Riverhead and Suffolk County Water Authority are negotiating agreement for Manorville public water extension, as cost estimate for work soars

Riverhead Town and the Suffolk County Water Authority are negotiating the terms of an agreement for their planned joint effort to bring public water to an area of Manorville near the former Northrop Grumman manufacturing plant in Calverton where private drinking water wells are contaminated by toxic chemicals.

Riverhead and water authority officials provided residents with an update on their efforts Wednesday night during the town’s quarterly water forum at Town Hall. The water authority offered to assist the Riverhead Water District to bring public water to 64 homes in the Riverhead Town portion of the Manorville area affected by the contamination. The Suffolk County Water Authority is separately working to extend public water to 64 other Manorville homes located in the Town of Brookhaven.

Officials discussed the progress of their plans. The Riverhead extension now carries an estimated price tag of $9.5 million — up from the $5.8 million estimate projected by Riverhead Water District engineering consultants H2M in their February 2021 final map and plan. H2M’s October 2020 draft map and plan for the Manorville extension put the cost at an estimated $4.8 million. The $1 million increase in the February 2021 reflects $800,000 in more in construction cost and over $200,000 more in non-construction costs.

In an interview this April, Water District Superintendent Frank Mancini said he thought the cost would come in closer to $7 million because of rising prices and an existing gas line in a road where a water main would be installed.

Suffolk County Water Authority officials said at Wednesday’s meeting the price of their contracts have increased from 30-50% due to supply chain issues and inflation.

None of the cost estimates include the private service lines needed to connect homes to public water mains. 

Suffolk County Water Authority staff at the water forum gave a presentation on the route of the proposed water main extension and, with town officials, fielded questions from residents.

“The goal on behalf of Riverhead is to provide clean drinking water and to provide the best financial way to, and any means to do that,” Councilman Ken Rothwell said. “There is not any type of political battle or ground battle, it’s about how do we get it? What’s the best financial way? The reality is where our closest current water supply is, and where Suffolk County’s closest water supply is, theirs is closer to your residence.”

“There is no question that the Suffolk County Water Authority has more equipment, more manpower and the ability to get this job done in a faster, more economical way” compared to the Riverhead Water District, Rothwell said.

The Town of Riverhead and the Suffolk County Water Authority in March were each awarded $3.5 million in federal grant funds for the Manorville projects. The water authority also received $2.7 million in a water infrastructure grant from the State Environmental Facilities Corporation to help fund its extension for the homes in Brookhaven. The Town of Riverhead had also applied for money from the same state water infrastructure grant, but its request was not funded.

Last month, officials announced their intention to enter an intermunicipal agreement.

Water authority CEO Jeff Szabo said Wednesday night Riverhead is currently reviewing and making suggestions to a draft memorandum of understanding for the intermunicipal agreement.

Officials said that under the agreement, Suffolk County Water Authority would supply the water from its water main and bill the Riverhead Water District for the costs. The water district would then bill the customers in its service area. This practice is something both the water district and water authority do on the borders of the water district, officials said.

Rothwell, the town board member working most closely on the Manorville water project, said he was in the Manorville neighborhood a few weeks ago going door-to-door to gauge how many homes and businesses were interested in hooking up to public water. Every resident who has responded to the town’s inquiry said they wanted public water, Rothwell said, adding that around 20 homeowners have not yet responded.

Rothwell also said the town will reach out to Suffolk County about funding, since the extension has the potential to benefit six homes on Suffolk County Park property.

The councilman said that residents who said they wanted to hook up to public water did not make a financial commitment to do it. The actual cost isn’t yet known, Rothwell said, and the town is still pursuing grant money to cover private service lines.

“The goal, obviously, is to limit and prevent any undue financial burden to any single resident and to cover these costs. And that’s the long-term goal. But we’ll know more as the days go forward and our grants are approved,” he said.

The cost of a private service line to connect to the main will vary, depending on the length of the line and the lay of the land. SCWA Deputy CEO of Operations Joe Pokorny said if the water authority contracted the work out to a company, it would be more expensive due to prevailing wage law. However, Pokorny said a private citizen can get a plumber to put in a 100-foot line for around $3,000, compared to the roughly $10,000 a public entity would likely pay for the same line.

Residents have said they don’t want to pay any of the cost to hook up to public water. 

“We’re definitely not going to do that,” Manorville resident Ron Martz said. “Because that’s one thing that aggravates every one of us here, all 64 homes. We did not pollute that groundwater.”

“We have to fold this in as part of the program,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, and an advocate for homeowners in Manorville. She brought up similar situations where residents didn’t need to pay for a private service line.

Town officials also gave an update on its progress in pursuing grants for water district projects. Community Development Director Dawn Thomas said the town has filed funding applications for four water district projects including Manorville — totaling roughly $16 million — in the next round of congressional funding, as well as the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund for regular and emerging contaminant projects.

Mark Woolley, Rep. Lee Zeldin’s district manager, said he is “fairly confident that we’re going to be able to see some money come back” to Riverhead in next year’s federal grant process. 

Thomas also said that last Friday the town sent a renewed request to the U.S. Navy for projects to bring public water to Manorville and the River Road area east of EPCAL in Calverton, which it did previously in March. The renewed request came after the Environmental Protection Agency issued updated, much stricter drinking water advisories for per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances. The federal environmental agency said it plans to issue regulations imposing maximum contaminant levels for PFAS, setting federal drinking water standards for the substances for the first time. New York State set PFAS limits for drinking water in 2020.

PFAS have polluted the groundwater on the former Northrop Grumman military manufacturing plant in Calverton as well as in some of the private wells in the Manorville area south and southeast of the site. Residents have argued for years that groundwater pollution at the former Northrop Grumman site has migrated off-site and polluted their private wells, and have argued the Navy should be held responsible for the cost of extending public water to the area. Zeldin and Senator Chuck Schumer have supported the residents in their demand, but to no avail.

[See prior coverage: Federal environmental agency issues major changes to health advisories for PFAS chemicals in drinking water]

Woolley and other officials Wednesday night urge residents to put pressure on the State Department of Environmental Conservation to hold the Navy accountable for the water pollution.

“We really need to keep the pressure on the DEC,” said Stan Carey, former Riverhead Planning Board chairperson and retired superintendent of the Massapequa Water District, who is now a consultant with H2M engineers, the water district’s consulting engineers.

“How do you do that? You write to the DEC commissioner in Albany, you attend the [Calverton Restoration Advisory Board] meetings and just demand that they take the side that the wells are contaminated by the off-site migration of that plume,” Carey said. “Until you do that, the Navy and Grumman are not going to commit to a dime — and I can tell you that from experience.”