2012-03-29

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www.freeportbaldwinleader.com THE'.I-LEA
77th Year, No. 13 Freeport, N.Y. 11520 The Community Newspaper Thursday, March 29, 2012 750
FLASH cleans up our bays
SPRING CLEANING ... of the Bays that is.
SPLASH held its annual clean-up this past
weekend that drew 350 people and 12
boats to help clean up our waters. Tons of
garbage was collected. Good work, guys!
photos courtesy of Operation SPLASH
County political parties plan to ban
hydrof racking waste water
by Laura Schofer
Dueling bills - one sponsored by the
Republican majority and a second by the
Democratic minority - have been intro-duced
into the Nassau County Legislature
to prohibit the acceptance of hydrofrack-ing
wastewater into county sewage treat-ment
facilities, including Cedar Creek in
Seaford, Bay Park in East Rockaway and
the Glen Cove plant.
The bills, both Proposed Local Law
2012, seek to keep what both parties
deem to be "toxic byproducts" from
being brought into sewage plants.
The Republican bill states "This
Legislature further finds that fracturing
fluids are comprised of water and chem-ical
additives, including but not limited
to biocides, surfactants, viscosity-modi-fiers
and emulsifiers."
The Democratic bill points to the pos-sibility
of "known carcinogens" as a
byproduct of hydrofracking.
"Hydrofracking," or hydraulic frac-turing,
is a new and controversial
method of extracting fossil fuels out of
the Earth by forcing water, chemicals
and sand into rock formations to break
them up. This process releases natural
gas. Some fear that the wastewater
produced by this process will contain
many contaminants.
A recent state Department of
Environmental Conservation draft
Environmental Impact Statement has
identified four sewage plants in
Nassau County as potential recipients
of wastewater if hydrofracking begins
in Marcellus, New York (on the bor-der
of Pennsylvania).
The four locations are the Inwood
sewage treatment plant, the Bay Park
Sewage Treatment plant, the Cedar
Creek Water Pollution Control Plant
and the Glen Cove Wastewater
Treatment Facility.
efficient handling flowback," says the
Democratic version of the bill.
"This Legislature further finds that
tertiary wastewater treatment facili-ties
treat water to remove nitrogen,
-phosphorous and carbons but do not
treat for all the chemicals in fractur-ing
fluid and flowback water." says
the Republican bill.
Both bills also acknowledge that
"Nassau County's wastewater treatment
facilities discharge treated water into
waterways, which feed into Long
. . . either bill will keep toxic byproducts
from our sewage systems . . .
The bills are essentially the same. The
Democratic bill was sponsored by
Legislators Dave Denenberg and Delia
DeRiggi-Whitton and filed on
Wednesday, March 21, said Mike
Florio, spokesperson for the
Democratic minority.
The Republican bill was sponsored
by Legislators Denise Ford, Dennis
Dunne and Howard Kopel and filed on
Thursday, March 22, said Cristina
Brennan, Majority press secretary.
Both bills also state that the county
sewage facilities are "not capable of
Island's sole source aquifer," reads the
Republican bill.
"We are acting now on behalf of all
Nassau residents to say no to additional
wastewater in Nassau's sewer system,"
stated Legislator Ford, a member of
Nassau's Public Safety Committee and
Planning, Development and the
Environment Committee.
"The county has invested millions in
repairing and upgrading the operations
of our plants," noted Legislator Dunne.
"In my opinion, it is unwise to consider
the acceptance of unknown contaminat-ed
waste in Nassau. Our taxpayers
deserve to have properly running plants
that provide for a high quality of life,
not to be dumped on by some upstate
moneymaker."
"Given the county executive's
desire to privatize our [sewage]
plants, this ban is particularly impor-tant
because a private operator is like-ly
to process as much wastewater as
possible for as much money as possi-ble
to the detriment of our environ-ment
and our taxpayers," responded
Legislator Denenberg.
Other municipalities in New York,
including Buffalo, Kingston and
Auburn, have set a policy not to accept
flowback wastewater and other waste-water
created by hydraulic fracturing.
The proposed [Republican] bill went
before the Nassau County Legislature's
Planning Committee, chaired by
Legislator Norma Gonsalves of East
Meadow, then to the Rules Committee,
chaired by Majority Leader Peter
Schmitt [ranking Democratic member
is Kevan Abrahams], on Monday, said
Ms. Brennan.
What about the Democratic version of
the bill?
"The Majority has the power to call
the bills. Our bill may have been first,
but their bill can be called first," con-cluded
Mr. Florio.
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