Schumer delivers $5 million for Riverside sewage treatment plant in federal omnibus spending law

Riverside revitalization efforts got a $5 million boost in the federal omnibus spending bill signed into law by President Joe Biden yesterday.

The $5 million appropriation requested by Sen. Chuck Schumer is targeted for construction of the wastewater treatment facility considered the lynchpin of the Riverside Action Plan. The treatment facility is essential to the implementation of the revitalization plan, which calls for high-density mixed-use development in portions of the Riverside hamlet.

The plan was adopted by the Southampton Town Board in 2015 and codified in a zoning overlay district that same year. But development utilizing the density bonuses provided by the overlay district has been stymied by lack of a wastewater treatment facility to serve new development.

“I’m so grateful to Sen. Schumer for his efforts in securing this funding,” Southampton Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said in a phone interview yesterday.

The town has purchased the properties it needed to assemble to site the treatment facility, including parcels where constructed wetlands of about 3.7 acres in size will receive and filter liquid effluent from the plant.

Schneiderman estimates the facility itself will cost about $20 million to build, not including the cost of the land.

“The more you can get the infrastructure funded, the lower the cost will be to the individuals with property in the sewer district,” Schneiderman said. “If it’s too expensive, people won’t vote to approve the district.”

It’s a tricky situation with a lot of moving parts, the supervisor said.

The facility needs a certain minimum flow to operate, as well as a critical mass of properties to share the costs of operation. But most of the development to be served by the facility is not yet built — and in fact cannot be built until the plant is online.

So the town’s focus is to get as much of the construction cost funded as possible and Schneiderman said the town is also trying to find ways to get at least a portion the operation and maintenance costs supported by funding that doesn’t rely on property taxes collected from owners within the district.

“One of the things we’re looking at is can we do a town-wide water quality district to support the operation and maintenance costs of the sewer district,” Schneiderman said. “Keeping the Peconic Bay clean benefits all of us,” he said. “It could be a very small charge across the board. We’re exploring that with Assembly Member Fred Thiele and others,” the supervisor said.

“But the first step is to get the infrastructure mostly paid for,” he said.

The Town Board in October approved $2.5 million in Community Preservation Fund/Water Quality Improvement funding for the Riverside wastewater treatment plant. The water quality improvement funding can be used for construction as long as the construction will serve existing homes; it can’t be construction that will serve new development, Schneiderman said.

The town has applied for the state’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant for the Riverside revitalization project, but so far has come up empty.

The town has lined up no-interest, 30-year financing from the Environmental Facilities Corporation, according to officials. The project is on the EFC’s annual plan for borrowing the construction costs, Southampton Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone said in a community economic development meeting in May. While Southampton will ultimately need to borrow construction funds, the idea into keep the debt as low as possible so taxpayers in the district can afford to hook up to the plant.