Thursday, October 1, 2026
Funds for two long-awaited projects for the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant — an ocean outfall pipe and a nitrogen-removal system — were not included in recent New York state funding plans, leaving local officials and environmentalists wondering when, or if, the promised money will be coming.
“The Bay Park wastewater treatment plant is being rebuilt to allow for an ocean outfall pipe and nitrogen-removal system, as both projects are vital for our environment and the surrounding communities,” said Nassau County spokesman Brian Nevin. “The state committed to provide the $150 million for the nitrogen-removal system, and we expect they will make good on their word. We are awaiting those funds. They committed to provide them, but haven’t yet.”
As reported in the Herald last month, Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not include funds for the outfall pipe in his proposed state budget, but instead vowed to “continue to press the federal government” to come up with the estimated $546 million to $700 million for the project. Another $150 million, for a nitrogen-removal system, was expected to be included in the state’s plans for a third installment of storm-recovery money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — in the form of Community Development Block Grants — that federal officials announced last May, but the item did not appear on the state’s request to HUD.
“It’s a mystery to us,” said Rob Weltner, executive director of the environmental group Operation SPLASH. “The $150 million for nitrogen removal was not in the state’s request to fund that project. This is a new revelation to us. The state was supposed to request that money, and they didn’t do it. Why? Where is the money? Albany has not responded to our inquiries on this matter.”
Weltner, who spearheaded efforts to undertake a nitrogen study and advocated for nitrogen removal from the Western Bays, said that he and his organization are extremely disappointed that Cuomo did not allocate money for it. “All this talk about mitigation, and nothing,” Weltner said. “… Talk is cheap. You have to put your money where your mouth is. We have all this money available, and yet there’s nothing for this? They’ve left us in the rearview mirror.”
