Glen Cove beach contamination investigation turns to pipe camera

Nassau County will pay for a video camera to snake through pipes near Glen Cove’s Crescent Beach in the latest effort to find the source of contamination that has kept the beach closed for swimming for nearly nine years.

The camera is to be inserted “inside of the pipe to see if it leads to a septic tank” or other potential causes of the high bacteria levels in the Crescent Beach area, said Kenneth Arnold, the county’s public works commissioner.

The single camera will be placed in about three to five pipes a day using a device similar to the “snakes” that are used to get inside sewer lines, Arnold said. The work is to start later this month.

The new initiative comes as the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s hope of tracing the contamination with dyes has so far been dashed. DEC workers placed nontoxic dyes in the sinks of five properties to determine if faulty septic systems are contributing to the high bacteria levels, but none of the tests found a link between septic systems and the contamination.

The five properties were among eight that the DEC identified late last year as potential sources of the contamination. The agency expects to conduct dye tests of the other three properties this month, officials said in an email. All eight property owners allowed access to their homes and are cooperating with the investigation, officials said.

The failure of the first dye tests to pinpoint the source of contamination is the latest disappointment in years of efforts by state, county and city officials to end the flow of high-bacteria water into Long Island Sound at and near the beach. Dye tests in past years by the city also came up empty, Glen Cove spokeswoman Lisa Travatello said.

A county-commissioned study released in November found that 11 of 12 unpermitted pipes discharging into a stream that crosses the beach and empties into the Sound had high levels of coliform and enterococci bacteria, both of which are found in human and animal waste.

The 11 pipe discharge sites are among those that will have cameras placed in them, DEC officials said. Agency staff is determining which other pipes will be snaked with cameras.

Woodbury-based D&B Engineers and Architects, which conducted the November study, will analyze the results of the camera tests, Arnold said. The cost of the camera tests is still unknown because a subcontractor hasn’t yet been selected, he said.

Even if the contamination source is confirmed with the dye or cameras, it’s unclear whether Crescent Beach can reopen for swimming and bathing this summer, Arnold said.

If the culprit is a faulty or illegally connected septic system, city law requires homeowners to remediate violations within 90 days, “but until the source of the problem has been confirmed, we cannot set a firm timeline or action plan,” Travatello said.