Federal funds flowing to sewage plant

The problems at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant are being addressed with a major infrastructure overhaul, county officials said, thanks to more than $800 million in federal funding awarded earlier this year.

There are six construction projects under way, including new odor controls and a sludge thickening improvement project, according to Michael DeNicola, vice president of Hazen & Sawyer, an environmental engineering company hired by the county.

Two more projects — a $28 million contract to replace and elevate four electrical substations and a $37 million contract to build an 18-foot-tall floodwall, or berm, around the perimeter of the plant — should get started soon, Deputy Nassau County Executive Rob Walker said. The County Legislature approved the contract to strengthen the electrical distribution system on Monday, and Walker said that the contract for the berm would be taken up by the Legislature next month.

Walker, along with county officials and Hazen & Sawyer representatives, led a presentation on March 20 during a special legislative hearing on the plant. Discussion at the three-hour meeting ranged from the damage the plant suffered in Hurricane Sandy to the work that is under way now to the details of future projects.

According to Walker, about $150 million of the $830 million in federal funding for the plant has been used (including the money that would be spent on the berm if it is approved), but Democratic Legislators Dave Denenberg, of Merrick, and Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams, of Hempstead, questioned the pace of the projects. “Entering into a contract and actually expending the money and getting the work done are two different things,” Denenberg said.

Walker responded that the county is looking to get work done fast, but is making sure the plant is rebuilt the right way. “This is going to be a four-year project,” he said. “We’re going to be talking about this until 2017. It’s impossible to finish any time before that unless we’re miraculously able to drop in a new plant via helicopter.”