• 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".
