Water treatment facility 'up and running'

The $8.9-million South Farmingdale Water District treatment facility opened last week in an effort to stay ahead of pollution seeping from the former Grumman defense complex in Bethpage.

"It's up and running and ready before the contaminated water hit the water-supply wells," said Gary Loesch, district engineer for the water district.

The 7,200-square-foot building on Langdon Road, unveiled last Thursday, treats 4 million gallons of water each day. The project was funded entirely by the U.S. Navy, which owned part of the Grumman campus, after it reached a settlement last year with the water district that serves South Farmingdale, North Massapequa and parts of Bethpage and Seaford.

"We wanted to protect the health of the community and protect their pocketbooks, so they didn't have to pay for something they didn't cause," Loesch said.

The plant will help ensure safe, clean water for the district's 45,000 customers threatened by the pollution, Loesch said. It also will allow for dependable water pressure for firefighting, Loesch said.

Construction on the project began in October 2010.

Monitoring wells near the treatment plant in 2005 detected a plume of industrial solvents left from the manufacture of military planes. Navy consultants projected the contamination could reach South Farmingdale water-supply wells by this year, but it has yet to do so.

"It's strictly a matter of time. It's not 'if,' it's 'when,' " said Loesch, who also is the executive vice president of H2M, the engineering firm behind the project.