By ANTHONY BOTTAN
Despite the opposition, members of the Legislature's Public Works Committee voted 5-4 to enter into the agreement with the two villages.
The Bay Park plant currently processes 60 million gallons of sewage per day, and the addition of Cedarhurst and Lawrence to the system will mean another 2 million gallons per day. According to the county's commissioner of public works, Ray Ribeiro, the Bay Park sewage treatment facility is permitted by the state Department of Conservation to process up to 72 million gallons per day.
Ribeiro said that a pumping station will be built in Lawrence, and the sewage will be sent from Lawrence to Inwood, and then on to Bay Park. Gravity will take sewage from Cedarhurst to Inwood, he explained, which will then be pumped into the Bay Park facility as well. There will be no construction in Bay Park, Ribeiro noted, and the cost of the diversion will be $17 million, which is less than the $30 million it would cost to upgrade the treatment facilities in Cedarhurst and Lawrence. The Bay Park plant also processes sewage more efficiently than those plants, he said.
"We applied to the DEC and they approved the diversion project," Ribeiro said. "The method of treatment is more efficient at the county facility. The county plant removes 95 percent of solids, while the local plants only remove 85 percent. It will be a tremendous benefit to the Western Bays."
The village boards in Lawrence and Cedarhurst voted on May 12 to issue bonds to pay for the construction, but the contract between the county and two villages states that if the villages falls short on paying the bond, the villages would look to the county, subject to appropriation, to cover its shortfalls. That means if the villages fell short on its bond payments, the Legislature would have to vote to spend the money to cover the shortfalls.
Tapping into federal funds?
Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) said if the Legislature voted against spending the money to cover the villages' shortfalls, the two villages could sue the county. If the county didn't pay the judgement, he said, the courts could seize county bank accounts. But Toback noted that he doesn't foresee any situation where the villages would fall short on its bond payments because the debt service is only $160,000 a year, and the villages would collect $1.2 million in sewer rents annually, which would more than cover the debt service. "It's so remote and down the line that it's not going to be an issue," Toback said of Cedarhurst and Lawrence falling short on its bond payments.
Ribeiro added that the county plans to tap into federal stimulus money for the project. The state Environmental Facilities Corp. will issue $26 million in bonds, he said, federal stimulus money would be used to pay the bonds.
Legislator Francis Becker (R-Lynbrook) described the process of the villages bonding for the project an "end-around." The plan will not require the county to issue bonds or guarantee the village bonds, Becker said, even though it will own the pumping station in Lawrence and it will be run by county employees. And since the county isn't bonding the project, a simple majority vote is all that's needed to pass the overall consolidation plan. A supermajority vote is needed for a county bond to pass.
"We're doing things in a very back-door way," Becker said. "It's so disingenuous. This process has been flawed and dishonest."
Upgrades and outfall pipe
Most East Rockaway and Bay Park residents said they are not against the consolidation, but want to see upgrades made to the Bay Park facility first. Ribeiro said that over the next five years, nearly $70 million will be spent to upgrade the county facility, and the diversion of the two other plants to Bay Park would reduce the volume of solid waste released into Reynolds Channel, where the county facility currently dumps treated sewage, by 100,000 pounds.
Some residents questioned how consolidation could move forward without the results of a Total Maximum Daily Load. The test determines the amount of pollutants a body of water can handle without violating state water quality standards. Ribeiro said that a TMDL could not be completed until 2013, and the county can't afford to wait for the results. If it does, he said, the county could miss out on receiving federal stimulus money for the project.
Other residents, like Marion O'Hara, said that the Bay Park plant can't take on any more sewage. "Bringing in more sewage will destroy our town," O'Hara said. "I'm embarrassed this is happening. If this goes through, people will move out."
Residents of both East Rockaway and Bay Park urged Ribeiro that upgrades at the plant should include installing an outfall pipe, which would send the treated effluent two miles out into the rather than into the Western Bays. Though initial estimates put the price of an outfall pipe at $200 million, Ribeiro said that estimate has nearly doubled.
Comments on this story? ABottan@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 246.
