More than half of the $815 million in state funding announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday for the next phase of Long Island’s recovery from Superstorm Sandy will go toward repairs to the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant.
The state’s recovery plan calls for $455 million of the $697 million set aside for the rehabilitation of wastewater treatment facilities to be put toward Bay Park, which in the aftermath of the storm was shut down for more than two days after flooding to the plant’s main pumping gate causing 200 million gallons of sewage to flow into Nassau County waterways, according to a news release from Cuomo’s office.
Also included in the recovery plan is $51 million for the development of technology that would enable utility companies to more quickly identify power outages, $47 million for bridge repair and a new $20 million competition between Nassau and Suffolk counties to create a new microgrid, officials said.
“From mitigating wastewater treatment plants that serve hundreds of thousands of households to modernizing Long Island’s utility and preventing power outages to fortifying vulnerable bridges for future storms, these projects will rebuild a more resilient Long Island for years to come,” Cuomo said in a statement.
The state’s repair project, which will be managed by Nassau County, includes the building of a system of dykes, levees and movable flood walls around the plant to protect against major storms and account for sea-level rises.
It also calls for the elevation and hardening of Bay Park’s 57 pump stations and Electrical Plant Distribution System, as well as repairs to existing power generators and the building of a larger sewage connection line for increased flow levels during storms, according to the release.
The plant’s renovation has been a hot-button topic for candidates on the campaign trail after county lawmakers in July agreed on just $262 million of the more than $700 million requested by Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano to repair Bay Park and Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant.
Mangano and his Democratic challenger for county executive, Tom Suozzi, were also asked about their plans to fix the plant at a candidates forum last month at Hofstra University.
Mangano cited a press release he issued earlier that day announcing the start of a $2 billion plan to fix the plant, including $70 million the administration had already put toward repairs and collaboration with federal agencies and state officials in limiting damage from future storms.
“This is the right way to go post-Hurricane Sandy – the plant was devastated,” Mangano said.
Suozzi called Bay Park “one of the most essential pieces of infrastructure in Nassau County” and blamed his Republican predecessor, Tom Gulotta, for the plant’s infrastructure problems.
Suozzi also reiterated master plan he was touting to fix the plant over a 20-year period.
“We definitely have to fix the plant dramatically,” Suozzi said. “I’ve been in favor of ocean outfall unless we can develop something that’s more cost effective.”
In mid October, Nassau County Legislature candidates Delia DeRiggi-Whitton and John DiMascio debated at a forum at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Manhasset as to whether Nassau County should continue approving bonds for the project.
DeRiggi-Whitton said the damage from Sandy would have been minimal if the $400 million set a side for renovations in 2009 had been done at the time, while DiMascio argued the county should move ahead with the repairs and help the people affected by the damage instead of quarrelling over costs.
“We can’t go back and say it should have been done in 2009,” DiMascio said. “Something has to be done because there are people there who can’t live in their homes, there are fishermen who can’t sell their fish, there are restaurants that can’t sell their food.”
According to the release from the governor’s office, the new power outage management system is the result of an investigation from the Moreland Commission on Utility Storm Preparation and Response into the Long Island Power Authority’s struggles to restore power in Sandy’s aftermath.
The new system, to go into effect under Long Island’s new utility provider, PSEG-Long Island, will reduce outage durations based on outage prediction locations and a more improved prioritization system for restoration, increased consumer awareness and transparency of outage restorations in progress reduce outage frequency by utilizing outage statistics for “making targeted reliability improvements,” according to the release.
The state is also providing $47 million to improve five bridges in Nassau County and three in Suffolk that officials said are too close to water, and would create safety hazards in the event of another storm.
Officials said funding will go toward bridges located along the Meadowbrook Parkway that pass over False Channel, Fundy Channel and Sloop Channel; along Loop Parkway over Long Creek; and along the Southern State Parkway over Hempstead Lake.
