Environmental Poster Contest winners Water district wins award for treatment plant

Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joseph Saladino and Councilwoman Michele Johnson joined with contest sponsors and coordinators to congratulate the winners of the Town of Oyster Bay’s Annual Environmental Poster Contest, open to all fourthgrade students throughout the Town each year. This year’s theme, “Marine Pollution Solutions,” asked students to show the dangers that plastic litter could pose to our waterways and various ways to solve the issue, including proper recycling. This year’s winners were first prize winner Siddharth Yohan Natarajan from Jackson Elementary School in Jericho, second prize winner Chloe Lim from Glen Head Elementary School, and third prize winner Dhruvika Khanna from Central Boulevard Elementary School in Bethpage. This year’s poster contest was co-sponsored by The Waterfront Center, Friends of the Bay, and the Cornell Cooperative Extension – Suffolk County, who provided great prizes to top winners. For more information on the Environmental Poster Contest, and to view top submissions, visit oysterbaytown.com/postercontest.

The Hicksville Water District (HWD) was recently awarded the Project of the Year Award by the New York Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA). The district was recognized for its work to complete its treatment facility at Plant 5, which began operating in March of 2022. With Plant 5 online, the HWD now has eight treatment wells online for emerging contaminants, which is more than any other water provider on Long Island.

“It is an honor to have been recognized by the AWWA with this prestigious award,” said HWD Chairman William Schuckmann. “We have put a tremendous amount of effort into improving our infrastructure to account for emerging contaminant treatment over the past several years, and to have our hard work acknowledged by the AWWA is very rewarding. Plant 5 is a valuable addition to our community and we are looking forward to seeing it benefit current and future generations of Hicksville Water District residents.”

The state-of-the-art facility is equipped with two Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) systems and four Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) filters, all of which represent the most advanced and effective water treatment technology available for the removal of 1,4-dioxane as well as PFOA and PFOS. This treatment combination is the only approved method to remove contaminants of emerging concern from the ground water to non-detectable levels.

The HWD has invested approximately $70 million into the installation of emerging contaminants treatment, more than $35 million of which has come from New York State grant funding. $17.6 million of that grant funding came just last year, helping the district to further offset the costs of treatment to its residents.