Sewage treatment plant illegally dumping into bay

“You just smelled it again,” said Legislator Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick), who stood at West Bay Drive in Long Beach last week with several West Pine Street residents, observing the brown plume moving across Reynolds Channel. “That is [from the] sewage treatment plant,” he said. “You shouldn’t be smelling it from here.”

The repugnant odor and sight, what Denenberg said is the result of illegal sewage discharge into Reynolds Channel from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant — owned and operated by Nassau County and treats about half of the county’s sewage — has alarmed residents who live near the channel, who said that it has become an environmental hazard and a quality-of-life issue.

Resident Jim Hangley said that the county’s “toilets are flushing out right behind my house.”

At a press conference on Tuesday at the pier off West Bay Drive, a group of local environmentalists, Long Beach officials and residents joined Denenberg to demand that Nassau County officials take immediate action to stop the “sludge” from being illegally discharged into the bay.

“The violations have become repeated and excessive,” said Denenberg, who called for Legislative hearings and an immediate investigation into the treatment plant.

Since March, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has issued numerous violations in response to the discharge.

William Spitz, the DEC’s regional water manager, explained that the DEC is conducting an investigation after the agency discovered in October that the plant was discharging more sewage, or suspended solids, than allowed by environmental law.

Spitz said the excessive amounts have created cloud plumes in the effluent released into Reynolds Channel.

“There shouldn’t be a brown plume,” said Spitz. “This is an egregious violation — we will be levying fines and insisting on whatever other measures are required to bring about compliance at the plant.”

In a letter dated Nov. 4 to Richard Cotugno, the treatment plant’s superintendent, Spitz issued a notice of violation and advised Cotugno to end the discharge immediately.