There were no real answers about the diversion issue for local officials when they questioned a Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) representative at the April Great Neck Village Officials Association meeting. Alan Fuchs, chief of the DEC Wastewater Permits South Section, Bureau of Water Permits, offered an explanation of the state's permit system, but he was unable to satisfy a number of questions regarding whether or not the Village of Great Neck and the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District should renovate, combine or divert sewage to the county facility on the South Shore.

Mr. Fuchs explained that his work involves issuing permits indicating that waste treatment plants are able to treat the waste to a particular required level. He then addressed the Long Island Sound Total Maximum Daily Load, written in the late 1990s and approved around 2000, which has the weight of a standard. This, he said, has been keeping him quite busy for the last four years.

The LI Sound TMD looks at major discharges and ground runoff, as well as what "falls from the sky." As a result, the DEC allocates the amount of nitrogen each waste water plant can put into the LI Sound.

Mr. Fuchs also addressed the related problem with oxygen dissolving in the waters, particularly during the summer, and wild life is not able to survive.

The push is to upgrade all treatment plants by 2014, with a three-phase process that also has requirements for the year 2009.

In order to enable treatment plants to move along in the process, and not receive violations, the DEC, under Mr. Fuchs, also issues consent orders as a "bridge" between what the plant has done so far and what is ultimately expected. This, he said, is actually an interim limit, and also includes a compliance schedule.

The very local Great Neck issue was then addressed, with Mr. Fuchs trying to answer quite a few questions. Queried about the Roslyn interceptor, which, if diversion were chosen, would serve as the hookup to take sewage from Great Neck to Cedar Creek on the South Shore, Mr. Fuchs was not certain if waste from Great Neck would put the interceptor at capacity. Previous queries into this issue by the Record with a county sewage expert indicated that Great Neck's waste would put the Roslyn interceptor at capacity.

When asked if there would be sewage backups or sewage storage issues in Great Neck should an anticipated major hurricane on the South Shore occur, Mr. Fuchs said that this would "probably be for only 24 hours." However, many of the evening's participants noted that a major storm could put Cedar Creek under water, cutting off Great Neck's access to sewage treatment totally.

Discussing the fact that the North Shore communities being forced to upgrade represent a tiny portion of the LI Sound pollution and New York City is the overwhelming pollutant, Mr. Fuchs said that everyone must upgrade.

The grant money to study the diversion issue was another sore point. Mr. Fuchs explained that the village and the sewer district must study diversion in order to receive the grant, simply because original grants were prioritized (by the state legislature) and diversion received a high priority. As a result, the Village of Great Neck and the Great Neck WPCD are studying diversion, with state funds, but are forced to use their own funds to study renovation or combining.

The fact that cesspools (particularly old and/or malfunctioning ones) are also polluting the Sound was broached. Mr. Fuchs advised that the DEC does not regulate cesspools.

Several mayors emphasized the need to know all of the costs associated with diversion and other options. There were no immediate answers, but Mr. Fuchs advised the GNVOA to write to the DEC for more definitive answers. Thomaston Mayor Bob Stern will write, on behalf of the GNVOA.