Shelter Island Town Board members trade barbs over septics and water

And in this corner, Councilman Gordon Gooding, and in the opposite corner, Deputy Supervisor Meg Larsen — with would-be referee Councilman Benjamin Dyett.

As Tuesday’s Town Board work session was winding up, an angry confrontation between  Mr. Gooding and Ms. Larsen erupted over the pace of work by a three-member task force to move forward on a plan or timeline to address septic and potable water issues in the Center.

After five-and-a-half months on the Town Board, Mr. Gooding told his colleagues he is dissatisfied that the task force, on which he and Ms. Larsen serve alongside Town Engineer Joe Finora, has failed to produce a plan or at least a timeline that can provide the public a sense there is movement toward a solution to deal with contaminants affecting Center public buildings, or even an indication of when decisions might be forthcoming to provide potable water in the area.

A three-member task force isn’t capable of moving those critical issues forward, he said, and wants to expand the task force, adding volunteers with knowledge and experience to the group so as to move forward with actions on what the entire Town Board has endorsed as the most critical issue facing Shelter Island.

What is it you want that you don’t have? Ms. Larsen asked.

“You misunderstand how complex this is,” she said.

“I want it to be a sense of priority,” Mr. Gooding replied, maintaining it doesn’t feel that way.

A past effort during the administration of former supervisor Gerry Siller ended with no action except to create two opposing groups among the public — one wedded to a central treatment system to deal with contaminants from the Center that would have been placed on a site across from the Sylvester Manor farmstand, and the other group favoring individual I/A (Innovative/Alternative) systems placed on public buildings in the Center.

Both had their positives and negatives, and nothing was decided.

Fast forward to the second year of the Amber Brach-Williams administration, and there has been a little discussion, but no plan yet.

Mr. Gooding said Ms. Larsen only talks about variances and whether they might be waived, or ways to implement I/A systems that might not happen for all the buildings since some have too little separation from their wells. There’s work to be done in determining which of the buildings might share a well that would allow a linked septic system to avoid the need for any variances.

There are too few meetings of the task force to accomplish anything, Mr. Gooding said. More members had to be added to bring about action, he reiterated. He said he knows of two volunteers with knowledge who could augment the task force and invited Ms. Larsen to suggest others she might enlist.

Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams said additional volunteer members could form a subcommittee.

Acting Town Attorney Steven Leventhal said the subcommittee would be held to the state’s Open Meetings Law.

But just as the two alternative plans were too far apart, the increasingly angry tone between the two task force members showed them not aligned on how to move forward.

Mr. Dyett said both of their tones with one another were “all off.”

It quieted briefly, only to flare again.

Ms. Larsen said I/A installations not only have to meet distance requirements between septic systems and wells, but each building’s needs had to be assessed.

Acknowledging the complications, Mr. Gooding said the argument between them had become “a little too personal.”

Both agreed to speak after the work session in an effort to find a solution to how to proceed.