Mastic leaders laud Suffolk plans for $225.7 million sewer district project

Mastic-area civic and business leaders on Tuesday celebrated as Suffolk County officials announced plans to start building a new $225.7 million sewer district for the environmentally fragile peninsula.

Construction of the Forge River Watershed Sewer District — expected to serve about 1,889 homes and 150 businesses — is set to begin later this month, county Legis. Jim Mazzarella (R-Moriches) said in an interview. Plans call for construction of a sewage treatment plant at Brookhaven Calabro Airport in Shirley, with pipes running along William Floyd Parkway and Montauk Highway to customers in Mastic, he said. Construction is expected to take several years.

Mazzarella also announced that the office of state Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli had formally approved the creation of the sewer district.

Backers of the project, approved in a January 2019 public referendum, said replacing obsolete cesspools and septic systems with modern sewers will help rid harmful pollutants such as nitrogen from Mastic-Shirley waterways and boost development of restaurants and other businesses along Montauk Highway.

"This project is vitally important for the environment of our community, and equally as important is the economic means of our business community, which like many others has suffered terribly especially over COVID," Mastic-Shirley Chamber of Commerce president Beth Wahl said Tuesday at a meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature. "I’m just praying that finally we’re reaching a point where we’re seeing action."

The legislature on Tuesday unanimously approved a series of resolutions to accept $390 million in federal and state grants to fund the Forge River project and a new sewer district near Carlls River in Babylon Town.

The average Mastic resident will pay about $460 annually after sewer service is connected, Mazzarella said. Installation of sewer connections will vary among homeowners, he said.

The cost of connecting to the district and removing existing cesspools and septic tanks will be covered by the state and federal grants, he said. Mastic residents two years ago had voted 414-71 to approve the sewer district plan.

"It’s historic because this is a couple of decades in the making," Mazzarella said. "Obviously, this is going to be very good for the environment, number one, meaning that the nitrogen load on the Forge River will be greatly reduced [as well as] the nitrogen load going into our aquifer. In addition to that, it’s going to create some good-paying jobs in the construction of it, and once it’s up and running, it should revitalize the business corridor along Montauk Highway."

Frank Fugarino, president of Mastic Beach's Pattersquash Civic Association, said sewering the area is urgent, adding that water samples taken by Save the Great South Bay this spring showed Pattersquash Creek to have the highest nitrogen pollution of any samples taken by the Sayville nonprofit group this season.

With Rachelle Blidner

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.