At the past Town of Smithtown board meeting, several individuals voiced their concerns over the choice of a roughly two-and-a-half-acre parcel of land currently slated to be used to house a recharge basin for treated effluent.
Specifically, residents voiced unease at the proximity to a soccer field, walking/biking trails, and the Kings Park Central School District’s administrative offices that house a preschool, implying that it was somehow unsafe or irresponsible to do so.
But there are important details to note. The land in question is not de jure part of the Nissequogue River State Park, although park-goers heavily traverse it. It is owned and managed by the New York State Office of Mental Health, as it is the site of the former Kings Park Psychiatric Center.
The specific site in question is the current location of Building 1, a blighted and abandoned structure that will be removed. The footprint of the building will more or less serve as the boundaries of the basin. The building is not a utilized portion of the park, nor does it have a tangible future as a structure.
The effluent from the wastewater treatment plant on St. Johnland Road will go into one of four pits containing extremely low levels of nitrogen. It is worth noting that this type of non-potable water would be used for agricultural irrigation in many parts of the country. We merely do not have such a need here on Long Island.
The nature of the soil should not permit the pooling of excess water within the basin’s four pools. In the unlikely event that the treated water begins to pool in one of the four pits due to, say, algae build[1]up, the Suffolk County Department of Public Works (DPW) features mechanisms in place to remove any such build-up.
Should any such build-up occur in one of the pits, the DPW will simply utilize one of the other three pits.
It is worth noting that DPW operates these types of recharge basins throughout the county with no noticeable problems. Additionally, the basin is required to be surrounded by foliage and trees to obstruct its presence. The current concept design blends the leaching-bed seamlessly into the park’s landscape.
And, importantly, one cannot forget why Smithtown is looking for a recharge basin.
There are currently plans to revitalize Smithtown’s downtown areas to levels not seen since the advent of shopping malls and online commerce, which devastated ‘main street U.S.A.’ The cornerstone of this plan is to sewer downtown Kings Park and Smithtown. Sewering our downtown areas will help the ailing Bay of Smithtown, currently counted amongst the worst bodies of water in Suffolk, by removing nitrogen-rich waste from our groundwater and runoff.
Contrary to what some members of the community are saying, there is not a plethora of land available for the leaching bed – hardly a surprise for anyone familiar with Smithtown. Conversations with the Town of Smithtown revealed that many sites were explored and fell short of county and state regulations. With no suitable alternatives readily available, not progressing as planned would be an environmental faux pas and erase over a decade of planning.
The future is exciting in Smithtown as downtown areas long plagued by vacancy signs are on the cusp of revival. In 10 to 15 years, we might not even recognize business districts as they are developed to accommodate increased sewage capacity. It is a future with jobs abound and housing options to help retain a younger workforce while maintaining the suburban characteristics of the town.
In a perfect world, the entirety of the Kings Park Psychiatric Center would become parkland. There is something to admire about preserving every acre and parcel possible, a position the editorial board is inclined to agree with in a mature suburb. But in that same perfect world, sewers would have come to our downtown areas decades ago. We cannot rewrite history to suit our needs. We can only play the hand we are dealt.
So while opponents of the recharge basin are indeed fighting for a perfect world, they must acknowledge the whole picture.
The effluent recharge basin will have a negligible effect on its immediate vicinity. That’s the message. This is The Messenger.
