Thursday, October 1, 2026
Depending on the tides, there is a foul, fishy smell in the air from time to time in the East Rockaway community of Bay Park. Throw in a sewage treatment plant and heavy winds, and that smell can grow more unpleasant, which is nothing new for those who live in the area.
Over the past few weeks, however, Bay Park residents have said that the smell has reached a whole new level of foulness.
“It’s always smelled, for years, but since the hurricane it’s just gotten a lot worse,” said resident Christine Triolo-Jaskowiak. “The past months, it’s the worst it’s ever been.”
Triolo-Jaskowiak, who has lived in Bay Park for 17 years, said that, depending on the wind, operations at the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant can leave her entire home filled with a noxious odor. “When it’s bad,” she said, “I can’t even keep the windows in my house open.”
Mike Martino, spokesman for the Nassau County Department of Public Works, said that work to repair the extensive damage the Bay Park plant sustained during Hurricane Sandy is still in progress, and as yet there is no estimate of when it will be completed.
“Repairing and rebuilding the plant will take time, and, occasionally, that critical work may cause an odor situation,” Martino said. “Steps have been taken to ensure the odors are eliminated as soon as possible.”
He added that controls have been put in place to “offset the odors, and we will continue to monitor and adjust the odor control as needed during the reconstruction work at the facility.”
Thirty-seven-year Bay Park resident Deborah Lilly said that the smell from the plant has varied over the years. In the 1980s, she said, it was terrible, but then the situation improved. The odor came back a few years ago, and since Hurricane Sandy, and even more so over the last few weeks, Lilly said, a foul stench has been prevalent. While gardening last weekend, she said, she had to take several breaks inside her house because the smell was simply too much to bear, and she was afraid she would become nauseous.
