Teachers at Phillips Avenue Elementary School are planning to demonstrate tomorrow to raise concerns about Southampton Town’s plan to site a sewage treatment plant in Riverside near the school.
The teachers will use their lunch time around 12:30 p.m. to stage a demonstration with the goal of raising awareness to the location of a sewage treatment plant, Riverhead Central Faculty Association President Gregory Wallace said. The teachers want Southampton Town to go back and analyze the environmental impacts a sewage plant a few hundred feet from the school’s property line may have on the elementary school, Wallace said.
“It’s a sewage treatment plant. It’s right next to a school. Kids are outside playing. Will they be affected by the odor?” Wallace said.
Citing the location of the school in an impoverished area of the town, he asked whether the town would be willing to build a sewage treatment plant next to a school in a wealthier area of town, “next to, say, Southampton Elementary School or Southampton High School?”
“This is a vulnerable population in a poor area — a traditionally impoverished area. So we’re questioning the rationale of putting it next to the place where we educate our students,” Wallace said.
Riverhead Central School District officials and other speakers raised concerns about proximity of the sewage plant to the school during a Southampton Town Board meeting in April. The plant is necessary to build and develop high density housing, which is a key to the town’s revitalization plan for the area.
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Southampton Town Planning Administrator Janice Scherer responded to concerns about the site of the plant in April by saying that the plant will be “heavily buffered” and designed to have odor control. The plant will be more than 900 feet from the school building and is 575 feet from the property line, she said.
Southampton Council Member Tommy John Schiavoni today declined to comment directly on the teacher’s concerns.
“We have great respect for our educators and our school children, and we’re trying to revitalize the community and mitigate nitrogen impact on the estuary,” he said in a phone call. “All things will be taken into consideration.”
Southampton Town Supervisor Maria Moore did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
The Southampton Town Board officially created the Riverside Sewer District at its May 28 meeting. The district, which is estimated to cost up to $44.6 million, will be funded using county, state and federal grant funds and revenue generated to the town’s Community Preservation Fund, which is funded by a tax on real estate transfers.
Riverhead Town officials have also objected to the sewage plant, but for different reasons. They wanted Southampton to extend the district westward to capture the Suffolk County center, court complex and jail in Riverside, which is currently connected to the Riverhead Sewer District. Southampton officials refused. Riverhead has also objected to the town’s redevelopment plans for Riverside, specifically the construction of affordable rental units. Town officials have threatened legal action against Southampton and hired a lawyer to advise them on how to proceed.
Editor’s Note: This article was amended after initial publication to remove the term “walk out” and clarify how the teachers will demonstrate., and to correct a typo related to how far the school would be from the sewage plant.
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