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Cover photo: Legislator Jim Mazzarella (R-Moriches) (Credit – Matt Meduri)
After years of planning, construction, and preparation, the Forge River Treatment Plant is now complete and online.
The completion of the plant comes just six years after a 2019 referendum in which Mastic and Shirley residents voted overwhelmingly – a 414-71 vote – to create a sewer district to serve the area.
The Forge River Wastewater Treatment Plant began three years thereafter, which has long been seen as the basis for revitalization and water quality mitigation in the area.
The Tri-Hamlet area has seen a number of renovations in recent years, including, but not limited to, the reconstructions of the three branches of the Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Library, the initial studies and public meetings for the Neighborhood Road Revitalization Area (NRAA), and a possible move of the Yaphank LIRR Station to better serve residents in the Shirley Industrial Park.
Ten residential properties were already hooked up last week, with the facility ready to treat wastewater from nearly 2,000 homes and businesses. The opening of the plant also offers relief to many residents, who have received flood mitigation funds from FEMA after devastating flooding from Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Such coastal flooding has also prompted the actions of wastewater treatment in the area, as cesspools and septic systems have caused great harm to the aquaculture in the Great South Bay when flood waters recede carrying wastewater with them.
“This is a unique project,” said Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) (pictured above), expanding on the three “basic expenses” of sewers: the sewer line itself, the meters before homes and businesses that are connected, and the connection from the meter at the street to the structure. “This was unique because we intended for everyone to hook up and, because we were using federal funds, we were able to pay for the residents’ meters and the hookups to the houses, which [individually] is a couple thousand dollars. All of this turned out to be about $228 million. If anyone thinks that sewers are not expensive, they are.”
However, Romaine and officials stress that the Forge River is “one of the most impacted” rivers, for a variety of reasons, including typical cesspool waste, but also the former duck farm industry that had a presence in the area. The Jurgielewicz Duck Farm was the largest at the height of the industry, but closed in 2011. The farm claimed to be the largest free-range duck operation in the country, raising one million Pekin ducks per year.
The Forge River itself and its tributaries, as well as the impairment of Moriches Bay, acted as a boon to the duck ranching industry. However, the ranches have been attributed to pollution problems with unusually high amounts of duck-derived phosphorus in the waters near the farming sites.
“Please use some of the Environmental Bond [Act] money – $4.1 billion – to help with sewers and water mains for those still on private wells,” said Romaine, asking Governor Kathy Hochul (D) to spearhead State funds for Long Island’s environmental problems. “70% of the county is on septic systems or cesspools,” Romaine added. “We’re hoping to use some of that Environmental Bond money to put people to work, create jobs, and build an infrastructure that will make sure we have a clean and prosperous future.”
Romaine also offered a deal to the State: “We’ll match dollar-for-dollar all your Environmental Bond money that is put into sewers and clean water.”
Newly-minted New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Amanda Lefton (pictured below), a Long Island native, echoed Romaine’s comments on water quality.
“I know just how important water is to our communities; it’s in so many ways our lifeblood,” said Lefton. “Protecting our water is such an important part of our life here on Long Island. We [DEC] intimately understand that.”
Lefton added that while economic growth can be spurred by wastewater plants, the bigger mission is reducing nitrogen that enters waterways and bays that degrade water quality and coastlines.
“Here on Long Island, it’s not just big extreme weather events that are causing flooding in our communities, but even day-to-day,” said Lefton. “We’ve been partnering with the County on replacing aging septic systems and cesspools to provide grants to homeowners to help repair existing cesspools, and we’re going to leverage nearly $1.2 billion in funding committed to date from the historic 4.2 billion dollars Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act.”
Lefton says such funds can help communities becmore “more resilient to climate change, improve water quality, conserve critical open spaces, protect wildlife, and help to ease the transition to a clean-energy economy.”
Lefton also said that a large component of these initiatives is partnership.
“We’re all in this together and we can’t do it alone,” said Lefton, adding that Governor Hochul and the State are “committed” to investing in environmental issues on Long Island.
Suffolk County Legislator Jim Mazzarella (R-Moriches), who represents the Tri-Hamlet Area, called the opening of the plant a “great day for the Forge River and its surrounding waterways,” calling the plant “state-of-the-art.”
“This facility is going to treat wastewater from nearly 2,000 homes and about 250 businesses,” said Mazzarella, adding that the businesses of the main corridor in the Mastic Beach area and along Montauk Highway will benefit economically from the plant.
“Most important, I have to mention the residents themselves who chose this by a vote to bring in this district and create it so that we can stand here today and celebrate this great momentous occasion with this beautiful plant that we have here,” said Mazzarella.
Mazzarella also mentioned community advocates present at Monday’s press conference, such as John Sicignano, President of the Mastic Park Civic Association, and Frank Fugarino, of the Pattersquash Creek Civic Association.
“If it was not for the efforts of these civic leaders as well as some past civic leaders we would not be here today,” said Mazzarella.
“This is the first plant we have completed in decades,” said Suffolk County Department of Public Works (DPW) Commissioner Charlie Bartha (pictured below), with Executive Romaine interjecting, “But not the last!”
“This is a one million gallon-per day plant now. We’re already in the design stage to increase it by 450,000 gallons per day. The good news is that it’s a tertiary treatment plant,” said Bartha. Tertiary treatment involves treating wastewater and removing contaminants to allow the water to be reused or discharged back into the aquifer through leaching pools. There are 519 leaching pools, all below ground, just east of the plant along the North Service Road of Sunrise Highway.
“It has zero impact on the community,” said Bartha of the pools. “It’s a tribute to all the people in the community. You need patience to make something like this go forward, and we’ve had patience from the community. We’ve had hard work from people in the Department of Public Works as well as our engineers and contractors. We pledge to be good neighbors.”
“We pledged a long time ago to make sure that we’re going to do what we can to not only help the Forge River area, but other areas around the county,” said Presiding Officer Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst), whose leadership in the Legislature has been a critical aspect of Romaine’s objectives in sewering vulnerable parts of Suffolk County. “As the county executive said, we stand on the water that we drink. We need to do all we can. We’ve done our part in the county. We’re asking the State and the federal government to assist us to continue to do this. This is just the beginning here of what we’re going to do on Long Island to make clean water even cleaner.”
Deputy County Executive Jennifer Juengst, the de facto “water czar” for Suffolk, has been fighting for clean water on Long Island as an attorney for twenty-five years.
“This is a temple basically to how the future of Suffolk County should look,” said Juengst. “The people of Mastic and the Shirley area around the Forge River must be incredibly proud today.”
“We plan to spend at least $1 billion in extending sewers over the next three years,” said Romaine, referencing ongoing projects and studies in South Huntington, Kings Park, and Oakdale. “The first priority is the areas that are the most densely populated and are still on septic systems and cesspools. I’m hoping that the state will be our partner in some of this, and they’ll give us money not only for sewers, but for clean water for those people still on well water that are drinking well water that is currently impacted.”
