Great Neck Treatment Plant Upgrades

The Great Neck Water Pollution Control District is discharging 75 percent less nitrogen as a result of new wastewater treatment operations than it was two years ago, the District announced Thursday.

This decreased nitrogen is the result of the GNWPCD's ongoing multimillion-dollar facility upgrade that will continue ensuring the safety of the local ecosystem, improving the water purity of the bay and protecting local marine life.

“Our District is proud to be one of the most environmentally conscious wastewater treatment facilities in the entire Northeast,” GNWPCD Commissioner Deena Lesser said. “This reduction in nitrogen output will have substantial long-term benefits for our local ecosystem, and this major capital investment will serve as a model for other facilities in our region.”

The District has already surpassed the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s new nitrogen reduction consent standards for all wastewater treatment facilities, mandated by June 2014.

The Village of Great Neck’s nitrogen effluent is expected to be decreased by an even greater percentage once its sewer operations are absorbed into the GNWPCD in the coming months.

The reduction in nitrogen output is a direct result of the completion of a 5.3 million gallon per day oxidation ditch structure, a major technological improvement over the trickling filter system that the District previously used for secondary sewage treatment, GNWPCD said.