Extended Shelter Island water testing still pending

There was no appeal to the Water Quality Improvement Advisory Board at its June 27 meeting to recommend financing water testing in the Menantic Peninsula and Silver Beach areas. It was only partially because of pushback by Councilman Benjamin Dyett at the June 18 Town Board work session.

Mr. Dyett said at that meeting he opposes further water testing until there is action to deal with problems of water quality in the Center.

He drew some support from his colleague, Councilman Albert Dickson, who, while not indicating he would vote against funding of more water testing, said it’s important to push ahead with efforts to address septic and water issues in the Center since grant money is most likely to flow to projects that are shovel ready.

At the June 25 Town Board work session, Doug Sherrod, president of the Silver Beach Association, presented a letter to the Town Board in response to the comments from Mr. Dyett.

He expressed what he called a “clear need for testing water wells in the Island’s two low-lying communities of Menantic and Silver Beach. Both are peninsular communities, and both are at great risk of saltwater intrusion into the water wells that provide drinking water to the residents,” he wrote.

Silver Beach has a relatively shallow aquifer that results in “a high vulnerability to drought and saltwater intrusion.” The neighborhood has 101 marine waterfront lots occupied by 85 residents, and he speculated the Menantic community with 89 waterfront lots and 75 waterfront houses is subject to the same problems.

“In 2014, the Silver Beach Association conducted an informal survey of its approximately 187 members in which 18 homes reported poor well water quality, including objectionable levels of salt in drinking water. Another 30 homes reported moderate water quality, many of which required some form of water treatment,” according to Mr. Sherrod’s letter. “Since then, more residents have shared concerns about their water quality, he said, requesting water testing at no cost to residents … Perhaps most importantly, it would equip us with new baseline data should challenges to our potable water resources emerge.”

Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams, liaison to the Water Quality Improvement Advisory Board (WQI), said at its June 27 meeting, that Town Engineer Joe Finora is still speaking with Suffolk County Department of Health Services to determine how many property owners in Silver Beach and the Menantic Peninsula areas could be accommodated with water tests and timing of the reports from that testing,

She also noted there is ongoing exploration of septic treatments of Center municipal buildings. Deputy Supervisor Meg Larsen said addressing the Center issues — both in terms of municipal and residential buildings — remains on the table.

WQI member Julia Weisenberg noted there have been some discrepancies in the Center data. Expectation from tests conducted in the Center had been expected to reveal major problems throughout the area. Instead, it turned out to find some areas had no or minimal nitrate issues. But other areas of the Center definitely have problems that need to be addressed.

When the cost of Center testing was approved, it was hoped those residents who live in areas with high nitrates would be incentivized to upgrade their septic systems, Ms. Weisenberg said.

 WQI Chairman James Eklund noted the decision to recommend funding for the Center tests wasn’t based on an assumption that anyone living in an area where tests showed high nitrate levels would want to take action.

Member Elizabeth Bishop quoted Water Advisory Committee Chairman Peter Grand saying the more information available about the extent of water quality problems, the better.

Questions remain about paying for remediation efforts for private properties, although grants are expected to exist from state and county governments as well as from money the WQI has from a transfer tax paid by buyers of property on the Island.

The aid for municipal buildings improvements would be sought from various sources.

The Town had a grant for a single system treatment system for municipal buildings in the Center, but that became very controversial with many residents preferring to see the buildings outfitted with individual I/A septic systems.

The Town Board recently turned down the grant money in view of the failure to put it to work on the project for which it had been awarded.