By Mike Caputo
The announcement comes as good news to Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise, who said the village had been trying to get into the county's sewage system for years. New mandates by the Department of Environmental Conservation have forced the independent sewer districts like Lawrence and Cedarhurst to upgrade the older facilities.
According to Parise, it could cost up to $10 million for facility improvements tailored to the DEC's standards, a price that villages running independent sewer districts would prefer not to pay.
"That is a huge operation for us to do," Parise said. "We can't afford it."
Cedarhurst recently took on a $2 million dollar bond to make improvements at its sewage facility, located near Lawrence High School. That plant was built in 1939 and has required a multitude of upgrades over the years. The older condition of the facility, combined with the DEC's new requirements have made it a struggle for Cedarhurst.
"It is old -- like the rest of us, you get old and you start to fall apart," Parise said. "It would be impossible for us to bring that up to date. We spent so much money just doing band aids, every now and then, just to keep the [sewage facility] running because we had no choice."
Lawrence Mayor Jack Levenbrown could not be immediately reached for comment as of Tuesday's press time.
The Village of Lawrence has historically had its struggles with water control. In 2006, village officials enacted a moratorium that banned construction projects requiring high water usage. The temporary moratorium, which stayed in effect for a year and a half and delayed the Number One School property development project, was called on by Lawrence village officials after the water pollution control plant operated beyond its maximum capacity of 1.5 million gallons a day.
Lawrence's sewage treatment plant is located on the corner of Rock Hall Road Ext. and Doughty Blvd.
For more coverage on Suozzi's press conference and the sewage consolidation, read next week's edition of the Herald.
Comments about this story? Mcaputo@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.
