Schumer: EPA releasing $11M in sewer-repair funds

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced on Dec. 21 that the Environmental Protection Agency plans to release $11 million in grant money awarded to Nassau County in the mid-1980s as a reimbursement for $20 million in upgrade work done at the Bay Park and Cedar Creek sewage treatment plants at the time.

The EPA had promised the money to Nassau County, but it never came through –– until now.

Schumer said the grant money is desperately needed to fund repair work at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant in East Rockaway, which has been releasing partially treated, solid sewage into Reynolds Channel, in the waters off Long Beach, since March.

According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the sewage has been disinfected with chlorine, but the discharge of sewage solids into the channel violates state environmental law. The county has been forced to emit solids in violation of its operating permits because of mechanical failures at the Bay Park plant, DEC officials said.

“After years of pressing the EPA to release these funds, the check for Nassau ratepayers is finally in the mail,” said Schumer. “These funds will be used to address major sewer infrastructure issues and will provide the county with long-overdue resources to address urgent problems like the leak at Reynolds Channel.”

Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said, "Thanks to Senator Schumer's years of hard work, Nassau taxpayers are finally getting paid back what they are owed. This vital funding will allow us to immediately improve the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant and other county infrastructure that crumbled due to neglect over the past decade.”

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