L&M Publications
Merrick Life • Bellmore Life • Freeport-Baldwin Leader • Wantagh-Seaford Citizen

The State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed a spill of 25,000 gallons of waste water or digested sludge from the Cedar Creek Water Treatment Plant’s S building on Friday, July 2. The spill was caused by a “failure of a sensor from the overflow tank,” said DEC spokesperson Aphrodite Montalvo. 

The Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant, in Seaford, is behind Cedar Creek Park. It is one of the two Nassau County-run sewage treatment plants on the South Shore of Long Island and processes more than 60,000 gallons of sewage a day, including the homes in the Bellmores. S building is where water is removed from the sludge. The spill, which looks like black water, occurred shortly after 1 a.m.  Contractors had already been called to the facility on Monday, June 28, and Wednesday, June 30, when spills inside S building occurred, said Legislator Dennis Dunne.

Although the contractors were able to correct the problems in the conduit lines, a third spill took place on July 2. An operator had to physically stop the pump when the meter didn’t register that the level of the sludge was too high.  Cedar Creek employees told Bellmore Life the system is very complicated and the spill may have occurred because of a problem with some of the fuses having corrosion, for example. Ms. Montalvo said a “vac truck  was placed over the storm drains to keep the spill from going into the creek.

There is currently an investigation into the spill but no violations have yet been issued.” Meanwhile the county has still not hired any new employees in the maintenance department of the Cedar Creek plant.  Legislator Dunne said that “16 potential employees were being interviewed but a few didn’t cut the mustard.”  Mr. Dunne remains hopeful that the county will hire new employees.  At the nearby Jones Beach sewage treatment plant, there have been no new violations to its permit, even with the record breaking number of people visiting Jones Beach these past few weeks. 

The Jones Beach sewage plant is a state-run facility that dumps approximately 120,000 gallons of treated effluent or treated waste water in the waters off of Zach’s Bay. With the assistance of SPLASH and other environmental organizations, the state agreed to a plan that would allow the Jones Beach plant to hook up to Cedar Creek sewage plant’s outflow pipe. The Cedar Creek outflow pipe dumps effluent two miles out in the ocean. The DEC issued a permit for the hook-up late last year. 

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.