When Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi commented recently "I want your sewers" he was not kidding. He is convinced that it would be in the best interest of Great Neck residents, both environmentally and economically, to take him up on his offer to take the Village of Great Neck and the Water Pollution Control District out of the wastewater treatment business and divert their sewage to Cedar Creek on the South Shore. Mr. Suozzi invited the editors of the Record to his office to make sure that his latest offer is clear and spelled out for the community.

He asked the Record why we thought he was making this offer. We answered, "To expand your tax base."

Shaking his head he said, "The biggest issue in Nassau County is high property taxes! We are trying, through consolidation, to reduce those taxes. We have too many layers of government. Are the residents aware that if the local plants upgrade, their sewage bills will go up by 100 percent?" "No," we countered, "50 percent."

The cost for upgrading both facilities is $49 million based on recent engineering studies and the cost for diversion is estimated at just under $30 million. In 2003, the estimate for diverting sewage to Cedar Creek was $20 million and the estimated cost for upgrades for both plants was $30 million. According to Nassau County Commissioner of Public Works Ray Ribeiro, who attended the meeting along with Joseph Davenport, P.E., constructing the project, a forced main going south on East Shore Road, east on Northern Boulevard and finally turning south at Shelter Rock Road, would take a year to design and one-and-a-half years to complete. No one knows how long it would take to go through the legal steps involved in a county takeover and approval from the county legislature. And to the Record's knowledge, no one has estimated the costs if communities in the path of the proposed sewer lines raise legal objections of their own and try to block the engineering project that would disrupt their traffic, but be of no benefit to them.

According to Mr. Ribeiro, the county would also take advantage of the diversion grant for $18 million from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. However, it should be noted that almost $3 million has been spent for studying diversion.

It was reported in the Aug. 17 issue of the Record on the "Sewer Summit" and Mr. Suozzi's offer to take over Great Neck's sewage treatment facilities. Now, his offer has been modified. Instead of the county's taking the properties owned by the two plants and selling them off to stabilize sewage tax rates, the district and the village would have the option of selling off their properties. The county would, however, take 50 percent of the proceeds if the land was sold and would still dedicate the funds to stabilize rates.

While the village's parcel is relatively small, the district owns 8.65 acres, most of it prime waterfront on Manhasset Bay and the rest on Bayview Avenue.

Further, when discussing the land, the idea of the library board's interest in obtaining some land from the district for parking came up. Mr. Suozzi with a wave of his hand said, "We would give the library what it wants."

We reminded Mr. Suozzi that several years ago when he toured Great Neck, he had publicly stated that the county would give a parcel of land, considered a wetland and unbuildable, on Wood Road adjacent to the Great Neck Park District to the park. When the county real estate office contacted the park district, they offered it for $1 million. Obviously, the park district was not interested. Mr. Suozzi asked an aide to look into the matter.

The Record asked Mr. Ribeiro about the costs associated with demolition of the sewage treatment plants, which Mr. Suozzi had indicated at the Summit that the county would pay for as well. Mr. Ribeiro said that the village and district could sell the land "as is" thereby pushing those costs over to a potential developer.

Mr. Suozzi reiterated that he would freeze the Great Neck taxpayers rates for sewage treatment for 5 years. What happens after 5 years is anybody's guess. Currently, according to a study done by the Water Pollution Control District, comparable homes in Great Neck pay less for sewage taxes than those served by Nassau County.

The freeze in sewage tax rates was also offered to the villages of Lawrence and Cedarhurst and the cities of Glen Cove and Long Beach, which two weeks ago announced that they are diverting their sewers to the county.

As reported recently in the Record, Water Pollution Control District commissioners and Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel visited the Stony Brook sewage treatment plant which has installed an oxidation ditch system for cleansing wastewater to drinking level standards which will give them the option of discharging treated water into the harbor or into the aquifer. Commissioners Deena Lesser and Jane Rebhuhn expressed interest in this approach and thought that such a plan could perhaps help the salt-water intrusion problem on the peninsula. The oxidation ditch also has the advantage of efficient energy costs.

When the Record discussed the salt-water intrusion problem in Great Neck with Mr. Suozzi, he quickly said as an aside, "See, if you were hooked up with a county-wide water district, you wouldn't have to worry about that problem."

Mr. Suozzi, citing his numerous awards from environmental groups, in the meeting challenged the idea of recharge saying, "Do you know how much injection wells cost? Do you know how many permits you would need to do that?"

Good point. We did not.

Since the meeting with him, this is what the Record has learned.

Injection wells are expensive, running between $500,000 to $1 million to construct depending on how deep they are; they may be finicky to operate and have capacity flow limits which may not be compatible with the flow from the sewage treatment plant. No doubt many permits would be required. Those factors and other reasons are why the district has ruled out using injection wells. Ms. Rebhuhn said that they are looking at a storage and recovery system that is being used in California and Florida, two other states with salt-water intrusion concerns. The United States Geological Survey, USGS, is finalizing an updated study on the peninsula's salt-water intrusion problem and we will report on its results when it is available.

In the environmental realm, the Record also brought up the issue of what will happen to the county's plants if we are hit with a category 3 hurricane, a scenario that the weather experts and the insurance companies say is overdue. Mr. Suozzi said, "If we are hit with such a hurricane, we'll have much bigger problems than just sewage...we'll have all kinds of contaminants to clean up." If the county has to pump raw sewage into the ocean for an extended time period because of damage to the plants, Mr. Suozzi is convinced that the effluent would be so diluted by ocean currents that there would be no serious consequences to the health of our beaches. He also added, "You can't make public policy around what-ifs...you could be hit by a tornado too..."

Although there were areas of disagreement about some of the environmental issues at stake, all present did concur that the highest priority for better waste water treatment was New York City that releases tons of nitrogen into Long Island Sound every day. Recent studies have shown that the nitrogen levels from the city's plants are profoundly damaging the marshlands in Jamaica Bay. New York City is not required to meet reduced nitrogen reduction levels until 2017 while Long Island's North Shore plants have a 2012 deadline.

Mr. Suozzi did acknowledge that someday the county plants may be required to take nitrogen from their effluent as well.

Finally, editor Wendy Kreitzman brought up the issues of quality of service and local control. She said, "If people in Great Neck have a sewage back-up, they can expect someone to come to address the problem in 30 minutes. The response time is great and people have come to expect that."

Mr. Suozzi has consistently stated that he does not get complaints from the county's sewer customers about lack of effective service.

The meeting ended with Mr. Suozzi's being clear that he believes that the county is better equipped to handle current and future issues with advanced wastewater treatment and that Great Neck should take another look at his offer.

The Record left the meeting with Mr. Suozzi with more questions.