St. James considers a ‘dry’ sewer line during downtown rebuild

Smithtown officials are weighing whether to include installation of a “dry” sewer line along St. James’ Lake Avenue, the hamlet’s main thoroughfare, in a monthslong $5 million downtown rebuild scheduled to start this spring.

Superintendent of Highways Robert Murphy said he would seek an estimate on a feasibility study from Melville-based H2M architects + engineers, a firm that has worked in the past for the town, and the St. James Water District. Murphy said he believed the line would cost around $2 million.

“It’s expensive, but we’ve got to stop putting raw sewage into the groundwater. We’re not going to be here, but we’ve got kids” to consider in the future, he said.

The sewer line, an unsexy but potentially transformative piece of infrastructure, would lie unused until or unless officials secure the $100 million needed for a full system. For an area where development has been throttled for years by a reliance on cesspools and septic systems, connection could mean not just cleaner groundwater but new projects such as apartments and restaurants.

Virtually everyone with a stake in the hamlet’s success agrees that would be a welcome development. But some local leaders, including Mario Mattera, a business agent with Plumbers Local 200 who sits on the boards of the local civic group, the Community Association of Greater St. James, and of the Suffolk County Water Authority, say the dry line is so important that the planned rebuild will be nothing more than a “Band-Aid fix” without it. “If you don’t have sewers, that town will stay stagnant forever,” he said.

Installing a line this spring while Lake Avenue is being excavated anyway would save time and expense in the future if funding for the rest of the system can be found.

Town council members, though, are wary of an investment that might not ever pay off and eager to move ahead with a rebuild plan that includes a new water main, repaving and streetscape improvements.

Councilman Tom McCarthy, who sponsored the rebuild legislation last year, and Councilman Tom Lohmann warned in interviews and at a Feb. 20 council work session that town taxes would skyrocket if the town had to fund the system itself.

While Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in 2017 that New York State would provide $40 million toward sewer systems in Kings Park and Smithtown, it could be decades before the town can line up more outside funding, especially given currently precarious Suffolk County finances, McCarthy said.

And, he said, sewer pipes have an expiration date: “There are fallow lines all over the county that are useless by the time we get to them,” he said at the work session.

There are other logistical problems. There is no sewer district in the area; officials don’t yet know whether they would lay a gravity or force line; and a site hasn’t yet been located for a sewage treatment plant.

Robert Garthe, a real estate broker and St. James Chamber of Commerce board member, said demand for a dry line might be strong enough that local business owners would fund it themselves, through a business improvement district.

“I don’t want to see Lake Avenue lose out,” he said.