Thursday, November 14, 2013

Rockaway sewage plant really stinks

From NY1:

There's something in the air in Rockaway Beach, and it's far from anything anyone cares to smell.

"On a good day, it's 1,000 rotten eggs, and on a bad day, you want to vomit," said Dolores Orr, the chairperson of Community Board 14.

"On a good day, it would be like a public toilet," said Sam Amato, a student at Scholars Academy.

The odor that residents described, and I smelled firsthand, is coming out of the Rockaway Water Pollution Control Plant on Beach Channel Drive, just feet away from Scholars Academy. Beach Channel High School is down the street.

"The sewage is literally right there," said Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder of Queens.

"There's no cover on it. There's no protection on it."

To help clear the air, Goldfeder helped secure $8 million, and Orr said she's met with the department of environmental protection for a solution.

"It would either be to build a completely new treatment plant or change it to a pumping station and just pump it out to another plant, but either solution will take five years," Orr said.

Orr said that pre-Hurricane Sandy, the smell would only happen occasionally, but now, it's a constant problem for everyone in the area.

The Department of Environmental Protection said that a lack of rain is to blame, that it's slowed the time it takes for wastewater to reach the plant.

The DEP said that it plans to install new equipment to reduce the stench.

2 comments:

Joe in Richmond Hill said...

this plant has stunk for at least 15 years.
Also there is the similar 'Broad Channel Smell' ( Jamaica Bay ) that we smell in Richmond Hill during the summer when the wind blows from the south. When I drive to broad channel I can tell that is where the smell originates.

Anonymous said...

If Phil Goldfeder can't stand the stench, he should get out of Rockaway. Another do nothing on the State payroll with his entourage of lazy young people.

Anthony was a peach compared to this schmuck.