Sewer Summit Participants Outline
Growing Need for Infrastructure
Vow to continue heightening awareness among government officials, business leaders, environmentalists and the public 

Hauppauge , NY – Suffolk Executive Steve Levy was joined on March 20, 2008 by numerous prominent federal, state, county and town officials as well as Long Island's business and environmental leaders at a summit that detailed how sewers are the nexus between environmental health and future economic growth for Suffolk County.

Levy and other speakers outlined plans for future sustainable growth strategies, emphasizing the need to maintain existing sewers and build new infrastructure. The Suffolk County Legislature recently included $1.2 million in the 2009 Capital Budget for a study to assess the current sewer situation and figure out what can be improved upon. In addition, the legislature has included $150 million in the Capital Program over the next 10 years. Nonetheless, Levy and other officials said much more leadership is needed.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation estimated the cost to repair, replace and update New York's municipal wastewater infrastructure to be $36.2 billion over the next 20 years. Suffolk County has approximately 160 privately owned wastewater treatment facilities that are serving apartment complexes or small communities of townhouses. Cost estimates for repair or replacement of these facilities are available only for some of the largest of these systems in Suffolk County. According to information from the Suffolk County Department of Health, the average cost of upgrade or replacement for each wastewater treatment facility in Suffolk County is $3 million. The projected cost in Suffolk alone, therefore, is $480 million.

The county executive was joined by numerous officials at the Suffolk County Sewer Summit, which was held at the H. Lee Dennison Building. State officials included Empire State Development Long Island Regional Office Director Andrea Lohneiss, Department of Environmental Conservation Long Island Regional Office Director Peter Scully, and Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) Acting President Matthew Millea.

Five local town and village officials joined together at the summit to present case studies on the effects that the installation of sewers can have on downtown communities. Islip Planning Commissioner Gene Murphy and Village of Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri have witnessed the benefits of sewers in the communities of Bay Shore and Patchogue.

On the other hand, the absence of sewers can impair the economic growth of a downtown, as was illustrated by Vanessa Pugh, director of Babylon Town’s Office of Downtown Revitalization. Also presenting case studies were Mark Wagner, CEP and LEED of Cameron Engineering and Associates, and Huntington Town Councilman Mark Cuthbertson.