Water coalition meeting in Valley Stream

County Legis. Carrié Solages (D-Elmont) and We the People Save Our Waters Coalition will host a community meeting Thursday night to discuss hydrofracking and Nassau County’s proposal to hire a private operator to manage the county’s sewage treatment plants at Cedar Creek, Bay Park and Glen Cove.

The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. in the American Legion Post No. 854, at 51 Roosevelt Ave. in Valley Stream.

Legis. Dave Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) are expected to speak about how the plan could affect the community. The meeting is open to the public.

County officials have said they hope to get a billion dollars from the public-private partnership for Nassau, which began the year with a $310 million deficit. The county would hire a vendor to manage and maintain the treatment plants, 53 sewage-pumping stations and roughly 3,000 miles of sewers. The system serves about 1 million customers.

Nassau would maintain ownership of the system, and the contract would stipulate that the county would continue to set usage rates, county officials have said.