Thursday, October 1, 2026
For some living near the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant off Merrick Road in Wantagh, the smell emanating from the facility is more than an occasional nuisance — it has shaped daily life for decades.
The odors, often described by residents as sewage-like or sulfuric, have become a recurring source of frustration in nearby neighborhoods, including Seaford, particularly for homeowners closest to the South Shore waterfront the facility overlooks. It sits just beyond the end of Neptune Avenue South, where residents say they regularly deal with odors and other concerns tied to the plant.
“We pay such incredibly high taxes and can’t use our outdoor space,” said Seaford resident Debra Stoeckert Rapisardi, who has lived near the facility for 26 years. “There are times that you literally hold your nose when you have to go outside.”
Rapisardi described this past winter as among the worst she can remember.
“This winter, for some strange reason, it was horrible, mostly every single night,” she said. “You can’t even go sit outside and put your fire pit on.” She said the issue has changed the way her family lives inside their own home.
“I use my air conditioner all year long,” Rapisardi said. “I never, ever open up the windows.”
Other residents described similar experiences, including smelling the odors while driving along the Wantagh Parkway or spending time outdoors near the water. Several said they have stopped reporting the issue altogether because they feel complaints lead nowhere.
“You call, you complain about the smell, and they say, ‘Well, it can’t be coming from us,’” Rapisardi said. “Those calls go absolutely nowhere.”
But officials with Veolia, the environmental services company that operates Cedar Creek on behalf of Nassau County, said the facility remains one of Long Island’s most critical pieces of environmental infrastructure.
The Cedar Creek facility serves roughly 600,000 residents and processes around 60 million gallons of wastewater daily, according to Veolia officials. Wastewater first passes through screens and grit chambers that remove debris before moving into settling and aeration tanks, where bacteria break down organic material and remove pollutants. The remaining sludge is processed in heated digesters, which reduce waste and produce methane gas reused to help power portions of the facility.
“If we were to shut down the plant immediately, there’d be a massive backup into the homes of all those 600,000 people,” Cedar Creek project leader Daniel Rowe said. “Without wastewater treatment, essentially, we’d be pouring sewage straight into the ocean.”
Environmental advocates largely agreed with that assessment.
John Turner, senior conservation policy advocate for the Long Island environmental group Seatuck Environmental Association, called Cedar Creek “critically important” to Long Island’s environmental health.
“All of the sewage treatment plants on Long Island play a vitally important role,” Turner said. “If somehow you had all that sewage being generated that could not be treated, it would be catastrophic.”
Turner explained that centralized wastewater systems are essential in densely populated areas like Nassau County, where relying solely on septic systems and cesspools could threaten Long Island’s aquifer system.
Still, Turner acknowledged that persistent odors near a wastewater facility should not simply be accepted as normal.
“An operating plant that is operating well shouldn’t be generating regular strong odors,” he said. “That suggests there may be something else going on.”
According to Veolia officials, odors can originate from multiple sources, including wastewater collection lines, nearby marshlands, low-tide conditions and weather patterns that trap odors near the ground.
One phenomenon officials referenced is known as an “air inversion,” a weather condition in which cooler air becomes trapped beneath warmer air, preventing odors from dispersing normally.
“There are some environmental conditions or atmospheric conditions that would make any odors tend to linger in the area,” Rowe said.
Veolia officials said the company monitors hydrogen sulfide — the gas commonly associated with sewage odors — using sensors around the facility and throughout surrounding communities. The company has also implemented additional sewer flushing, installed carbon filters in certain manholes and expanded odor-abatement systems in recent years.
Officials pointed to internal data showing odor complaints decreasing after a spike earlier this year, dropping from 15 in January to seven in February and one in March after maintenance and operational adjustments.
Officials also acknowledged that odors can temporarily worsen during equipment failures or maintenance work. Rowe cited a scrubber pipe that burst during extremely cold weather this winter, briefly taking odor-control equipment offline before repairs were completed.
“We take every single report seriously,” said Adam Lisberg, Veolia’s senior vice president of external communications.
Still, the divide between residents and plant operators remains evident.
Residents told the Herald they often feel dismissed after filing complaints, while Veolia officials expressed frustration that some residents experiencing odors may not formally report them through the hotline system.
“If people aren’t reporting it to us, we don’t know,” Lisberg said.
Lauren Sternberg, the plant’s communications manager, said she oversees every phone call except overnight complaints, which are addressed the next day. She said each reported issue is investigated by crews assigned to different sections of the facility, and residents are contacted after adjustments are made.
Turner said the tension reflects the difficult balance between maintaining essential infrastructure and protecting nearby residents’ quality of life.
“They need to try to the greatest extent possible to make sure that infrastructure harmonizes with the communities that it’s being placed in,” Turner said.
That challenge may become even more important in coming years as the Bay Park Conveyance Project in southern Nassau County moves toward completion. The project will eventually redirect treated wastewater from the Bay Park facility to Cedar Creek’s ocean outfall, reducing nitrogen discharge into local bays and improving regional water quality.
“Long Island is awash in too much nitrogen,” Turner said. “It’s vital that we continue to ratchet down the amount of nitrogen that is in our wastewater.”
Rapisardi said she understands the plant serves an essential purpose, but believes nearby residents have carried the burden of the infrastructure for too long.
“I understand it’s a plant,” she said. “I understand that at some point there’s going to be some type of odor. But can we come together and do this on a specific day or night — just something that allows us to utilize our outdoor space?”
