Manorville

Riverhead Town and the Suffolk County Water Authority are negotiating the terms of the intermunicipal agreement for their planned joint effort to bring public water to an area of Manorville near the former Northrop Grumman manufacturing plant in Calverton where private drinking water wells are contaminated by toxic chemicals.

Under a preliminary agreement discussed "in broad strokes" yesterday, the water authority would install about 3,000 feet of water main and serve 64 homes in the Town of Riverhead from the SCWA system.

The Suffolk County Water Authority has offered to assist Riverhead Town in the construction of a water main extension to the Manorville area south of the former Grumman facility, where residential private wells are impacted by or threatened by chemical contamination.

Riverhead Town has come up short on federal and state funding requests to cover two water district extensions to serve homes in Manorville and Calverton in the vicinity of the former Northrop Grumman facility in Calverton.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of a wildfire that burned more than 1,100 acres of Pine Barrens in Manorville, Ridge and Calverton. The fire, later ruled to have been intentionally set, burned for more than 24 hours.

Federal representatives have secured a $3.5 million grant for Riverhead Town to help offset the cost of bringing public water to more than 60 homes in Manorville. 

"Love the color? Want some?" Irate Manorville resident Clare Bennett sprayed discolored tap water from her home in air at the town board meeting July 7. She demanded action to bring public water to an area south of the former Grumman site where private wells are contaminated with a host of chemicals.

The head of the Suffolk County Water Authority wrote to the Secretary of the Navy today offering to provide public water to the homes in Manorville and Calverton south of the former Grumman site, where toxic chemical contaminants have been detected in private residential wells.

Testing by the Suffolk County Department of Heath Services found PFOS, PFOA and a host of other contaminants in drinking water wells in Manorville south of the former Grumman facility.

Sen. Chuck Schumer is urging the U.S. Navy to immediately develop a plan to connect homes near the former Grumman site in Calverton to public water and to expand its area of investigation for groundwater contamination near the site.