Money for sewage plants

The first meeting of the Hurricane Sandy Wastewater Treatment Plant committee was held on September 20. It provided committee members with a brief overview of the current status of the two sewage treatment plants and projects pending in those plants.

The Nassau County Legislature has authorized $24,767,700 for odor control improvements at the Cedar Creek Water Treatment facility. The new odor control system will use a biofilter with wood chips to consume the odors, thus eliminating the need for chemicals and bulk storage. The chips are replaced every three to five years.

To date, there have been 46 odor complaints; three between January and July; 43 complaints over the summer.

A second capital improvement project at Cedar Creek is the purchase and installation of four new bar screens for the grid system to be completed in 2014.

Meanwhile at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, five contracts have been awarded to begin eight projects that are awaiting approval by the Nassau Interim Finance Authority. Some of those projects include the cleaning and rehabilitation of the plant’s digestors, a final tank rehabilitation project, odor control and abatement, new equipment to replace a failed control transformer and a project to design improvements to the plant’s Influent Screening Facility. Recently, the County Legislature authorized $262 million to begin these repairs at Bay Park.