SCWA, Riverhead officials may combine efforts to bring clean water to some residents

Officials from Riverhead Town and the Suffolk County Water Authority have agreed to meet this month and discuss working together to bring clean water to residents in the town’s section of Manorville, where private wells are contaminated with toxins.

Jeff Szabo, the water authority’s CEO, sent a letter Tuesday to Riverhead Town Supervisor Yvette Aguiar’s office asking about collaborating to “potentially reduce costs and ensure that work is completed as quickly as possible” in connecting affected Manorville residents to the public water supply.

“SCWA would like to offer our assistance in the construction of the Town of Riverhead project and request a meeting to discuss in greater detail,” Szabo wrote in the letter.

Tests conducted by the Suffolk County Health Department in 2020 found traces of perfluorinated compounds — which have been linked to reproductive, endocrine and other health impacts — in nearly 15% of private drinking wells near the former Grumman naval weapons facility in Calverton. About 124 homes in Riverhead and Brookhaven towns have been affected.

Szabo told Newsday on Friday that since the agency was recently awarded $2.7 million from the state Environmental Facilities Corporation to connect affected Manorville residents in Brookhaven Town to public water, agency officials felt they should reach out to Manorville residents in the section that is in Riverhead Town and offer help.

“There’s a lot of money that’s been assigned to connect folks in this community on the Brookhaven side and Riverhead side [to public water], and we want to do everything possible to make sure that money isn’t lost,” Szabo said. “By working together, we can make sure that the money isn’t lost and that folks are provided clean, safe drinking water in the fastest possible way.”

While Szabo declined to get into many specifics on how the agency and Riverhead Town could collaborate, doing so could benefit both parties in cost-saving and supplying water to residents in need in a quick manner.

“This is all trying to be constructive and positive and trying to get people the water that they need,” Szabo said.

Riverhead recently lost its bid for New York State Water Infrastructure Improvement Act funding to connect the homes to public water.

Aguiar said town officials will meet with the agency officials.

“We’re sitting down to create an understanding of where they stand and where we stand,” she said. “They do not have the funds to hook up Manorville. Whatever funds they received were specifically for Brookhaven.”

Aguiar added that the town recently submitted requests for federal funding to connect those residents to public water.