One third of Island septic mapping complete

The first step in moving Shelter Island toward cleaner water — mapping existing aged septic systems — is about one-third complete thanks to the efforts of summer intern Henry Read who worked on the project for several weeks this summer.

But with the Manhattan College senior’s return to finish his civil engineering degree, continuation of that mapping will fall to a town GIS consultant — at least for awhile.

“Henry was very productive and captured information for … buildings on Shelter Island,” Town Engineer John Cronin said. He will work with the GIS consultant to plot the results from the database Mr. Read developed to provide “a much better sense of problematic on-site sanitary disposal systems” on the Island.

There are still some funds left from a $4,000 grant The Group for the East End provided for the mapping that that could pay to hire another intern to work on the project during the school year, Mr. Cronin said.

He and Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr. are also discussing employing another summer intern earlier in the season in 2015.

That said, the engineer noted there are no mandates to force owners of antiquated systems to upgrade them.

“Our septic system initiative remains a priority,” Mr. Cronin said. But with a considerable list of technical projects on their plates, both he and Mr. Card have to balance money and time in what’s allotted to the wastewater project.

What the mapping project can do, Mr. Cronin said at the outset, is enable town officials to have a better view of potential problems.

When properly functioning, septic systems collect waste from homes to disperse into a draining field, but too much waste hitting the draining field will cause a stench, kill grass and vegetation and pollute local water sources, Mr. Cronin said. Because of Shelter Island’s high water table, prohibiting deep wells, beachfront houses must have wide drainage fields.