Riverhead Water District receives $5 million grant for Calverton extensions

The Riverhead Water District has received $5 million in grant funding for public water extensions to areas of Calverton with contaminated private wells.

The grant will be split between two proposed projects, extensions 95 and 96, which would together bring public water access to 73 single-family homes and six industrial properties in town, Riverhead officials said in a press release last week announcing the award. The grant is distributed by New York State from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Emerging Contaminants Fund, which is funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. 

Extension 95 would bring water to 28 homes west of Edwards Avenue in Calverton along Railroad Avenue, Canoe Lake Drive, River Road and a private road south of River Road, according to an engineering report for the project. The cost of Extension 95 is estimated at $5.6 million.

Extension 96 would bring water to 45 homes and six industrial properties currently without public water along Middle Road, Deep Hole Road, Manor Road, Middle Country Road and Twomey Avenue, according to the project’s engineering report. The cost of Extension 96 is estimated at $6.5 million.

“The health and safety of Riverhead residents will remain a priority throughout my administration,” Riverhead Supervisor Tim Hubbard said in a press release announcing the award. “The Town of Riverhead’s diligence to address the important need to provide potable water to our residents was once again supported by our federal and state public officials at the behest of the entire Riverhead Town Board and with strong public support.”

The area covered by Extension 95 has wells contaminated with PFAS substances, a category of synthetic “forever chemicals” linked to negative health effects. While the PFAS in that area’s water is not yet above the drinking water standard, the pollution is “only going to get worse,” Riverhead Water District Superintendent Frank Mancini said in an interview. 

The area’s proximity to the Enterprise Park at Calverton and the hydrogeography of the area also makes it one of the most likely areas affected by pollution that has migrated off of the former Northrop-Grumman plant. The town has received past grant awards for Extension 95 and a funding gap of roughly $1.5 million remains, Mancini said. Mancini said the town will seek to pressure the U.S. Navy, which leased the site to Northrop-Grumman for the manufacture and testing of naval combat aircraft, and is undergoing its cleanup, to make up the difference of the extension’s cost. 

“I’m disappointed the Navy hasn’t been taking more responsibility for those releases and the homes at risk,” Mancini said. “This is an opportunity for them to kick in the final bit.”

The area covered by Extension 96 has contamination of 1,4-dioxane, a potential human carcinogen, and Freon, an industrially manufactured chemical. This is the first time Extension 96 has been funded by a grant, Mancini said. 

“That’s a real win for us, because those people have what I would say is likely the worst contamination in their private wells right now,” Mancini said of the Extension 96 area. There are no options for treatment for those pollutants, Mancini said, unlike PFAS, which can be treated with carbon filtration.

Community Development Director Dawn Thomas, who leads the town’s grant writing team, said she will be working to secure the contract necessary to receive the money for the project. “If we need additional funding, we will apply for additional rounds coming up this year,” Thomas said. 

Hubbard thanked federal representatives for their efforts to provide federal funds to the state, and the town’s representatives in the state legislature for their support.

“I worked hard to pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs law because I know there are critical projects across Long Island that need federal funding to move forward, and the law continues to bear fruit, with another $5 million headed to Riverhead Town to connect homeowners with at-risk water wells to the Riverhead Water District,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “I applaud Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard and his team, as well as New York State, for working to secure safer drinking water for these residents.”

The grant builds on a campaign by town officials to bring public water to residential areas that don’t have it. The first extension to receive grant funding was in the Town of Riverhead’s Manorville hamlet, which would impact 64 homes, some of which have private wells polluted with manganese and MTBE, according to town documents. Last April, Suffolk County announced it would commit $1.5 million to close the funding gap for the Manorville extension, which would be constructed and maintained by the Suffolk County Water Authority pursuant to an agreement reached in Fall 2022. 

But the construction on the water mains in the Riverhead half of Manorville has not yet begun, which has caused some residents there to ask: “Why?”

In an interview, Thomas said there is a lengthy paperwork process that needs to be completed for the town to receive the money it has been awarded. The town has received multiple awards from both state and federal agencies for the Manorville extension project, which requires a lot of paperwork and coordination, she said. 

“There’s complicating factors there that we’re working through,” Thomas said.

Thomas also said the town cannot start a project with federal money until the Environmental Protection Agency gives the town’s project a “categorical exclusion” determination, which would determine the action does not need a detailed environmental analysis. Thomas said the EPA indicated they could get that determination within a month, which will allow the project to move forward.

“Everyone at every single level has been working as hard as they possibly can to get the money and the project started as fast as we possibly can,” she said.