The Suffolk County Water Authority has no intention of withdrawing its objection to Riverhead Water District’s proposed extension to serve the Calverton Enterprise Park. The water authority says it —not the town water district — has the legal right to serve the site.
However, the water authority says, it has “no desire” to stand in the way of economic development at the enterprise park.
In a Jan. 29 letter to the State DEC, SCWA said it supports the Riverhead’s application for the DEC permit it needs to finalize its subdivision of more than 2,300 acres of land at the former Grumman manufacturing site, “so the related economic development of the area can ensue,” SCWA chief legal officer Timothy Hopkins wrote.
The town must complete the subdivision in order to close on a $40 million land deal with Triple Five Group, which is in contract with Riverhead Town to buy 1,644 acres of vacant industrial land at the site.
Hopkins suggested “perhaps the subdivision could be approved on condition that public water supply to the subdivision be provided by the SCWA.”
The water authority stands by its October 2009 letter opposing the Riverhead Water District’s application to extend its boundaries to include new users within the enterprise park, Hopkins wrote.
The water authority will not rescind its 2009 letter, he said, as the Riverhead Town Board demanded in a Jan. 19 letter to SCWA, in which the town accused the water authority of “disrupting the lawful sale of the property at EPCAL.”
The DEC has put the town on notice that the water authority’s objection to the Riverhead Water District’s EPCAL extension effectively blocks the town’s subdivision from moving forward as long as the subdivision sources its public water supply from the Riverhead Water District rather than the Suffolk County Water Authority.
The DEC told the town it must obtain SCWA’s consent to extend its district boundaries because any area not already within the town water district’s boundaries is within the service territory of the Suffolk County Water Authority.
If the water authority consents, the DEC said, the town must still demonstrate it has sufficient capacity to serve the proposed extension.
The water authority has made it clear it will not give its consent to the proposed Riverhead Water District extension. If anything, in fact, the water authority has doubled down on its position that areas outside the town water district boundaries are within SCWA’s service territory as a matter of law — whether or not the area is within the geographic boundaries of the Town of Riverhead.
The water authority is planning to run a main to serve 62 homes in Manorville, in the southwest corner of the Town of Riverhead, south of the former Grumman site. Some private wells are contaminated by chemicals thought to have migrated in groundwater from the manufacturing site. The water authority has asked the Navy to fund the project.
Riverhead Supervisor Yvette Aguiar said today the town is exploring its options, including going to court to settle the dispute.
Aguiar has said she views the water authority’s assertion of a right to serve the homes in Manorville and the enterprise park as an attempt to “take over” the town water district.
Councilman Tim Hubbard, who served as town board liaison to the water district from 2016 until last year, said he believes the town needs to “sit down and talk” with the water authority.
“Let’s negotiate with them and find a way to make everybody happy,” Hubbard said, “rather than jump into the legal forum right away.”
Hubbard said getting clean, safe drinking water to the people in Manorville has to be everyone’s top priority.
“If it comes down to the Suffolk County Water Authority providing water to the 62 homes in Manorville, so be it,” Hubbard said.
“Does that mean they are taking over the Riverhead Water District? No,” Hubbard said.
“By law, I think they can do this,” Hubbard said. “Why not work together to get the funding and get water to these people as soon as possible?”
The question of EPCAL is “a different story,” Hubbard said. The town water district is already providing water to the existing businesses on the site.
When the Navy transferred the 2,900-acre site to the town in 1998, Riverhead took ownership of the existing water supply and sewer infrastructure on the developed portion of the site.
During the decommissioning and planning process for the site that took place in the years leading up to the transfer, the town obtained grant funding from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to extend water mains into the EPCAL property to replace the water system previously owned and operated by Grumman.
The RWD then ran a 12-inch transmission main along Route 25 and into the EPCAL property south to River Road and along Grumman Boulevard, according to the town’s 2014 environmental impact statement. All existing development within the “industrial core” was required to connect to the new mains.
But this does not give the town water district the right to extend mains to serve new development at the site, according to the DEC, which has permitting authority over water systems.
Correction: Feb. 3, 2021
An earlier version of this article stated Councilman Tim Hubbard serves as co-liaison to the Riverhead Water District with Councilman Frank Beyrodt. Supervisor Yvette Aguiar appointed Beyrodt as town board liaison to the water district in 2020.
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