Mangano Administration Lauded for Renovating Cedar Creek Plant

Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano's administration was lauded for its efforts to renovate the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant in Wantagh during this past Monday's regular meeting of the Nassau County Legislature in Mineola.

Philip Franco, who represents the Cedar Creek Health Risk Assessment Committee of the , commended the administration for the "excellent, fabulous job" being done at the Cedar Creek facility. Franco said that out of 20,000 hours of scheduled maintenance in the previous administration, only a few hundred were done.

"That's why these plants are in such bad shape and disrepair," he said, describing some of the work currently being undertaken including changing flame arrestors to prevent methane leaks as well as changing valves on digesters.

This past April Mangao announced that he would deliver $10 million in new equipment to the Cedar Creek Sewage Treatment Plant to begin to repair what he described as a "neglected" facility. Some of the planned improvements announced by Mangano included two new belt filter presses, which remove sludge from the wastewater, and an update to the plant's odor control system. The Wantagh plant, which is located next to in Seaford, was previously issued with safety violations from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation including going over its discharge limit three times in 2007 and twice in 2009.

County officials estimated at Monday's meeting that the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant will be state-of-the art in approximately five years.

To alleviate pressure on the Bay Park Sewage Plant in East Rockaway, some sludge is being hauled to the Cedar Creek facility, county officials pointed out. Nassau County Deputy Commissioner of Public Works Richard Millet said approximately 46,000 gallons per day are being moved by tanker truck and fed into the plant in an area off of Merrick Road by the near the Meadowbrook State Parkway in Merrick.