The district's Whitson Road plant was built to look like a house. The district plans to build a new facility at Downs Road like a house in the neighborhood, officials said.
By Tim Healy
tim.healy@newsday.com
An informational hearing yesterday on a South Huntington Water District proposal for $4.5 million in improvements and additions to its facilities was sparsely attended, despite the apparent interest expressed by a group of residents at the last town board meeting.
The hearing lasted about 25 minutes. John Molloy, an engineer with the H2M group, outlined the work the district says it needs to perform. The largest of the three projects involves building a water treatment plant for two of the wells at the district’s Downs Road facility in West Hills, where trace elements of volatile organic chemicals have been detected in the water.
Material provided by the company said low levels of degreasers, solvents and cleaning fluids had been found in water in the well. Molloy explained that approximately one part per billion had been detected in the last year. The district would have to stop using the wells if the level of the chemicals – trichloroethene, tetrachloroethene and dichloroethene – rises to five parts per billion.
The district plan for removing this contamination involves building a 30-foot-tall air stripping tower, although some of the tower can be recessed below grade and the tower and other facilities will be enclosed in a building that looks like a home -- in an effort to make it compatible with the surrounding community. That part of the project is expected to cost $3.3 million.
The district says it needs $490,000 to replace pumps at its Pidgeon Hill Road plant that have reached the end of their useful life and have trouble keeping up with peak demand. Another $722,000 is earmarked for replacing the 47-year-old roof of a 55-foot-high tank called a “standpipe” that helps maintain water pressure and provide storage for peak demand in the West Hills portion of the district.
Albert and Sheila Kachic of South Huntington, apparently the only residents to attend the hearing, asked about the source of the pollution. George Kopp, a district official, said the source was not known and that other districts on the Island had discovered similar chemical pollution.
“We’re on top of it,” he assured the Kachics. Kopp said after the session that, if there were no delays in arranging funding, the treatment plant could be working by the spring of 2009.
The district says the estimated annual tax increase for a home assessed at $4,000 in 2010, the year the debt service kicks in, would be $21.68 and that it would decrease after that. The district also plans to retire existing debt at that time, making the net average increase in taxes about $15 a year.
The town board will hold a hearing and could vote on bonding for the project on Aug. 28.
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