Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor: East Rockaway, Lynbrook

May 16-22, 2013

Posted

Needs relief from sewage smell

To the Editor:

On Monday, my wife and I were asked to attend our grandson’s lacrosse game being played on a field in Bay Park. We were a little late, so when I parked the car we immediately opened the doors to rush onto the field. I got about two steps from my car when I was enveloped by an odor so foul that it stopped me in my tracks. The smell was overpowering to the point that I thought I would get sick to my stomach. My wife took one breath and immediately got back in the car and closed the windows.

  I am a native of East Rockaway, and since the Nassau County Sewage Treatment Facility (we used to call it ‘the plant’)  was constructed, I have unfortunately become accustomed to the unpleasant smells coming from there. This, however, was far and above the worst I have ever experienced. The few people who were trying to watch the game were all trying to cover their noses in an attempt to filter out the odor. The fans of the opposing team were all asking what was causing the smell and saying among themselves, “How could anyone live in this village?” When the game ended, the opposing team sprinted for their bus so that they could leave the area as quickly as possible.

  Last week, there was another failure at the plant that resulted in a sewage spill that further polluted Hewlett Bay and the waterways leading from East Rockaway to the Atlantic Ocean. Our beaches are supposed to open in less than a month. Who in their right mind would let their family go swimming in the local waters or eat any fish caught there? Can anyone imagine the outcry if something like this were to occur in the Hamptons or just about anywhere on the North Shore of Long Island? The fallout would have the local, state and federal politicians falling over each other to find a speedy solution.

  When are East Rockaway, Bay Park and Oceanside — which also gets the odor from the plant — going to get some relief? When will Sandy money, being distributed by the state and federal governments, reach us in the “bathroom community” of Nassau County? And yes, I have heard our village called by that name.

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