Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano (R-Bethpage) and his electoral challenger, former County Executive Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), laid out their plans for a greener Nassau last Wednesday at a New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund held at Hofstra University.
The candidates eschewed partisan attacks for largely complementary takes on environmental issues while facing a series of questions from a panel of environmental advocates and a developer.
Jennifer Rimmer, the director of Strategic Initiatives and Sustainability, Northeast Region at the technical and management consulting firm AECOM, asked Suozzi and Mangano to detail their plans to repair the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant. The facility sent sewage pouring into streets and waterways after Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge overwhelmed the plant last fall.
Disputes between Democrats and Republicans in the county Legislature have held up bonding to fund the plant’s repairs. In July lawmakers agreed on $262 million of the more than $700 million requested by Mangano to fix Bay Park and the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant, but Democrats have been reluctant to authorize more debt and have called for greater oversight of the funds.
“The Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant is one of the most essential pieces of infrastructure in Nassau County,” Suozzi said. “During my administration, we maintained the plant.”
Suozzi blamed his Republican predecessor Tom Gulotta for existing infrastructure problems at the plant, and said his administration had released a master plan to fix the facility over a 20-year period.
“We have definitely have to fix the plant dramatically,” Suozzi said. “I’ve in favor of ocean outfall unless we can develop something that’s more cost effective.”
Mangano issued a press release the day of the forum announcing the beginning of new projects to fix the plant and citing $70 million his administration has already put into its repair.
“This is the right way to go post-Hurricane Sandy – the plant was devastated,” Mangano said, touting a $2 billion plan that he said featured an ocean outfall pipe and collaboration with federal authorities and the state to fortify against future storms.
Though both candidates focused on the damage Sandy caused to the Bay Park plant, the facility was troubled prior to the storm. The state Department of Environmental Conservation issued a $1.5 million consent order against the county in 2011 for “numerous” violations that caused brown plumes in Reynolds Channel dating from 2007.
The forum, moderated by the executive dean of Hofstra’s National Center for Suburban Studies, Lawrence Levy, saw each candidate field questions for about half an hour. Suozzi and Mangano did not address each other or share the stage.
Both candidates touted their green energy credentials and endorsed the expansion of alternative energy use in the county.
“We have the first solar roof of its kind at our public safety center,” Mangano said, describing a “leaner and greener” Nassau that had converted traffic lights to energy-saving LEDs, retrofitted its jail to be more energy efficient and was working to the state and Washington, D.C. to expand wind power.
Suozzi said his administration had retrofitted county buildings and said he planned on working with towns and villages to change every municipal light bulb to a greener alternative.
“I’m much more focused now on building these relationships with mayors and town supervisors,” Suozzi said, acknowledging a tendency to go it alone during his first term. “The county needs to be the great convener.”
Christopher Capece, the senior development director for residential developer AvalonBay, asked the candidates’ about their transit plans for the Nassau Hub.
Mangano, who recently presided over a bid process that saw Barclays Developer Bruce Ratner with the rights to revamp the hub’s aging Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, said his administration plans on introducing bike paths and footbridges to make the area more accessible.
“We’re entirely engaged in the hub and making it a transit oriented site,” Mangano said.
Suozzi said he would support the Coliseum plan, though he said it lacked ambition. The Democratic candidate said he intends on making the hub a unified, easily accessible site, linking nearby attractions like RXR Plaza, Nassau Community College, Hofstra University and Eisenhower Park.
“All of these things need to be connected to each other rather than being islands to themselves,” Suozzi said.
