Bay Park dumping disaster: 2010 Year in Review

Unfiltered solids started spewing from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment plant’s outflow pipe in Reynolds Channel, prompting EPA investigations and people calling for the DEC to take action against the plant.

The solids were treated, but above DEC guidelines. To stop the illegal dumping, the county Department of Public Works started trucking the sewage — up to 80,000 gallons a day — from the Bay Park plant in East Rockaway, through Baldwin and Freeport, to a pumping station in Merrick where the sewage is then piped to the Cedar Creek treatment facility in Wantagh.

In addition, Senator Charles Schumer announced that he finally managed to get the EPA to release $11 million in sewer funds it owed to the county — money Nassau can use to repair the aging and decrepit Bay Park facility.