Smithtown to pay $37,500 EPA fine for storm sewer system violations

Smithtown plans to pay a $37,500 penalty to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for violations cited in operations of the municipal storm sewer system.

The town board voted unanimously, 5-0, last week to pay the fine.

The penalty was the result of a 2012 EPA audit that found several oversight and operational issues with the town's storm water management program, including the frequency with which the town inspected pipes that discharge storm water into the Nissequogue River or other waters.

In a 10-page, Aug. 22 decision obtained by Newsday, the EPA reported the town lacked a storm water plan that identified pollutants of concern and written procedures for responding to public complaints.

The biggest deficiencies included operations at two town highway department yards. At department headquarters on the Smithtown Bypass, at least four floor drains in the vehicle maintenance garage -- where workers changed oil and cleaned parts -- discharged into the municipal storm sewer system, the report said.

The garage is used to service vehicles, and the drains allowed melting snow to be drawn away from the building, officials said.

But water, sand and oils running from the vehicles went directly into the storm drain system, said Mark Riley, the town engineer.

PSL Industries of Ronkonkoma last week completed a roughly $400,000, three-month project to remove the concrete slab and reroute floor drainage pipes to a holding tank separate from the storm drainage system, Riley said.

At the Kings Park highway department yard, the EPA found vehicle wash water flowed into a storm water catch basin on Old Northport Road, liquids flowed from stockpiles of metal, asphalt, stone and sediment into storm water, and runoff from an unroofed fueling station went into the catch basins.

Town environmental protection director Russell Barnett said Smithtown has made changes, such as securing materials at the highway department with weighted, impervious tarps and purchasing a small shed to house batteries. The town also plans to create a new fueling facility with a canopy to prevent spills, he said.