Suffolk Executive Steve Levy Secures Tentative Sewer District Update and Expansion at No Cost to Tax/Ratepayers

Negotiates to have Motor Parkway Associates Cover Full $15 Million tab to Improve Aging Sewer District 13 in Islandia

Hauppauge, NY– Suffolk Executive Steve Levy introduced a measure today that will protect residents’ water quality, along with their wallets, if approved by the county legislature.

Levy was able to successfully negotiate the full update and expansion of Sewer District 13 in Islandia through the Motor Parkway Associates development group. Under the agreement, two of the sewer district’s treatment plants, well over 30 years old and beginning to fail, will be re-built as one larger plant that will allow an additional 350,000 gallons of water per day to pass through the facility. The expansion is anticipated to cost $15 million, of which Suffolk taxpayers and Sewer District 13 ratepayers will pay nothing.

The work, to be performed entirely through Motor Parkway Associates, will accommodate the needs of Spring Meadow and Townhouse Village, two homeowners’ associations whose existing sewage treatment plants are in need of costly improvements. The sewer district expansion will also allow Motor Parkway Associates’ proposed development, the Islandia Hotel, to meet water and sewage quality standards.

Motor Parkway Associates has assured the county that at no time during the sewer district expansion will any of the sewage treatment plants be shut down.

“This is a win-win deal for everyone,” Levy said. “Two of our deteriorating sewage treatment plants will be updated and expanded for area residents, but they won’t have to pay a dime. This also saves the county from having to pay for the work ourselves, which is vitally important in these tough economic times.”

A resolution submitted at today’s general meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature would approve Levy’s negotiated agreement with Motor Parkway Associates. The measure could be eligible for a vote at the legislature’s August 5 general meeting.