Water worries at Board’s work session: Consultant says Town’s proposal helps environment

The Gerry Siller administration has said it’s dedicated to solving two main issues — dubbed crises by some — affordable housing and clean drinking water.

The Siller-led Town Board fought a long and at times wildly contentious fight on the former, finally winning a slim majority in a referendum to take real estate transfer tax money to support affordable housing.

With water, it’s been the same scenario, of loud and disputatious debates on how to clean up water from Center buildings. The administration’s plan is to use a unified system of piping the buildings’ effluent to a wastewater treatment plant on Manwaring Road; or, as some residents demand, go with individual I/A (Innovative/Alternative) nitrogen-reducing septic systems for each building.

On Tuesday at the Town Board work session, the debate was on again.

On the heels of learning that a major grant to help fund its Center municipal wastewater project won’t be forthcoming this year, the Board got one piece of good news: An environmental expert, hired by the town, from P.W. Grosser Consulting in Bohemia said the project doesn’t require a long SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) study before it could move forward.

The bad news for the Board is that a $2.49 million grant request was turned down by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). It fell far short of the few applications the DEC will fund this year, Councilman Jim Colligan told his colleagues at Tuesday’s work session. Not only is the project not “shovel ready,” but permits necessary to move the project forward are not yet in place.

A new application can be filed next year. Mr. Colligan said the town will continue to explore other grant sources, including contacting Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. (D-Sag Harbor) to see if there might be state money to be tapped.

Other options for paying for the estimated $3.1 million project would be to seek a bond to be paid out of tax revenues over a number of years. Another option is to use funds from the Water Quality Improvement Advisory Board, which gets its money from 20% of the 2% Community Preservation Fund revenues that come from a tax paid by new property purchasers. The other 80% of that money is used to purchase land to be preserved.

While the Town Board continues exploring options for the money needed to fund the project, Vice President of P.W. Grosser Kim Gennaro-Oancea outlined her findings, concluding the project benefits are considerable and the impact on the environment negligible.

The report didn’t assess comparisons between the Nitrex system the town plans to use to treat Center wastewater versus using individual I/A systems on each of the buildings. But Ms. Gennaro-Oancea examined reports filed by Pio Lombardo of Lombardo Associates, the town’s consultant and the company that would install the Nitrex treatment system at 16 Manwaring Road, across from the Sylvester Manor farm.

She examined current nitrogen loads from the Center buildings. The existing conditions result in 1,133 pounds per year, and the Nitrex system would reduce that to 27.4 pounds per year, she said.

The increase in nitrogen reaching Gardiner’s Creek would be 1.4%, a number Ms. Gennaro-Oancea said was minor, and could be reduced by putting in one or two nitrogen-reducing I/A systems in residences in the area.

Setbacks required by the DEC for the treatment system are more than adequate and the system would be fenced with plants around the outside of the fencing to make the site attractive. No private wells in the area would be affected, Ms. Gennaro-Oancea said.

At the request of the Suffolk County Department of Planning, she consulted with Suffolk County Water Authority officials about any existing or expansion of wells, and undertook testing to show there would be no impact, because the flow of the discharge from the treatment plant would have no intersection with them.

She also looked at impacts on wetlands, drainage and storm runoff and coastal resources, and found no negative impact, even when including an increase in wastewater from the planned library expansion or other housing developments that could be constructed.

Ms. Gennaro-Oancea looked at the Comprehensive Plan in the process of being updated and found the project would fit with concerns about land use and community concerns.

The installation of the Nitrex treatment system “would have a beneficial impact” Ms. Gennaro-Oancea said.

The full P.W. Grosser report is on the town’s website along with other reports that have been filed.

There were a few public comments during the session that led to responses from Town Engineer Joe Finora. He explained that neither Fiske Field nor the land around the Center Firehouse would be usable for a central septic system, as some have suggested as opposed to Manwaring Road. This is not only because the field would be unable to be used for recreational activities, but because the flow patterns in those two areas would have a negative impact on Menantic Creek.

Jan Sudol from the Friends of Coecles Harbor asked for a 30-day period for public comment to give people time to review the latest reports.

Councilman Jim Colligan and Town Attorney Stephen Kiely agreed that was reasonable, but Mr. Colligan said he didn’t want to have to negotiate through newspaper ads. Mr. Sudol said there have been no ads for awhile, implying the group, and perhaps others would refrain from using that tool as well.

Town engineer responds to critic of Nitrex system: Disputes information from Sylvester Manor engineer

Following concerns and criticisms of the town’s Center wastewater proposal from Sylvester Manor’s consulting engineer, Town Engineer Joe Finora crafted a response. A letter from Drew Bennett, the Manor’s consultant, sent to the Town Board and media late last week, indicated the proposed wastewater treatment system planned for 16 Manwaring Road would affect Sylvester Manor wells.

Manor officials had originally endorsed the project, but following an updated report from Pio Lombardo — who developed the Nitrex treatment system proposed for the site across from the farm stand — Mr. Bennett examined the report and concluded the proposal would have a detrimental effect on the Manor’s wells.

Reviewing the statements by Mr. Bennett, Mr. Finora denied the effluent would travel through the Manor property or even in close proximity to any Sylvester Manor wells.

Mr. Bennett said he learned the design flow would increase by 27%, but Mr. Finora said that was based on a contingency. At the Tuesday work session, he estimated the actual flow would be about 4,000 gallons per day, not 8,000.

Mr. Bennett said there was no provision for treating emerging contaminants.

“The project is committed to treat for emerging contaminants” and technologies have been identified for that purpose, the town engineer countered. He further said a statement is incorrect that the proposal lacks covenants and restrictions that would limit future expansion of the system.

Should there be any future decision to expand a treatment system, it would require a permissive referendum before expansion could take place, and only if the referendum passed, would a plan for expansion come into play.

He also noted that the permitting agency on the current project is the DEC, not the Suffolk County Department of Health Services. Nonetheless, compliance with the county regulation has been achieved to the maximum extent possible with regard to setback and separation distances.

Despite the updated report from Mr. Lombardo presented two weeks ago, Mr. Bennett said the argument that the Manwaring site is the best or only site “is not compelling.”

Mr. Finora said that statement is “subjective and without context.” He pointed to hours of public discussion that have demonstrated reasons the site was selected and the problems with other suggested sitings of the treatment system.

Despite the argument from Mr. Bennett and others that individual I/A systems serving each of the Center buildings would be a better fit, Mr. Finora said the Health Department has previously rejected a request for a variance needed at one of the Center buildings. His reference is to a plan in the past to upgrade the septic system at the Community Center. “Mr. Bennett understates the regulatory complexity of an individual system layout for all of the municipal buildings,” Mr. Finora said.