Cuomo announces funding to reroute wastewater

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and County Executive Ed Mangano announced a plan Oct. 29 at the Friedberg JCC in Oceanside to pay for a joint state-county project to send treated wastewater from the South Shore Water Reclamation Facility eight miles east to the Cedar Creek outfall pipe, and from there, 2.5 miles into the Atlantic Ocean.

The plan, officials said, will reduce the impact of nitrogen-loaded wastewater on Long Island’s Western Bays. According to scientists, excess nitrogen in the bays is slowly killing off marine life in them.

The project will make use of an unused 100-year-old pipeline underneath Sunrise Highway that runs through Rockville Centre, Baldwin, Freeport, Merrick and Bellmore. The pipe originally carried water to New York City, and had been in regular service until the 1950s. It has only been used intermittently since then. Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, credited employees at the Nassau County Department of Public Works with coming up with the idea to use the old pipe.

A feasibility study, completed in July, found that the existing pipe under Sunrise Highway can be rehabilitated through a process called “slip-lining,” basically inserting a sleeve made of a modern material into the older pipe to prevent leaks and increase pressure limits. The project will also require the removal of 10 valves that sit at intermittent positions along the eight-mile stretch, which will eventually require construction at those points along the north, or westbound, side of Sunrise Highway.

Frank Argondizzo, a Rockville Centre resident and risk management engineer, has been following the project closely, and said he has concerns. The pipes under Sunrise Highway were designed to carry water, he said, which has lower pressures than liquids with dissolved solids like wastewater. He said that because the modern segment of pipe will meet the 100-year old pipe in Rockville Centre, and that pressures are highest upstream, the village is at a greater risk of a leak than the downstream communities to the east.

He also has concerns about the feasibility study, which relied heavily on a more complete 1977 study for comparison. According to the 2017 study, 1.6 miles of the eight-mile pipe was “inaccessible” to the survey, due to sealed or stuck valves, including the stretch of Sunrise Highway between North Village Avenue and Morris Avenue.

County Department of Public Works spokeswoman Mary Studdert said that Argondizzo’s concerns were unfounded, and that the pipe would be lined with a material “designed to withstand all internal pressures.” And, she said, “the properties of treated wastewater effluent are hydraulically similar to those of water,” meaning there isn’t enough dissolved solid in effluent to raise the pressure.

Argondizzo said that any amount of dissolved solid, including the 45 parts per million that he said Bay Park produces is enough to alter a liquid’s properties.

But his bigger concern is ensuring that village residents and officials have a seat at the table when it comes to green-lighting and overseeing the project. “Without our local input,” he said, “the current course of action is unethical.” The project doesn’t require Rockville Centre’s approval since the state controls Sunrise Highway, and the pipeline itself belongs to the county.

The county has held public forums on the project, which Agrondizzo has attended, but he called them “one-offs”, adding that proponents of the project “shouldn’t hide behind paper and stuffed shirts.” He called for greater transparency in the process, saying “We shouldn’t have to file Freedom of Information requests on this. It should be freely available… so that citizens can gather information and make their own decisions.”

“The Village recognizes the importance of this project and continues to work closely with all parties to ensure that its done with the least amount of disruption to our residents and businesses,” said Village Administrator Kathleen Murray, who also sits on the board of the RVC Conservancy. “We have been deeply concerned about the viability of the pipeline plan and appreciate the efforts of all the people who have been working to protect our way of life. We are monitoring the ongoing engineering and design studies and support the work the Governor has been overseeing.”

The county sent out a request for proposals for the engineering and design of the project on June 9. The bids were due in mid-August. According to a Nassau DPW spokeswoman, the county has not yet selected a bid, but said in early October that it would take at least a few more weeks to do so.