May 6, 2014

You may remember that Save the Sound filed an appeal in 2012 in an attempt to get a Long Island sewer district and the state Department of Environmental Conservation to stop the excessive dumping of a key pollutant into the western end of Long Island Sound.

That appeal is now over. As the headline on our news release stated it:

"Great Neck Sewage Treatment Plant Fixes Problems, No Longer Violating Clean Water Act."

Here's the money quote from Curt Johnson, executive director of Save the Sound:

"We're pleased that the Great Neck plant has completed its upgrades and is no longer violating federal law by dumping excess nitrogen into Long Island Sound. It was one of the last sewage treatment plants on Long Island to meet its targets, and at the time of our appeal, Great Neck WPCD was in gross violation of the Clean Water Act, dumping more twice the legal limit of nitrogen into the Sound every day. We feel our lawsuit has met its objective in spurring the plant to finish its work by the 2014 deadline."

You can read the news release on Green Cities Blue Waters, our blog. You can learn more about the problems that nitrogen causes on the Sound here.