The Town of Southampton remains committed to building a wastewater treatment plant in Riverside despite the “$5 million shortfall” it now faces as a result of all congressionally directed spending being halted by the federal government for fiscal year 2025, Town Planner Janice Scherer said Monday.
The stopgap funding measure enacted this weekend does not contain any congressionally directed spending for fiscal year 2025, including a $5 million grant submitted by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the Riverside sewer district facility.
MORE COVERAGE: Local projects lose $19 million in federal funding requests budget measure enacted this weekend (March 16, 2025)
Southampton will evaluate its options for filling that funding gap, including obtaining financing through the state Environmental Facilities Corporation, which extended a line of credit to the town for completion of the multimillion-dollar facility, Scherer said.
Permitting and construction of the facility won’t get underway until mid-2027 and should be completed by 2030, officials said at a community meeting last week at Phillips Avenue Elementary School. If congressionally directed spending is back in fiscal year 2026, the town could ask the senator to resubmit the request, Scherer said.
The wastewater treatment facility is necessary for the redevelopment of Riverside proposed in the Riverside revitalization plan adopted by the Southampton Town Board in 2015.
The proposed facility, which will be built in two phases, would serve 840 existing housing units in Riverside and is designed to serve an additional 1,167 new housing units contemplated in its service area.
MORE COVERAGE: Meet Riverside, revitalized: shops, restaurants, a riverfront promenade – building blocks of a vibrant community (Sept. 15, 2015)
“The delay in federal funding will not kill the project,” Scherer said. The town is committed to the revitalization of the Riverside hamlet, to making it an attractive gateway to the Town of Southampton, putting in the infrastructure and improving people’s lives,” she said.
Southampton Town has already done a lot of the work needed to move the project forward, including establishing the Riverside Sewer District, and marshaling other funding sources to cover the cost of the facility and necessary infrastructure, including pump stations, sewer mains and the individual hookups for existing users within the district.
Southampton is also currently defending a lawsuit brought by Riverhead Town seeking to invalidate Southampton’s actions establishing the district and its plans for building the wastewater treatment facility and the Riverside Action Plan. Riverhead seeks to force Southampton to include the county center, located in Riverside, within the new sewer district. The county facilities have been served by the Riverhead Sewage Treatment Plant since the county center was built in the late 1960s.
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead supervisor makes pitch to Southampton Town, asking it to redraw the proposed Riverside Sewer District to include the county center (Jan. 25, 2024)
Riverhead filed the lawsuit in August, accusing 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.”
MORE COVERAGE: Riverhead sues Southampton to block Riverside sewage treatment plant (Aug. 22, 2024)
The lawsuit remains pending. Southampton Town filed a motion to dismiss Riverhead’s lawsuit. Riverhead was supposed to file its opposition to Southampton’s motion to dismiss by Feb. 17, but that date has been pushed back to March 27 due to illness in the family of Riverhead’s outside counsel in the case, Steven Barshov.
In a letter to the judge assigned to the case in State Supreme Court, Suffolk County, Barshow said both the Southampton and Riverhead town attorneys “have communicated their mutual desire to ascertain if a mutually agreeable resolution to this litigation can be negotiated. I am working on coordinating those negotiations now.”
The planned wastewater treatment facility will be built in the industrial park off Flanders Road in Riverside, where land clearing has already begun to allow for survey work and other work needed to complete the detailed design, AJ Brooks of Arcadis Engineering, the firm hired by Southampton to design the facility, said during last week’s meeting at the Phillips Avenue school.
“This facility is a centralized system which will treat water biologically and chemically to remove nutrients and pathogens from the water,” Brooks told about a dozen residents in attendance, along with representatives of the Riverhead Central School District administration. It will be completely enclosed within a building that will have odor control and will not emit an odor typically associated with wastewater treatment plants, Brooks said.
Town officials and representatives of the engineering firm will make a similar presentation at the next meeting of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at the Crohan Community Center on Flanders Road.
Correction: The article originally misstated the potential number of new units that the wastewater facility will have the capacity to treat. It reported an outdated number. The updated number of units based on the size of the facility now being planned is less than half the original number.
The survival of local journalism depends on your support.
We are a small family-owned operation. You rely on us to stay informed, and we depend on you to make our work possible. Just a few dollars can help us continue to bring this important service to our community.
Support RiverheadLOCAL today.
