Patchogue's $12.5M sewer expansion won't cost village residents any money

Patchogue is planning a $12.5 million expansion of its sewage treatment plant to help village residents discontinue use of environmentally unfriendly cesspools and boost downtown development, officials said last week.

Mayor Paul Pontieri said the nearly century-old plant on Hammond Street — which has been upgraded several times over the years — will be expanded by 50%, from a daily capacity of 800,000 gallons to 1.2 million gallons. Construction is expected to start later this year and should be completed in 12 to 18 months, he said.

Pontieri said expansion will allow homeowners, especially those in older homes by Great South Bay, to hook up to the sewer system. Untreated sewage from cesspools has been blamed for problems in the bay and nearby streams such as brown tide and algae blooms that can be harmful to humans and stem growth of shellfish.

“South Patchogue is 80- to 100-year-old homes, they have cesspools,” Pontieri said. “Not that they’re pumping raw sewage in the streets [but] … it’s a mess.”

Additional capacity also will help add restaurants in the downtown business district, the mayor said.

“There will be other projects that come along, and now we have the capacity to say ‘yes’ [to them], ” Pontieri said.

Construction will be almost completely funded by state and federal grants, including $7.7 million from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and $3.5 million from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Pontieri said. The remaining $1.3 million is expected to come from surplus village reserve funds, he added.

“There’ll be no cost to the tax rolls for any of this,” Pontieri said.

Patchogue and Long Island officials have said previously that the sewage plant has been the key to the village’s revitalization over the past decade. Once a moribund village with vacant Main Street storefronts, Patchogue has become a model for downtown redevelopment with trendy shops, bistros and apartments.

David Kennedy, executive director of the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce, said added sewage capacity will help pockets east and west of downtown that continue to struggle.

The village expects to celebrate the opening of nine new businesses this month, including some that will replace stores that closed during the coronavirus pandemic, Kennedy said.

“Patchogue has obviously transformed to a very healthy restaurant community, and that would not have been possible without the sewage treatment plant,” he said. “That expansion allows that trend to continue and allows [the village] to keep adding more businesses to our community.”

Pontieri predicted that expanding the plant will enable Patchogue to offer use of the sewage system to neighboring communities, such as the Village of Bellport. He said Patchogue could make 200,000 daily gallons available. 

Bellport Mayor Raymond Fell said he favors such a plan, but many village residents spurned the idea when it was proposed about a decade ago because it could cost Bellport homeowners thousands of dollars to connect to Patchogue’s system.

“That was the big objection, was the cost,” Fell said. “It was expensive, no question about it.”

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.