Thousands of gallons of partially treated Long Beach sewage spills into Reynolds Channel

Long Beach city workers inadvertently released about 20,000 gallons of partially treated sewage into Reynolds Channel on Tuesday after a valve released for about 15 minutes, officials said.

City officials said about 30,000 gallons of sewage overflowed into a catch basin and workers were able to vacuum up about 10,000 gallons while the rest was released into the water in a fishing area near a pier at National Boulevard and Bay Drive.

Before the spill, the state Department of Environmental Conservation had already cautioned against fishing and swimming in Reynolds Channel due to pollution.

A state report said a "plant operator failed to close a valve that allowed secondary sludge to run back to a primary tank, causing the tank to overflow on the ground and into the plant's stormwater system."

The DEC said there were no observed impacts to wildlife. The city is in the process of cleaning up the spill, according to the DEC.

The spill occurred at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, which processes sewage. It strips out contaminants and then pumps up to 5 million gallons of the treated sewage daily into Reynolds Channel. The channel separates Long Beach from Island Park on the South Shore.

The plant was built in 1951 and is in the process of being converted into a pump station to redirect the sewage to Nassau County’s Bay Park treatment facility.

Long Beach received $67 million in federal disaster funds, covering about 90% of the $78 million project to redirect the sewage via a pipeline. The city's wastewater plant was damaged during Superstorm Sandy. 

Further, a $500 million project to overhaul the Bay Park facility would eliminate 55 million additional gallons of sewage that Bay Park pumps daily into Reynolds Channel and Nassau County’s Western Bays.

The project includes tunneling three miles under Sunrise Highway from Bay Park in East Rockaway to the Cedar Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Wantagh. Bay Park will transfer its sewage through a three-mile outfall pipe in Wantagh into the Atlantic Ocean, where it can become more diluted.

The project is expected to be completed by next year. Officials hope to remove 95% of nitrogen pollution from Reynolds Channel and the Western Bays.

The removal of sewage could restore marshlands along the South Shore, rehabilitate the bays for storm protection, and possibly make the water safe for fishing and swimming in the coming years, officials say.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.