Riverhead Town has sued the Southampton Town Board in an attempt to block the construction of a planned sewage treatment plant in the hamlet of Riverside.
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court Wednesday, accuses Southampton Town of violating state environmental laws, including the State Environmental Quality and Review Act, also known as SEQRA, and the Green Amendment of the New York State Constitution, which guarantees the “right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”
If successful, the lawsuit could derail Southampton Town’s plans to redevelop the blighted hamlet on the south side of the Peconic River with mixed-use development and affordable housing. A development plan for the area, the 2015 Riverside Revitalization Action Plan, is reliant on the creation of a sewage treatment plant. The Southampton Town Board voted unanimously on May 28 to establish the Riverside Sewer District and set its boundaries.
The boundaries of the Riverside Sewer District do not include the county facilities located in Riverside — the Suffolk County Center, the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex and the Riverhead Correctional Facility. Those facilities are currently serviced by Riverhead Town’s sewage treatment facility and, Riverhead argues, should be hooked up to the Riverside plant, which will be located much closer to the county facilities.
Riverhead Town wants to reclaim the 200,000 gallons it must set aside for the county facilities to be able to extend sewer lines to as many as 1,300 homes with antiquated septic systems, which release harmful pollutants into the Peconic River estuary, and to redevelop the West Main Street corridor, as Riverhead Town continues its own downtown revitalization efforts. The town is planning for the development of more mixed-use apartment buildings in the downtown area, including on West Main Street and near the Long Island Rail Road station, which will require hook-ups to the Riverhead sewage treatment plant. Riverhead says that its sewage treatment plant is “at capacity” because of the required set-aside for the county facilities in Riverside.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead Town authorizes lawsuit against Southampton, hoping to stop sewer plant in Riverside
“We said right from the beginning, we never really wanted to have it come to this, but in our conversations with Southampton, we just — we didn’t get a seat at the table,” Supervisor Tim Hubbard said in an interview Wednesday. “And we feel for the benefit of not only how it affects us here on this side of the river, but the other side of the river too. It’s an impoverished area, and we don’t think they’re doing the right thing by the people that currently live there.”
Hubbard said a lot of the Riverside community is Hispanic and feel “somewhat afraid to come out and get involved in things publicly.”
“We feel like somebody has to stand up for them,” Hubbard said. Riverhead Town is “really the home” for people who live in Riverside and Flanders, he said.
The town is asking the court to strike down the Southampton Town Board’s approval of the Riverside Sewer District and its sewer project, and to mandate the Riverside Sewer District serve county facilities located in Riverside as part of the first phase of the sewer district’s development.
Riverhead also wants the court to order Southampton to analyze the potential impacts of the sewer district and future development on Riverhead Town and schools within the Riverhead Central School District, which students in Riverside and Flanders attend.
Southampton Supervisor Maria Moore did not immediately return a call requesting comment.
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