Cronin calls for well testing
Town Engineer John Cronin says the need for information from well testing is critical.
Students, staff and teachers at the Shelter Island School in the 1980s will remember informative signs that the water was unsafe for drinking. When an addition was put on the school in 1992, one of the requirements for construction was that the school’s well had to be relocated.
Town Engineer John Cronin remembers it well. “I engineered the project,” he said, adding that the school’s well is now tested regularly.
The memory of that project spurred Mr. Cronin to opening a public discussion of testing many more wells on the Island. His idea would be that, after a significant amount of tests were done, the information would go into a database to give a picture of the health of the water supply here. Action then could be taken to insure a future of clean drinking water.
This is another round by Mr. Cronin to push for a policy on water pollution here. He sounded the alarm in April about the sorry condition of Island septic systems contributing to pollution that he warned would worsen “without some radical changes.”
The problem, Mr. Cronin told the Town Board then, is dangerous pollutants, especially nitrogen compounds, are polluting not just wells but surrounding surface waters, including bays and ponds.
Supervisor Jim Dougherty said then that Mr. Cronin’s report was “eye opening.”
The engineer then pushed for mapping aged septic systems, a job funded by The Group for the East End last summer that intern Henry Read began putting together. The idea was to get a “better sense of problematic on-site sanitary disposal systems,” Mr. Cronin said.
Now more steps have to be taken, he said. Taking one part of the Island, the Center, for example, and gathering data on wells there could help drive policy for the future.
John Hallman agrees. Mr. Hallman is chairman of the Water Advisory Committee and heads his own water analysis company. Mr. Hallman said a few months ago, when Suffolk County Health Services “wouldn’t give us any information on wells they test,” the WAC sent a budget request to the Town Board to pay for testing of certain wells in the Center. But there was no response. “Typical,” Mr. Hallman said.
Mr. Hallman charges $140 to test wells for general potability. Testing for organic materials costs much more, he said.
The county will perform a comprehensive test on wells for $100, he said, but with limited staffs, the waiting time can be lengthy.
The need for information is critical, Mr. Cronin said. “Everyone should have their wells tested,” for their own safety, but also to establish a database.
Since he brought the issue of septic systems and cesspools and the possibility of pollution front and center to the town, Mr. Cronin said the response from individual homeowners has been strong.
“You can’t believe the people who have contacted us for information in the last year,” he said. “It’s been a wake up call.”
