Scavenger waste treatment plant in Greenport could soon be demolished

The decaying scavenger waste treatment plant on Moore’s Lane in Greenport will likely be demolished within months, after years of squabbling between Southold Town and Greenport Village over who is responsible for the fact that the plant never worked the way they had hoped.
Southold Town built the facility on Greenport Village land in the late 1990s to allow cesspool trucks from throughout town to unload waste into the village’s sewage treatment plant.
In the ensuing years, the facility was plagued with operational problems and was cited by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation because of the high level of nitrogen in outflow from the connected sewage treatment plant. The village claimed the town constructed the facility incorrectly, while the town claimed the village was not operating it correctly. The plant was closed in phases over the past several years and the village has implored the town to remove the plant from its land.
The Town Board is expected on Sept. 7 to approve a resolution accepting the bid of the Medford firm D. F. Stone Contracting to demolish the plant, at a cost to the town of $673,498.
Town Engineer James Richter said Friday that, if contract negotiations with D. F. Stone go smoothly, work could begin as soon as three or four weeks after the bid is awarded. He said the demolition will be a straightforward operation that will not require oversight from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
“It’s a shame that a reasonably new building of this type is being demolished so soon,” he said.
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