A Connecticut-based environmental organization, which had claimed the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District was dumping an excess amount of nitrogen into the Long Island Sound, on Thursday dropped a lawsuit filed against the district in 2012.
Save the Sound Executive Director Curt Johnson said the district has met local, state and federal environmental regulations regarding the dumping of nitrogen and that it would voluntarily drop the suit.
“When we filed the lawsuit the district was in violation every single month of its discharge limits,” Johnson said. “Since that time they completed their upgrades and we’re very pleased with the progress they made in that regards.”
Officials at the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District credited its $60 million linkup with the Village of Great Neck’s sewer system for the decrease in nitrogen output.
“Through our successful consolidation project, the district was able to significantly reduce nitrogen discharge levels into the Long Island Sound,” Great Neck Water Pollution Control District Commissioner Deena Lesser said.
District superintendent Christopher Murphy said the district has reduced nitrogen levels by 80 percent since the sewer linkup.
Save the Sound in April released a report card on state sewage treatments. Nassau and Suffolk counties received an “A” rating.
But Johnson said there’s still more to be done to protect the environment.
“Its all a long generational investment in reducing nitrogen,” he said. “Everyone knows that more needs to be done but we’re nearing the end of the first chapter.”
Save the Sound sued the district in 2012 after the state Department of Environmental Conservation signed a consent order that allowed the district to dump an increased amount of nitrogen into the Long Island Sound.
The consent order, signed in May of 2012 by the DEC and the water district, allowed the district’s water treatment plant to dump 653 pounds of nitrogen per day off the coast of Fairfield, Nassau and Westchester counties. The previous limit was 238 pounds per day.
In 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency mandated a 58.5 percent reduction in nitrogen dumping in the Sound by 2016. The district’s plant was unable to meet the targets set by the order, and, following negotiations, the DEC set higher limits for the plant until 2014.
Save the Sound said the consent order violated the Clean Water Act.
“By relaxing the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District’s nitrogen limit, NYSDEC is putting its stamp of approval on the continued pollution of the Sound,” the organization said in 2012 press release.
Water district officials also announced on Thursday that its East Shore Road facility was awarded Vision Long Island’s Smart Growth Award for sustainability.
“It is a tremendous honor to be recognized as a leader in sustainability,” Lesser said.
