Amid cries of "Don't dump on us," "We are not Nassau County's toilet" and "Toback, your plan stinks," close to 200 protesters showed up at a Bay Park rally in March to voice their outrage at a county Legislature-approved consolidation of Lawrence and Cedarhurst sewage into the county's sewage plant in Bay Park.
Waving homemade signs, wearing masks and biochemical garb - one participant was even dressed as a toilet bowl - residents from Bay Park, East Rockaway, Angle Sea, Oceanside, Island Park and Long Beach joined Hempstead Town Councilman Anthony Santino, who called the rally to protest the consolidation plan.
"Our message is simple," said Santino. "Rather than shutting down the plants in Lawrence and Cedarhurst, and spending, by some estimates, $15 million to build a pipe ... that money can be used to rebuild a plant in Lawrence and Cedarhurst ... our cause is right and just."
New York state Sen. Dean Skelos reminisced about fishing for snapper in Reynolds Channel when he was a young man. The reason we live here is quality of life for ourselves and our children, Skelos said. We want to make sure that what you catch is safe to eat. I pledge to work with Santino to see that Bay Park does not get dumped on."
Kristin Octera, spokeswoman for the residents, marveled at the size of the crowd. Look around you, she said as she scanned the small sea of people. "We are together on this. We want to tell the county that their decisions affect our lives. We will not be deterred.
Legislator Fran Becker, who joined the protest, recalled the meeting at which the consolidation plan was passed. "I stood with all of you, and they shut the microphone off on me, Becker said. Look at all these kids, he added gesturing toward the crowd. Look at what they-re learning. I-m so proud of each and every one of you, and I was ashamed of the way the Democrats took the vote that day. I pleaded with them to table it. It was passed 9-10 along partisan lines. They have shut you and me out."
Becker likened the rally to the Boston Tea Party, and jokingly suggested throwing something into the bay in protest. Someone from the crowd shouted, "Throw Toback in!"
East Rockaway Mayor Ed Sieban said simply, "We will get our bay back again."
Residents boo consolidation plan
By Anthony Bottan
Boos and jeers rained down on County Executive Thomas Suozzi on March 18 at East Rockaway High School, where more than 300 Bay Park and East Rockaway residents gathered for an informational meeting with county legislators on the recent plan for consolidation of sewer districts.
On Jan. 14, in a 10-8 vote, the county Legislature approved the consolidation of the Lawrence, Cedarhurst and Glen Cove sewage districts with the county's system in Bay Park. East Rockaway and Bay Park residents have strongly opposed the consolidation, fearing that the extra 2 million gallons of sewage per day that would be diverted to the Bay Park sewage treatment facility would worsen the odor in the neighborhood and damage the environment.
"It makes the most sense, financially and environmentally," Suozzi said. He explained that the consolidation would reduce capital and operating costs, and increase the chances of getting grants from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which encourage consolidation.
According to Suozzi, the consolidation would decrease the amount of sewage dumped into Reynolds Channel by 100,000 pounds per year. The construction needed for the consolidation would begin in January 2009, Suozzi said, and end by December 2010.
Ray Ribeiro, commissioner of the county's Department of Public Works, gave a presentation regarding the common fears of Bay Park and East Rockaway residents: odor, the closure of bathing beaches, truck traffic, construction, environmental impact and plant capacity. In response to the claim that the extra sewage would negatively impact on the environment, Ribeiro said that belief "could not be further from the truth."
Though residents have complained of odors coming from the plant, Ribeiro said there is no correlation between odor and sewage flow. Ribeiro also tried to allay concerns about construction and truck traffic, saying that there would not be any construction in Bay Park or the streets surrounding the plant. Also, in the interest of decreasing truck traffic, the county pledged that by April 30, it will no longer accept grease trap waste at the plant, which would eliminate 45 waste trucks per week from the roads around the facility. Grease trap waste, Ribeiro said, would be diverted to a plant in either Glen Cove or in Suffolk County.
Still, Bay Park and East Rockaway residents said they felt the consolidation is just another means of making Bay Park "the toilet of Nassau County."
"We are tired of being dumped on," Petrucci said. "We will slowly be choked to death like the western bays themselves."
What's in the water?
Environmental advocates have stepped up their fight to limit further pollution of local waterways in light of the recent vote by the Nassau County Legislature to consolidate two sewage treatment facilities into a plant in Bay Park.
Two local environmental advocacy groups, Citizens Campaign for the Environment and Operation SPLASH - Stop Polluting Littering And Save Harbors, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending coastal pollution - are in favor of consolidation, as long as a Total Maximum Daily Load assessment is performed and significant upgrades are made to the Bay Park plant. A TMDL determines how much discharge a waterway can tolerate without deteriorating. It also investigates why waterways become degraded and proposes ways to return them to a healthy state.
The New York State Department of Conservation has listed the Western Bays as an impaired body of water, and the DEC's Long Island regional director, Peter Scully, recently announced that it would conduct a state-funded TMDL. The study, Scully said, will cost $1 million and take a year to complete.
According to Aphrodite Montalvo, a spokeswoman for the DEC, nitrogen levels do not directly cause the death of marine life. Rather, nitrogen in the water acts as a fertilizer, triggering blooms of marine life, like algae. When the nitrogen supply is exhausted, the algae die, and as they decay, the oxygen in the water is used up by the bacteria that break down the dead algae. This process can deplete the level of dissolved oxygen in the water to the point where marine wildlife is endangered.
Esposito said that an ocean outfall pipe, which would discharge treated effluent two miles out into the Atlantic, could help restore the Western Bays. It would be easier to lobby for such a pipe for one combined sewage treatment facility than for several, she said. "The objective is to clean up and restore the Western Bays," Esposito said. "In order to achieve that goal, we need an ocean outfall pipe or a dramatic upgrade at the Bay Park facility. Either one of those actions will have a tremendous positive impact on the Western Bays.
