Senator Phillips Tours Great Neck Water Pollution Control District After Securing $10.52 Million

Senator Elaine Phillips recently toured the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District’s facility to view current operations and to learn more about planned upgrades.

Last week, Senator Phillips announced the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District will receive $10.52 million in funding through New York’s Transformative Investment Program that will allow the District to install a modern grease receiving station, the first in Nassau County, and will provide much needed upgrades to the current anaerobic digester at the East Shore Road plant.

Senator Phillips toured the facility with Christopher Murphy, Superintendent of the Great Neck Water Pollution Control District, Steve Reiter, a District Board member and Marion Phillips, Senior Vice President of Community Relations at Empire State Development Corporation. 

Senator Phillips fought to secure this funding for the new station that will have substantial economic and environmental impacts on the region, as well as increase savings for taxpayers. The new station will create 200 jobs for the region, with about half being directly employed by the District.

“This funding will allow the District to create a new disposal station, which will not only provide an economic boost to the community, but will have an environmentally friendly benefit, while at the same time reducing the taxpayer burden by converting grease into energy to run the plant,” Senator Phillips said. “After touring the facility and seeing the hard work the staff puts into their jobs, I am honored to have helped secure this funding. I applaud the District’s hard work and dedication to taking a business-like approach to running the municipal plant and focusing on operational efficiency, increased revenue, all while being environmentally safe.”

The new grease station will accept brown grease collected at local restaurants and commercial kitchens, which will in turn increase gas production at the District’s Cogeneration Facility.  By creating this station in Nassau County, there will be a great reduction in carbon emissions and traffic due to a significant decrease in waste transport to facilities in Suffolk County and New Jersey.  The District is also on track to be the first wastewater municipality in the state to refine cooking grease into power and heat for the facility, a move that saves hardworking taxpayer dollars.

The District’s three current anaerobic digesters are past their useful life and have limited gas storage.  By updating the digester and creating the new grease receiving station, the District will double its methane production, completely automate the anaerobic digester process, incorporate new safety components, and allow for more than triple the amount of gas storage at the facility. Increased storage will generate more electric and heat through the cogeneration microturbine facility and will reduce dependency on outside utility services.

The funding, which will also construct a third microturbine at the district’s existing Microturbine Co-Generation Waste to Energy Facility, was approved yesterday during the Empire State Development Board of Directors meeting and needs final sign off by the Public Authorities Control Board.

The Long Island Regional Economic Development Council also provided $770,000 towards the $12.3 million project.