Dozens of Manorville homes will be connected to public water in $11 million project

Soon after Ron Martz built his home on River Road in Manorville in 1993, tests of his private well water revealed high levels of iron.

Riverhead Town officials rejected his requests to connect to public water, he said. "We were told, ‘You will never get public water here,' " Martz, 71, recalled in a recent interview. "Never."

Thirty years later, Martz and his neighbors have cause for celebration as Suffolk County Water Authority contractors launch an $11 million project to bring treated water to 64 homes in Manorville in the Town of Riverhead. Earlier this year, the authority connected 78 homes in Manorville, on the Brookhaven Town side, to public water, officials said.

Public water is managed by government entities and undergoes regular testing and treatment, including by the Suffolk County Water Authority. Private wells are managed by individual homeowners.

For years, Manorville residents have been crusading for access to public water. In 2020, the Suffolk County Health Department surveyed Manorville and Calverton and found PFOS and PFOA, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in 15% of private wells there. PFAS are chemicals that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has labeled as potentially carcinogenic.

Prior surveys have detected methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, a banned gasoline additive.

The area is about two miles from the former Grumman naval weapons reserve in Calverton, where the Navy operated an aerospace facility.

With cloudy water running from his taps, Martz uses bottled water for drinking and cooking.

"Even with all the bottled water, we still shower in this stuff, we wash our clothes, shave, brush our teeth in it," he said. "We have no choice."

Work on the project began in August and is expected to finish in November, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority. Workers are drilling and digging trenches to install 20,000 feet of water main on David Terry Road, Wading River Manor Road, River Road, Old River Road and other side streets, officials said.

In a statement, SCWA chairman Charlie Lefkowitz said public water protects public health.

"These residents will soon no longer need to be concerned about dangerous levels of PFAS in their drinking water," Lefkowitz said.

In 2022, Riverhead Town agreed to work with the county water authority, which had a main closer to the area, for the extension. On the Brookhaven side, a total of 116 homes were given the option to switch from private to public wells.

Riverhead secured more than $7 million in grant funding for its side of the project, a "feat" town officials said required bipartisan support at every level.

"No one that worked on these grants — us, the county, state, the EPA — was responsible for the contamination," said Dawn Thomas, Riverhead’s Community Development director. "We all partnered to make sure that everyone could get access to clean drinking water."

Riverhead Water District Superintendent Frank Mancini said he’s now focusing on other parts of town where wells may be contaminated. The town may use $2 million in Community Preservation Funds for those projects, he said.

Kelly McClinchy, of Manorville, said the fight, at times, was "downright discouraging." But she urged neighbors to remain optimistic.

"It ensures the health and safety of not just the families who live here now, but the families who might live here years down the road," she said. "It’s an investment that’s really going to affect generations to come."

McClinchy also worked with Adrienne Esposito, of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a Farmingdale nonprofit, to accelerate the project.

Esposito said in a statement that she’s relieved to see the work begin.

"I am thrilled for the residents and I hope they have much less stress and concern with each pot of coffee they brew and each pitcher of iced tea they serve," she said.