'Stench' In Sheets Creek Under Investigation

MANORHAVEN, NY — The New York Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating a complaint from residents of Manhasset Isle about the strong smell of sewage in Sheets Creek.

The issue is just one among many that demonstrate the massive water-quality problem Long Islanders face — with both their drinking water and the surface water all around them, from ponds and streams to the bays to the Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. The quality of both has been declining for decades; it was 10 years ago that the Suffolk County Legislature acknowledged in its then-new Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan that "Suffolk County’s water quality is at a tipping point."

This example is somewhat of a mystery.

"DEC’s Division of Water received a report of potential illicit discharges (dry weather flows) into Sheets Creek, which flows into Manhasset Bay," spokesman Jomo Miller said, adding that the DEC also referred the complaint to the village for additional follow-up.

Mayor John Popeleski told Patch Tuesday the village's public works foreman and building inspector had traced the storm drain from which the sewage smell seems to be emanating back to a connected county storm sewer on the other side of Soundview Drive from Shore Road. "They don't believe what's coming in is coming in from the section that belongs to the village but further up the line owned by Nassau County," he told Patch.

Where ever it's coming from, it's rancid, said village Trustee Jeff Stone. "I've been here 17 years, I know what low tide smells like," said the Toms Cove resident. "This stench was so foul."

Sewage concerns around Manorhaven Beach — from bacteria to toxic nitrogen levels — aren't new. In 2023, the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee created an informal work group to address the issue and hoped to get a partnership going with the Interstate Environmental Commission's tracking program and the town of North Hempstead.

"The idea was that we could identify the 'hot spot' for bacteria coming into the area and then, hopefully, trace it back into the watershed to a location where we could do a project — such as if a parking lot needed some stormwater retrofits," Sarah Deonarine, executive director of the Manhasset Bay Protection Committee, told Patch. "But we were unable to get partnering with them on the town board's agenda, so that program did not move forward. I will keep pursuing it, though."

Long Island's increasingly polluted water has impacts on the economy, on tourism, habitat, aquatic life and storm resiliency — and the aquifers underneath are the only source of public water for the 3 million residents of Nassau and Suffolk counties. Both counties draw drinking water from a single source, the system of aquifers beneath the surface of the island.

Suffolk County did a comprehensive water resources study and found:

• Gradual decline in quality of drinking water
• Negative trends in quality of drinking water
• Harmful algal blooms and brown tides attributed to excessive nutrient loads
• Loss of wetlands is leading to a depleted coastal resiliency
• Nitrification, impaired water bodies, impaired rivers, closed beaches, and devastation of the shellfish industry

"There are so many facets of water quality," said Sue Van Patten from the DEC's Division of Water. "Excess nitrogen is key — and the main source of that is human waste, mainly the cesspools and septic systems that are prevalent on the island."

Van Patten, a specialist with the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan that addresses nitrogen problems with LI’s water quality, said 380,000 cesspools and septic systems need to be replaced.

This is about the contents of flushed toilets going into the groundwater. A cesspool is a pit in the ground lined with stone or cement. A septic system does a little more work, as wastewater flows into a "leach field" where it undergoes a filtration process — but an old system likely discharges harmful substances into the ground.

The Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan, or LINAP, was developed in 2015 as a partnership between DEC and the Long Island Regional Planning Council, in coordination with Suffolk and Nassau Counties and many stakeholders. More than $1.6 billion has been invested in 327 nitrogen reduction projects, including the Bay Park Conveyance Project. The project will convey treated water from the South Shore Water Reclamation Facility (previously known as the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant) located in Nassau County, which currently discharges an average of 50 million gallons per day of treated water into Reynolds Channel, to the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant ocean outfall pipe.

To date, DEC has awarded more than $170 million for 123 nitrogen reduction projects in Nassau and Suffolk. Among the accomplishments in the past few years that are helping to remove the excess nitrogen are:

• Completion of 9 Element Watershed Plans in Suffolk and Nassau counties. Both county-wide plans identify and quantify nitrogen sources and provide roadmaps for how to reduce nitrogen at the source.
• Replacement of outdated septic systems with advanced on-site systems that treat for nitrogen. Both counties have grant programs in place, supplemented with funding from New York State’s Septic Replacement Program. See the septic program here.
• Creation of the Long Island Garden Rewards Program, an island-wide reimbursement program for property owners that encourages implementing stormwater runoff reduction projects on their property.
• Voluntary Nitrogen Smart Communities program, which assists municipalities in identifying sources of nitrogen in their municipality and helps municipalities take meaningful actions to reduce their nitrogen pollution.
• Major sewering projects, including the Bay Park Conveyance Project in Nassau County and the South Shore Coastal Resiliency Initiative in Suffolk County. SCCRI represents the largest and most significant project in the history of modern coastal resiliency in Suffolk County. The project will replace over 5,700 aging cesspools and septic systems with low pressure sewers.

Patten said the DEC is now working on a Long Island Action Plan.

"We've broadened our scope a little bit," she said. Working with many collaborators on the island, they're determining not just priorities but also how to get things done. "We're in the process of developing it. It will go out for public comment in 2025."

The issues are so enormous, it has many stakeholders and needs many collaborators, she said. "It's way bigger than just septic replacement. it's storm water projects, it's the Bay Park Conveyance Project on the South Shore. I think there is a growing understanding that there's a problem. Long Islanders are tuned into the water."

But people like Stone are worried that it's all moving too slow, pointing out that residential and commercial development continues on the Island, using up the groundwater, creating more stormwater run-off problems in severe weather, and creating more waste.

"There's more sewage now than ever," Stone said.