$5 million Sea Cliff sewer expansion project will connect dozens of homes to village's system

A $5 million sewer expansion project will connect dozens of Sea Cliff homes to the village’s sanitary system, part of a wider effort to reduce nitrogen pollution in Hempstead Harbor.

The project, which officials said could break ground as early as next year, will connect 45 homes on four streets in the village to the sewer system with 2,860 linear feet of piping. 

“This project has been a long time coming,” Nassau Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) said at a news conference at Sea Cliff’s Memorial Park Thursday morning. “Sea Cliff is one of the only parts of Nassau County that is not sewered.”

Homeowners who will be added to the sewer system said they are looking forward to the reduced maintenance that comes with getting rid of the need for outdated septic systems and cesspools.

“It’s great to have sewer lines and not worry about when the cesspool is going to overflow,” said Tannaz Nasirzadeh-Balooch, 43, of Sea Cliff.

DeRiggi-Whitton said she advocated for $4 million in bonds from Nassau County's capital plan to fund the project, and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove) directed a $1 million Community Project Funding grant to cover costs.

Sea Cliff Mayor Elena Villafane said the outside funding was essential to completing the project.

“A village of this size cannot afford to put in sewers,” Villafane said. “We don’t have the capacity in our 2,200 households to pay the kind of bills that are attached to a sewer development.”

The village’s hilly geography makes it difficult to connect underground piping to a larger system, but a main sewer line installed about a decade ago in the commercial corridor on Sea Cliff Avenue served as the jumping-off point for the expansion.

The newest lines will be added on Prospect Avenue, between Carpenter Avenue and Albin Street; Winding Way, between 7th Avenue and Prospect Avenue; The Drive, between Park Way and Carpenter Avenue; and Park Way, between 7th Avenue and Prospect Avenue.

Septic systems are a significant source of nitrogen pollution on Long Island. Older septic tanks and cesspools can seep into groundwater and contaminate waterways like Long Island Sound. Suffolk County’s plan to replace its septic systems with nitrogen-removing systems is behind schedule, Newsday has reported.

While most Nassau County homes are connected to a sewer system, the properties that will be added to Sea Cliff’s piping are located on a hill heading toward Hempstead Harbor — a sensitive water body that could be negatively impacted by wastewater runoff. When nitrogen from human waste filters into the surrounding soil, it eventually seeps into groundwater and can flow toward bodies of water, creating pollution that leads to algal blooms and loss of marine and plant life, Suozzi said.

“Sewers, cesspools to sewers, fixing up the sewage treatment plants,” Suozzi said. “All these things together have made the Long Island Sound such a better place.”

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ

Joseph Ostapiuk covers the Town of Oyster Bay and the city of Glen Cove. He joined Newsday in 2023 after spending more than six years at the Staten Island Advance.