Thursday, October 1, 2026
The county-owned Bay Park sewage treatment plant can hold a average of 70 million gallons of sewage daily, according to William Spitz, Regional Water Manager for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. But recently, DEC officials report that the plant discharged an excess of cloudy effluent or flow at the near East Rockaway facility.
The DEC’s investigation is looking into discharge incidents involving excess amounts of suspended solids that created cloud plumes in the effluent released into Reynolds Channel on Oct. 16 and 17. The department became aware of the problem on Oct. 18.
“The plant has a permit limit, which is established for them,” Spitz said. “We have not gotten the October report on the discharge, but from what we saw, we suspect they are discharging ten times over the limit.”
Following the plant’s policy, those solids are dewatered, stabilized, and trudged off site for disposal. According to the department, the discharge is disinfected before it is released in the “administrative safety zone,” which is the area surrounding the plant’s outfall pipe in Reynolds Channel.
“This is not raw sewage discharge, and preliminary tests reveal these solids were already treated,” said Michael Martino, press secretary for Nassau County executive Edward Mangano.
When clouds plumes appear in the effluent, the concentration of suspended solids is much higher than allowed by environmental law — 30 milligrams per litter of suspended solids for this facility. “At the point where clouds are created, it seems to us that the plant is momentarily and sporadically being overwhelmed with concentration in their tanks,” Spitz said.
And Spitz said that though Reynolds Channel is very “well flushed“, too many solids have the potential to degrade the water environment, which there are limits set to remove any contaminants using technology techniques. “We can’t solve the problem because this is not our plant,” Spitz said. “What we can do is address the problem with enforcement action. This plant has a number of components in need of repair and rehab, which it is operating less than sufficient to be able to remove solids to comply with their permit.”
