Panel praises extending sewers in Suffolk

Extending sewer service to more Suffolk communities would help kick-start economic development and protect water quality, panelists said at a meeting Thursday in Selden to coordinate county sewer development.

But such efforts will require creative financing, participants warned, because government subsidies that helped build massive projects such as the Southwest Sewer District in the 1970s have all but dried up. They'll also need strong regional coordination - a challenge given the county's patchwork of towns, villages and hamlets.

"We don't have the money nor the will to make Suffolk like Nassau - 100 percent sewered," Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy told about a hundred local officials, business leaders and environmental advocates. "Let's be smart about it . . . . Where are we going to sewer, how much is it going to be and how are we going to get the money?"

Two-thirds of Suffolk still relies on septic systems or cesspools. Health codes intended to protect drinking water ban dense development in unsewered portions of the county. But those regulations have also stymied efforts to revitalize downtown areas and limit sprawl.

Since the first so-called "Sewer Summit" in 2008, Suffolk has committed $5.6 million to study 22 communities that could benefit from new sewers or expanded current sewer capacity. Areas now under study include Wyandanch, Rocky Point, Bellport, Mastic, Yaphank, Smithtown and Flanders.

At the meeting, speakers said towns and villages needed to identify key spots, such as transit hubs, that would best benefit from sewers and have the tax-base to help fund them.

Money loomed large. Upgrades and repairs to Suffolk's biggest sewage treatment plant, the Bergen Point facility, will run $265 million. New sewers for any of the 22 areas now being considered would cost about $50 million apiece, officials said.

Northport village trustee Tom Kehoe applauded talk of alternative funding in light of how little federal stimulus money Suffolk received for sewer projects. "I don't think it's realistic of us to reinvent the wheel again and go back to our state and federal delegation . . . and come back emptyhanded again," Kehoe said. Among the approaches considered: using taxes from development to help pay for new infrastructure, or forming a regional infrastructure bank funded by sales tax.