Orient water project hasn't dried up
Most residents still oppose main extension, but Orient venture's fate remains uncertain
BY JOHN HENRY | CONTRIBUTOR, SUFFOLK TIMES

Is the controversial proposed water main extension from East Marion to Orient's Brown's Hills community "in limbo" or not?
It depends on who you ask.

Town Supervisor Scott Russell told The Suffolk Times last month that the federally subsidized $3.8 million project, viewed by many Orient residents as a potential beachhead for unwanted development, was on hold. He said then that the state, which dispenses federal funds to local water projects, had become less inclined to keep the water main on its list of projects eligible for government economic stimulus money.

Mr. Russell says he learned of the state's diminished enthusiasm for the project from Stephen Jones, CEO of the Suffolk County Water Authority, which would build the three-mile extension of the main and finance half its cost with stimulus funds.
"Looking at the lack of support for it, Steve Jones described to me that stimulus money was very much in limbo," the supervisor said last week.

Told of Mr. Russell's remarks, Mr. Jones said, "I don't recall saying that to him. We've got no indication that the state is doing anything but continuing to process the application in an expeditious fashion." The water authority hopes to receive the federal funding for the project sometime in December.

At the state Department of Health, which approved the use of stimulus funds for the project, a spokesman said its status "hasn't changed but we are aware of concerns about development, and we'll take those concerns into consideration."
Mr. Jones told Orient and East Marion residents at the first public meeting about the project on Nov. 4 that the project's viability is subject to the receipt of state funds, not town approval. "We can connect parts of our system," he said, referring to the water main, which now terminates in East Marion, and Brown's Hills, whose 24 homeowners the authority services with on-site well water.

Nonetheless, Mr. Jones said afterward, "We want to work with the town on this." He said the authority wants to collaborate with the town on amending its water supply map -- which currently doesn't include the water main extension -- because it also wants 135 homeowners along the main's right of way to have access to it.

During the meeting, which was convened by state Assemblyman Marc Alessi, residents filled most of nearly 60 chairs set up in Orient's Poquatuck Hall and repeatedly expressed skepticism about why the water authority would spend so much money to bring piped water to just two dozen Brown's Hills homeowners who never requested it.

Venetia Hands said she and fellow Brown's Hills residents were "terrified" of being used as a "sneaky back door" for a project they fear could spur development of the Orient peninsula.

Although the water in wells that supply Brown's Hills contains nitrate levels exceeding the state safe drinking standard of 10 parts per million, the authority already provides for the maintenance of reverse-osmosis filters under homeowners' kitchen sinks that, residents say, reduce the level to just two parts per million.

Describing her filtered drinking water as "fabulous," Ms. Hands asked Mr. Jones, "Given that people don't want [piped-in water}, why are you still pursuing it?"

He responded that Brown's Hills represented the only part of the authority's system with point-of-use filtration. "It's not an appropriate way to provide drinking water," he said, because only one location in the home provides safe water.

Mr. Jones said the authority had investigated installing a central filtration system for the community but that its cost effectiveness compares unfavorably with a water main, which can last a century.

More than one resident complained that the authority was undertaking the project without polling the community on whether it wanted the water main. Orient resident Sandra Sinclair said that public entities like the Suffolk County Water Authority "seem to exist apart from anything we can control" and can impose projects on residents "almost by fiat."

Mr. Jones didn't respond directly. While the authority's regulations mandate that at least 40 percent of residents in a community must commit to a proposed extension of service, he previously has said no polling of Brown's Hills homeowners by the authority was required because they're already its customers.

Ms. Hands urged Mr. Jones to make the project "more open" by having the authority survey Orient to see if at least 40 percent of homeowners want piped-in water.

The potential number of existing homes to be served by the main would be approximately 850; that would include the 24 in Brown's Hills, 135 homes along the main's right of way that could hook up with the line, and another 700 homes that could be served if the 40 percent commitment threshold were met for that group.

Only two of the nearly 20 residents who spoke at the 90-minute meeting supported the project. William Gibbons of Orient said the nitrate level in his well water was 17.9 parts per million -- nearly 80 percent above the state's safe drinking water standard -- and declared, "I want public water!"

And David Moore, who lives on Main Road in Orient, which would be along the water main's right of way, said, "A lot of people in Orient would like to have a reliable supply of clean water." Don't deprive people of it "simply because someone doesn't want it."

Rona Smith, chairwoman of the Orient stakeholders' committee, who attended the meeting but didn't speak, said later that she favored the project because it would be a backup for residents' private wells. "If we want it in the future, without federal stimulus money we won't be able to get it," she said.

Both critics of the project and supporters seemed receptive to the suggestion of Bob DeLuca, president of the environmental organization Group for the East End, for a moratorium on zoning changes while the town creates a comprehensive master plan that articulates "chapter and verse" the objectives Orient seeks for any future development.

"The best long-term planning," he said, "should be based on a lot more than a pipeline."

The only other person specifically invited by Assemblyman Alessi to address the meeting along with Mr. DeLuca and Mr. Jones was Douglas Feldman, chief of the office of water resources in the county's Department of Health Services. He expressed strong support for the water main project, saying it would allow for continuous monitoring of drinking water quality in an area with high levels of nitrates and agricultural chemicals in private wells.

Mr. Feldman's message was reinforced in Oct. 27 letter to Mr. Jones from Vito Minei, the department's director of environmental quality, which was included in the information packets the authority supplied for the meeting. Mr. Minei assailed as "completely unsupportable" the proposition that small, in-home filtration systems are an effective alternative to water from a main.

While such systems might be permissible when there's absolutely no alternative, he said "they are inferior to conventional water supply in that they require significant operation and maintenance, and are a considerably higher risk for upsets and failures."

Alluding to concerns that the water main extension could bring unwanted development in its wake, Mr. Minei wrote, "Clean, safe water supply to Suffolk residents cannot be held hostage to the flawed notion that it may somehow induce undesirable growth." Like the water authority, the health department says that zoning and land-use planning are the town's responsibility.

One portion of Mr. Minei's letter has rankled town officials. He wrote that at a meeting this August with representatives of his department and the water authority, Supervisor Russell and town Councilmen Al Krupski and Tom Wickham "indicated a willingness" to amend the town's water supply map to include extending the main as far as Brown's Hills. In interviews, the three Town Board members disputed Mr. Minei's account.

"We never talked about the extension of the water main," said Mr. Russell, who said Mr. Minei didn't attend the meeting. "Any mains that don't appear on that map would require us to have a public hearing and adopt an amendment to the map by local law." Mr. Krupski said the Town Board has instructed town attorney Martin Finnegan to write Mr. Minei informing him of the required public process for map amendments.

The Department of Health Services says it stands by its letter.

As for the water authority, Mr. Jones said after the meeting, "We want to respect the map. We want to maintain the relationship we have with the town."