Pols bicker over Bay Park sewage plant

Nassau Republicans and Democrats are fighting to take credit for $3.4 million in repairs to the county's troubled Bay Park Sewage Treatment plant while blaming each other for its problems, including offensive odors and an illegal sludge discharge.

A brown plume of sludge released by the plant into Reynolds channel became an Internet star last fall when videos of it were posted on YouTube.

The county legislature last week approved contracts totaling $3.4 million for replacing equipment at the plant, purchasing supplies and bringing in "gravity belt thickeners" to mitigate the sludge discharge.

County Executive Edward Mangano, a Republican who took office in January 2010, said the contracts will "help reverse years of mismanagement" at the plant. "I was shocked to discover the depth of neglect of the county's infrastructure," Mangano said in a news release.

But Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) said the Bay Park work had been proposed by Mangano's Democratic predecessor, County Executive Thomas Suozzi, in his 2010 capital plan, which was approved by county lawmakers in December 2009. Money was borrowed in April 2010 to pay for the repairs, he said.

"These projects should have been started over a year ago because the funding is in place," Denenberg said. "Unfortunately, these projects are just being awarded now and, worse, for most of last year, the Bay Park plant was spewing contaminated effluent into Reynolds channel."

Mangano spokesman Brian Nevin responded, "The county executive acknowledges that he inherited a mess from the Democrats."

The Bay Park plant is in the legislature's 7th District, where freshman Republican Howard Kopel of Lawrence ousted incumbent Democrat Jeff Toback in 2009 by campaigning about the plant's problems. Both parties have targeted the district in the coming November elections.

Minority Leader Diane Yatauro (D-Glen Cove) angered Republican lawmakers last month when she sent a letter on her county stationary to 7th District residents. She wrote Kopel "did an 'about face' " on promises to stop sewage from Lawrence and Cedarhurst from going to Bay Park. "I believe you have the right to know that Mr. Kopel has changed his position and that his reversal may carry dire consequences," she said.

Kopel responded he has never changed his position that he will not allow additional sewage at Bay Park until the plant is operating as a "first-class" facility.

"I'm very proud of what we've been doing at Bay Park. The plant was in appalling shape. We've invested many millions of dollars in buying new equipment and hiring people," he said.

"I understand what this is about," he said of Yatauro's letter. "They want to recapture the legislature. I get that. But this is just nasty."