzi spokesperson told the media.

What is wrong with this knucklehead? The proposed budget has a 3.9% property tax hike for all county residents and includes $69.5 million in cuts already. With the downturn of the economy, many more cuts (about $30 million more) will eventually be made at the expense of various groups such as veterans, seniors, youth, minorities and the disabled. And yet, in these fiscally unsure times, the County Executive wants to borrow more money so he can complete his ill-conceived scheme of consolidating the sewer plants of Long Beach, Cedarhurst and Lawrence into Bay Park.

Why would the county want to drive itself further in debt in this uncertain economy? Why does the County Executive keep pushing for this consolidation to happen? I guess the reason is one that we've known all along . . . Tom Suozzi's just doesn't care about the residents of Bay Park/East Rockaway and the surrounding communities.

• Nassau County's Environmental Bond Scam •

At the Nassau County Legislative Meeting on August 18th, 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".

• NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Set To Do TMDL Study •

With County Executive Tom Suozzi's consolidation plan stuck in Limbo, we wrote to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to find out where the state stands on recognizing the environmental problems of Hempstead Bay, and specifically Reynolds Channel, due to the 60 millions gallons of effluent a day that emanates from the county's sewage treatment plant at Bay Park.

We also inquired when the NYSDEC would be performing a much needed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study on Hempstead Bay to see what damage is already being done to the bay.

Here is the reply from Bill Fonda, Regional Citizen Participation Specialist, NYSDEC:

Thank you for your letter regarding the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant and its impact to Hempstead Bay.

Hempstead Bay was first listed in the State's 303(d) in 2006 as an impaired water body due to possible over enrichment of nitrogen from point and non-point sources. This listing is the first step in recognizing that Hempstead Bay is impaired and that a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) or a watershed restoration plan is needed. The listing was done based on input from the South Shore Estuary Reserve (SSER) Office, local government groups, and with the knowledge of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) staff.

DEC has committed staff time this year to initiate the TMDL process by directing and overseeing the TMDL process through the South Shore Estuary Reserve Office. An initial planning meeting was held earlier this year with officials from the SSER, the New York Department of State and local municipal officials. The actual calculation of the TMDL will likely be conducted by a consultant that specializes in water quality modeling. Other related activities such as monitoring and data gathering, reports, will be done via contractors, local municipal staff, SSER staff, and state staff.

The TMDL process is tentatively scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013. During this process, meetings will be held with the SSER Citizens Advisory Commission. At the end of that process, a public workshop on the draft TMDL will be held. The TMDL is a comprehensive process that looks at all sources of nitrogen into the bay and determines how best to reduce the nitrogen loading into the bay. The costs associated with the entire TMDL process is conservatively estimated to be $2 million.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me at (631) 444-0350.

Sincerely,

Bill Fonda, Regional Citizen Participation Specialist

So what is next? The plan is to keep vigilant in watching that the county doesn't try to finagle funding from somewhere to try and push their ill-conceived consolidation plan through until the TMDL is completed. If the TMDL indicates the plant is the main contributor to the death of the bay, then the county will have no alternative to upgrade the sewage plant and maybe even really try to seek funding for a much needed ocean outfall pipe before trying to add more sewage. These are things that should already be happening to ensure that the Bay Park sewage treatment plant is run as clean and efficiently as possible. The only improvements to the plant since all this nonsense began back in January of 2008 has been the removal of the scavenger waste oil and a tree that was planted by the County Executive.

Check back for more exciting news as it happens!!!

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• 2008 Beach Closings Due to High Bacteria Levels •

CLOSED - Sunday, June 15th • RE-OPENED - Monday, June 16th

CLOSED - Wed., July 23rd & Thurs., July 24th • RE-OPENED - Friday, July 25th

CLOSED - Monday, July 28th • RE-OPENED - Tuesday, July 29th

CLOSED - Fri., Aug. 15th & Sat., Aug. 16th • RE-OPENED - Sunday, Aug. 17th

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 and an unprecedented 15 times during the summer of 2007.

Last one in is a rotten egg!

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