Drinking water

he town board is expected to vote Tuesday to retain the firm Sher Edlin LLP of San Francisco, California to sue the manufacturers of the chemical contaminants that have been found in one of the Riverhead Water District’s wells.

With standards now in place in New York for "emerging contaminants," the county health department will have to test homeowners' wells for them and homes where wells exceed the new standards will be eligible for special filtration systems.

Riverhead has been offered a $627,327 state grant to replace lead drinking water service lines.

The plan, calling for additional estimated expenditures of more than $15 million over the next 10 years, is seen as a crucial commitment to retaining the Riverhead Water District as an independent public water supplier.

It lies beneath us and, without thinking much about it, we all rely on it to survive. But what is the state of Long Island's aquifer — the sole source of drinking water for the island’s nearly 8 million residents? Is it polluted or pristine? Abundant or depleted? What can be done to protect it?