Blue Point town houses' nearly 40-year-old cesspools to be connected to Patchogue plant
Joe Amodei said he and his wife, Donna, moved to a Blue Point town house complex about 2½ two years ago for the bucolic sunrises over Great South Bay.
"We have all kinds of wildlife here," he told Newsday. "Lots of birds."
But that rustic beauty was threatened by the antiquated cesspool system that serves the Amodeis and their neighbors at the Harbour at Blue Point.
Instead of repairing the system in a conventional fashion, residents of the 66-unit gated community are working with Suffolk County officials to connect the system to the Village of Patchogue's sewage treatment plant.
The $2.4 million project is partly funded by a $1 million grant from the county's $125 million Wastewater Infrastructure Fund, officials announced Tuesday.
"We don't solve the water quality crisis if we don't all work together to solve the problem," County Executive Steve Bellone said during a news conference at the town house complex.
Amodei, 61, president of the Harbour's homeowners association, and J. Robert Holzmacher, a private engineer hired by residents, said the town houses' nearly 40-year-old cesspools were in danger of failing due to age and simple wear and tear.
The Patchogue plant, less than two miles away, is large enough to accommodate the Blue Point project because the village last year began expanding the facility by 50%, from a daily capacity of 800,000 gallons to 1.2 million gallons. Village officials had begun inviting neighboring communities like Blue Point to use the plant.
County Legis. Dominick S. Thorne (R-Patchogue) said the complex dumps about 17 pounds of untreated nitrogen daily into the ecosystem, causing algal blooms and other environmental hazards. Connecting the cesspools to the Patchogue plant will remove about 6,000 pounds of nitrogen annually from groundwater and Tuthills Creek, which runs past the complex, Thorne said.
"We want to make sure that we leave this a better place for our children than we found it," he said.
Amodei, who is retired from the auto collision industry, said construction of pipes connecting the existing system to the Patchogue plant should start later this year and take about three months to complete.
The homeowners association is taking out a loan to fund the remaining $1.4 million project cost, Amodei said, adding the association is seeking state aid to pay back the loan.
At the news conference, Amodei found himself saying something he'd never thought he'd say.
"It's really exciting getting sewers here," he said.
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.
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