Times they are a changin’ ... Deputy County Executive Rob Walker and the new county commissioner of public works, Bellmore resident Sheila Shah-Gavnoudias, told residents that the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant will be receiving long-awaited improvements to its infrastructure as well as hiring additional employees to maintain the sewage treatment plant.

Superintendent Richard Cotugno has been removed from the day-to-day operations of Cedar Creek and Bay Park, said Mr. Walker.

About 45 people, including residents and workers, had gathered in the community room at Cedar Creek on Thursday, August 12, to question county officials on the status of the Cedar Creek sewage plant. Cedar Creek has been plagued with problems – a crumbling infrastructure, lack of maintenance, not enough workers, and a poor management style – over the last few years.

Those problems were recently documented in a report presented to the Nassau County Legislature in the March when the new administration promised that changes would be made.

But months have passed and changes have been far and few between, residents said. To date, four employees have been hired but the plant needs at least 19 employees, according to the county’s master plan, not including those employees who took the county’s retirement incentive package this summer.  Also, workers still raised issues about the health and welfare of employees, no resources to maintain the plant, outsourcing of work that could be done in-house and the constant breakdown of equipment. 

“I know you haven’t seen a lot of changes but in the next four months, beginning in September, there will be changes,” said Mr. Walker, who added that “we are moving forward and we will not play the blame game.”

Commissioner Shah-Gavnoudias elaborated. “This will be the first of many public meetings. We want to make sure the plant is given the attention it needs. We hired Richard Millet as a deputy commissioner of public works; Hector Santiago who will look at training and security and Michael Fasano, our person to  work as a community liaison,” she said. 

“As a team we will analyze the plant and look at staffing levels, equipment, security, training. Then we will put forth a plan.” 

Deputy Commissioner Millet also reassured the public that “I’m a maintenance guy and safety is a number-one priority. I’ll be looking at purchasing and see what’s missing so that you can get the job done,” he said. “I’ll be here a lot to see what’s going on so we can straighten out the issues. The administration is supporting us.”

It was also announced that a new deputy superintendent for the sewage treatment plants would be hired from one of four companies with expertise in this field until a permanent person could be found.  “No one from inside applied. No one applied at all,” said Mr. Walker. But one employee said he was told not to apply because he didn’t have a four-year college degree.

“Apply,” urged Mr. Walker. “Never listen to to anyone who tells you not to apply.”

Although Mr. Walker tried to reassure residents that things will get better, people remained wary. 

Residents wanted concrete timetables for hiring and for improvements. They also asked the county to reopen the guard shack on the top of the hill as a safety measure.

Mr. Walker said, “We will get things done.” 

Ella Stevens, president of the Wantagh-Seaford Homeowners Association, asked Mr. Walker to “put these items in writing so that I can send them to my members and let them know what the county plans to do.”

Another resident urged the county “to keep the public informed. We need to know you are committed to getting things done.” Phil Franco, co-chairman of the Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee, said “This whole plant’s plan [to stay online] is redundancy. But nothing works,” said Mr. Franco.”You collect money from taxpayers to hire and to do maintenance but nothing gets done. Where’s the money?”

County Legislator David Denenberg, Democrat of Merrick, added that the Legislature, in its four-year plan, had allocated $52 million for the sewage treatment plants. “The money is still there,” said Mr. Walker. He explained that once money is allocated for a capital project, “it  can sit there until the project is finished; sometimes that’s a few years. I say we move the money around to get some other things done at the same time. You need parallel paths while doing long-term projects.

Joseph Davenport, chief engineer, read a laundry list of capital projects, including the sludge dewatering building for $33 million, and the desludge thickening facility for $18 million; there is a new project to replace valves for the sludge digestor for $440,000. Other projects include a stormwater improvement project for $1.8 million, and a plantwide odor control project, to name a few. In the planning stages is a project for the rehabilitation of the influent building and another for changing the grit facility.

“All three grit tanks are down,” said one employee. “You’ve got grit going into the system and destroying equipment. It will jam everything down the line. ” “We are prepared to take care of it tomorrow [Friday, August 13],” said Mr. Davenport. Workers also raised concerns about the aeration tanks. “The smell is very bad,” said one employee. “It used to be that after winter we’d remove the covers but now there is no  regular maintenance,” said another employee. 

Mr. Franco added, “Senior people [in the plant] tell me that they feel sorry about what will be released when those covers come off the aeration tanks.” Mr. Walker promised the county would “look into it.” Workers also reacted strongly to learning that valves in the plant are being replaced by an outside contractor.  “We have the parts. All we need is a crane,” said one employee. Mr. Walker said future projects would be reviewed before issuing a  Request for Proposals (RFP) to see if it can be done in-house.

“We want our own people,” he said. Mr. Franco also raised concerns about methane leaking from the valves. “I’m scared about methane  coming out of those valves. Look what happened in the coal mines of West Virginia. This  is being vented into the atmosphere.” “Sixty valves are being replaced,” reported Mr. Davenport. “There are hundreds of valves,” said an employee. Mr. Davenport added that the contractor replacing the valves had hired an “air monitoring firm. He said that testing for hydrogen sulfide was very low but “did find small leaks and made repairs.”

In closing, Mr. Walker stated the county had  approached its Congressional delegation as well as the Department of Homeland Security  asking for $200 million for tertiary treatment.  “This plant is a very top priority, important to the residents and the people who work here. Everyone is affected and we are fully committed and we will spend the money.”

Will the county keep its promise?

“My first impression is optimistically guarded. I like what I heard. I look forward to seeing changes take place quickly,” said Ms. Stevens.

By Laura Schofer

Laura Schofer, staff writer for L&M Publications, has been recognized with several awards for many of her feature pieces published in Bellmore and Merrick Life, The Citizen and The Leader.

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