Suffolk County approved a bill Tuesday to block a West Babylon sewage treatment plant from accepting toxic wastewater from natural gas drilling in upstate New York.
The legislation stems from the Bergen Point Sewage Treatment Plant being named as a potential site to process such waste in a draft environmental impact statement prepared by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
The agency has been studying where to dump the wastewater, among other issues, as it considers possible regulations that would allow the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing—better known as fracking.
The process involves pumping carcinogenic chemicals, water and sand into the ground to release natural gas from underground shale formations upstate. One of the questions raised is what to do with those chemicals once they’re used.
Nassau County lawmakers are also considering legislation to ban four waste water treatment plants in that county from potentially accepting such waste. That bill is expected to be formally proposed next month.
Suffolk Legis. Kara Hahn (D- Setauket) and Deputy Presiding Officer Wayne Horsley (D-Lindenhurst), who co-authored the legislation, praised the bill’s passage.
It now goes before Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, who is reportedly expected to sign it into law next month.