Suffolk health department lifts Peconic River advisory following Jan. 14 sewage discharge

Suffolk County health department testing of Peconic River samples following last week’s sewage discharge at an East Main Street construction site have shown “bacteriological indicator levels ….well below NYS Standards for bathing beaches,”a health department official wrote in an email to Riverhead Sewer District Superintendent Tim Allen Wednesday afternoon.

The health department has lifted a Jan. 14 health advisory urging the public against recreating in the tidal waters of the Peconic. The agency said in a press release “recent analysis of surface water samples collected from the potentially affected area indicates this area is suitable for primary contact recreation.” 

“SCDHS took multiple rounds of samples for bacterial contamination at various locations in the tidal portion of [the] Peconic River. Results were unremarkable and do not suggest any sewage-related contamination,” Suffolk County Associate Public Health Sanitarian Nancy Pierson said in her email to Allen.

Allen provided a copy of the message to RiverheadLOCAL.

A break in a Riverhead Sewer District pipe at the 203-213 East Main Street construction site on Jan. 14 resulted in a discharge of approximately 10,000 gallons of untreated wastewater at the site, located a short distance from the river. 

Allen said last week the situation was quickly “mitigated” and there was no visible evidence of the discharged wastewater contaminating the river. 

The property under construction is being developed by Heatherwood with a 165-unit apartment building. 

Allen told the Town Board Thursday that the discharged wastewater “saturated into the ground” so “there was no cleanup.” 

The contractor has a dewatering box on site because the shallow depth to groundwater requires dewatering during excavation for sewer pipes and the building foundation. 

Bypass pumping equipment already at the site for construction of a sewer pipe to connect the new building to the town’s sewer system was deployed to convey wastewater around the area of the pipe break, Allen said.