Each day, dozens of Long Island sewage treatment plants (STPs) view the wastewater discharge remaining after treatment as a liability—something that needs to be disposed of. However, at one facility, a different view has taken hold: wastewater is viewed as an asset to be recycled for valuable purposes.
The sewage treatment plant is the Riverhead STP, located on Riverside Drive, and its wastewater is used to irrigate the adjacent Indian Island County Golf Course. This, the primary application of water reuse, reclamation, or recycling (all three terms are used interchangeably) on Long Island, prevents approximately 1.2 tons of nitrogen from entering the Peconic Estuary each year. The nitrogen from this treated water helps nourish the grass on the golf course. In addition to this major water-quality benefit, the project also retains about 63 million gallons of water in the ground annually, underscoring the water-quantity benefits of reuse.
These dual aspects of reuse, related to quality and quantity, highlight its importance in safeguarding Long Island’s drinking water supplies and coastal waters. It serves as a valuable, complementary strategy alongside the installation of innovative residential wastewater systems and the development and expansion of public sewer districts.
The advantages of water recycling are becoming more evident to water management professionals both on Long Island and nationwide. Currently, about 10% of the nation’s daily wastewater is reused, mostly for irrigating golf courses and other recreational areas, as well as for crops, including food and forage. Wastewater is also reused in more limited applications, such as industrial cooling and product manufacturing (e.g., concrete production), supplementing drinking water supplies, and augmenting stream and wetland flows.
An additional use of recycled wastewater is for “internal reuse” at STPs, such as washdown water for cleaning equipment. Several STPs on Long Island use internal water reuse for these purposes, including the Great Neck STP, which, according to the District Superintendent, saves about 27 million gallons of water each year—a supply once provided by the local water district. Nassau County’s large Cedar Creek STP also uses internal water reuse, saving even more water.
In 2023, the Seatuck Environmental Association published a Long Island Water Reuse Roadmap & Action Plan to understand better the potential benefits of water recycling for Long Islanders. The plan was developed with financial support from the Greentree Foundation, engineering assistance from Cameron Engineering (now IMEG), and technical support from a group of advisors.
The full report is available on Seatuck’s website (www.seatuck.org). It assessed all existing STPs on Long Island and nearby potential user targets within a two-mile radius, such as golf courses, and then constructed a prioritization matrix. The matrix considered factors such as the amount of nitrogen reduced, water saved, transmission distance, and potential for infrastructure sharing, among others.
The roadmap indicates that, on an annual basis, if all 17 Tier 1 projects were realized, approximately 15 tons of nitrogen would no longer be discharged into groundwater or surface waters, and nearly 600 million gallons of water would be retained in the ground.
The concept of water reuse received a significant boost recently when reuse projects were defined as eligible for funding as Water Quality Improvement Projects under the revised Suffolk County Drinking Water Protection Program, approved by Suffolk County voters on Election Day 2024.
This was achieved by adding the clause to the section on wastewater facilities: “projects for the reuse of treated effluent from such treatment facilities.” This language enables water recycling projects to be included alongside land acquisition, sewer district creation and expansion, and the installation of advanced and innovative wastewater systems at residences throughout the county for funding through the program, which is projected to generate about $6.1 billion by 2060 for projects that protect the county’s water resources.
The concept received further support when Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine committed to having the Department of Public Works (DPW) undertake a feasibility study for employing water reuse at the county’s Bergen Point STP. The study will examine the details of using highly treated wastewater for internal reuse and to irrigate the adjacent county-owned golf course. It is expected to be completed in the coming months.
Many other states have recognized the importance and benefits of implementing statewide rules; California’s and Florida’s are notably comprehensive and transparent, offering valuable guidance to STP operators eager to advance water reuse projects in those states. The creation and implementation of NYSDEC rules governing reuse would help ensure the regulated public understands the “rules of the road,” thereby promoting water reuse on Long Island and across the state.
New York could also play a highly valuable role by providing funding for water recycling projects. This is true for Nassau County as well, since several of the highest-priority projects identified in Seatuck’s Plan and Roadmap are located there.
Indeed, in a few cases, the presence of several golf courses near North Shore STPs (such as Great Neck and Oyster Bay) that currently discharge into Long Island Sound offers the opportunity to redirect all wastewater for irrigation at those courses. This could eliminate all wastewater discharges into Long Island Sound for about seven months of the year. Such is the potential of water recycling.
John Turner is the Senior Conservation Policy Advocate at the Seatuck Environmental Association.
