On Wednesday, June 25^th, a meeting was held at Bailey Arboretum to update residents regarding changes to the plan for mitigating the raw sewage discharge from the Birches residential area, into Mill Neck Creek.

Earlier this year, Nassau County took possession of the Glen Cove sewage treatment plant.  This prompted them to look into the possibility of connecting the Birches area, via a pump station and forced main, to the Glen Cove plant instead of constructing a packet treatment plant in the Birches area.  This, of course, delayed the start of construction, which was to have already begun earlier this year.  Needless to say, I was not happy with the delay.  It was my contention that the collection system to be installed in the Birches community would be the same regardless of whether it delivered the sewage to a packet treatment plant to be treated and discharged, or to a pump station to be pumped to the Glen Cove plant.  To me, this meant there was absolutely no reason to delay the start of construction, especially considering that the sewage flow into the Creek was mandated by the DEC to be halted before September of 2005 (though these mandates appear to incur no consequences whatsoever). As of yet, the cost sharing agreement for this portion of the project has yet to be signed by Nassau County and the Town of Oyster Bay.

I was also fairly sure that after the costs associated with installing a forced main to the Glen Cove plant would be prohibitive.  This would be especially true if the forced main would be installed under Bayville and Horsehollow Roads, requiring very expensive restoration of these concrete roads.

At the meeting, the new plan was presented to a group that consisted primarily of residents of the Birches area as well as some other interested individuals.  The plan is to install the collection system under the roadways of the Birches area exactly as it would have been with the packet plant.  This collection system would transport the sewage down hill to the site where the packet plant was to be installed.  Under the new plan, a pump station would be instead installed on this site. This pump station would then pump the sewage into the new forced main, under pressure, and uphill to a point where it can be connected to Glen Cove’s existing, gravity fed collection system. The new forced main would be a four inch diameter pipe installed along Bayville Road, Horsehollow Road and Skunk's Misery Road, where it would connect to the Glen Cove system on Forest Avenue for a downhill ride to the treatment plant.

In addition to all this, because the volume of sewage from the Birches alone would not be adequate to allow the pumping station to operate properly, a gravity fed collection pipe will be installed alongside the forced main that will connect the Locust Valley High School to the Birches pump station and subsequently to the Glen Cove plant.

While I am still somewhat disillusioned by what I consider an unnecessary delay to the start of the project (the collection system was originally scheduled to begin this past April and as of yet no agreement has been signed and the contract has not gone out to bid), I am happy that the concerns of some of the residents that live closest to the site of the pump station have been addressed.  They had voiced their concerns regarding smell, noise, aesthetics and a reduction of their property values at the meeting at the Locust Valley Library last August ( see http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/08/23/birches-meeting-at-the-locust-valley-library.aspx).  I am also happy that our elected officials do appear to be committed to solving this problem, even if their sense of urgency does not seem to equal my own.

I do have some concerns/suggestions regarding the project that I think will make it more cost effective over time.  The first is that the collection system in the Birches be designed to allow it the capacity to also collect the sewage from the Hernan Avenue/Walton Avenue development.  It is likely that this area suffers from the same soil conditions and underground hydrology as the Birches, the only difference being that the water table is lower and the underground flow does not cause the areas septic systems to back up.  Instead I suspect the flow of groundwater is carrying sewage with it into the bay.  The springs that flow continually from the Mill Neck Bay Marina site are evidence ofthis. 

The second suggestion would be to install a second, larger diameter forced main pipe alongside the four inch main.  By installing a second, say six inch, main in the same trench, we would be allowing for the possibility of expanding the system to include other problem areas without the added expense of re-excavating several miles of trench. The cost of laying a second line in an already excavated trench would be insignificant. The problem area that comes immediately to mind is the “Stands” area of Bayville, including the Tides, the amusement park, all the restaurants and the proposed office buildings. This area has long had extensive problems with their septic systems and, in addition to the added costs to these businesses, the ultimate destination for all this sewage is Mill Neck Bay. Connecting these businesses to a system already in place is a relatively simple and inexpensive process. Not designing in this extra capacity would be shortsighted.

Lastly, I would implore our elected official to expedite this project to the extent humanly possible.  It was stated at the meeting that the collection system portion of the project could conceivably begin this fall and I would hope that every effort be made to make this happen as a gesture of goodfaith by our elected officials in both Nassau County and the Town of Oyster Bay.  Only the knowledge that the digging has begun will reassure me that this threat to public health and quality of life will finally be on it’s way to resolution.

Barry E. Lamb

Bayville

Related Bayville Blog entries, in chronological order:

http://bayvilleblog.com/2006/11/12/raw-sewerage-still-flowing-into-the-creek.aspx

http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/03/18/the-birches-nomination-submitted.aspx

http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/04/18/the-bisches-gets-news12-coverage.aspx

http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/05/18/town-response-on-the-birches.aspx

http://bayvilleblog.com/2007/08/23/birches-meeting-at-the-locust-valley-library.aspx