Back to the drawing board for irrigation
If the draft irrigation proposal is adopted, the town might as well turn its water system over to the Suffolk County Water Authority, according to John Hallman.
It will be back to the drawing board for the proposed irrigation law following a sparsely attended public hearing Friday, but one in which several speakers raised questions about the efficacy of the proposals.“It’s not going to work,” said John Hallman, a member of the Irrigation Committee and chairman of the town’s Water Advisory Council, told the Town Board and about 20 people who attended the hearing. His criticisms had been raised throughout the 11 months of Irrigation Committee meetings in which he maintained that the 2003 ban on irrigation systems that was to take effect in September 2013 should have been allowed without further examination.
He described the draft law as having “a lot of questions, a lot of problems,” and said, “It looked like it was put together by a bunch of Philadelphia lawyers.”
The draft was too complicated and the suggestion of trucked-in water to fill cisterns wasn’t something that should be encouraged. He also questioned why tennis courts would be exempted from regulations.
“If you allow this to pass, you’re creating a problem,” Mr. Hallman told the Town Board. “You have the power to do something positive, but not with these regulations.”
If the draft is passed, he suggested town officials just call in the Suffolk County Water Authority because, “you’re going to need them.”
Douglas Knight, a seventh-generation Island summer resident, civil engineer and a Bend, Oregon, town official, warned that the draft contained sticks, but no carrot.
“Encourage people to do the right thing,” Mr. Knight said.
He said language in the draft wasn’t specific enough when it came to conditions that would allow use of well water for recharging. He also questioned why there couldn’t be a provision to allow locals to grow victory gardens to feed their families and said equestrian areas should have an exemption.
Watering a zone for 20 minutes every third day wouldn’t be sufficient, Mr. Knight said. And he questioned whether the document was sufficiently fair to be enforced.
“It seems to be this is still a work in progress,” said Irrigation Committee member Walter Richards, as he submitted a list of 22 points he asked the board to consider.
There were more questions about the impact of trucks bringing in water on a regular basis that would result in noise and wear on roadways.
Town Board members agreed to take written comments for two weeks before re-examining the draft.
If a second draft is sufficiently different, another public hearing would be required, Supervisor Jim Dougherty told the audience.
For a full account of the hearing, see Thursday’s Reporter.
