In a 67-page Final Scope released Monday, Dec. 1, SCWA outlined the environmental review for the two-phase, 12-mile project — which is estimated to cost $35 million for the first phase alone. The document sets the stage for a Draft Environmental Impact Statement expected by late January, SCWA communications director Daniel Dubois told Riverhead News Review.

“Following its release, we will hold public hearings to take comments,” Mr. Dubois said. “Once that process is complete, the SCWA Board will make a final determination on the project’s environmental impact.”

The move comes two months after Riverhead’s five-member Town Board voted unanimously that SCWA must comply with local land-use regulations for the 8.15-mile pipeline that would run through town but provide no water service to Riverhead residents.

SCWA conducted its own legal review, known as a Monroe Balancing Test, and reached the opposite conclusion, claiming immunity as a state-created authority.

Now Southold wants its own review of whether the pipeline project should be exempt from local regulations. During discussion at the Town Board’s Tuesday, Dec. 2, work session, officials said they would conduct a Monroe Balancing Test — a legal standard that weighs whether regional projects can override local control.

“I think it’s very important that we have that here,” Southold Councilwoman Jill Doherty said.

The town is determining when it will hold the Monroe Balancing Test, which would allow local experts and residents to voice their concerns about the project.

The pipeline is intended to bolster drinking water supplies for Southold, which the Final Scope says faces a “limited supply of potable drinking water” and local water sources “subject to saltwater intrusion.”

If approved following environmental review, construction could take four years, with the pipeline expected to be operational by 2030.

In October, the feud over the pipeline escalated when SCWA attorney Richard Finkel argued the not-for-profit agency should be immune from local regulation because “if the authority was bound by local land-use regulations in each [municipality it serves], it would be subject to the regulations of all 43 municipalities in which it operates.” 

Riverhead officials countered that the town would shoulder construction impacts — particularly along Sound Avenue, a major agricultural and tourism corridor. The pipeline would carry water from Flanders wells through Riverhead to Southold customers. 

“You design it, you approve it, and you do it and step all over Riverhead while doing it, with no benefit to us whatsoever,” Supervisor Tim Hubbard said at an October hearing. 

Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard said he was reviewing the pipeline Final Scope and would respond after completing his analysis when contacted by Riverhead News Review.

In October, Mr. Howard argued that Riverhead should have the authority to conduct the Monroe Balancing Test, saying the host community — not the entity seeking immunity — should determine whether local regulations apply.

Environmental planning firm Nelson Pope Voorhis prepared the Final Scope based on comments from three public scoping sessions held in June and on written comments submitted through August. The firm will now conduct the environmental analysis.

Pipeline construction plans

Phase one would run 8.15 miles from Riverside and Flanders in Southampton to the Riverhead-Southold town line in Jamesport and Laurel, supplying up to 6,000 gallons per minute to approximately 9,500 Southold customers, according to SCWA documents.

No new wells would be drilled. SCWA would draw from excess capacity in its South Shore Low Zone, according to the Final Scope. A booster station would be built on SCWA property on Pier Avenue in the Jamesport area.

The pipeline would be installed using two methods: approximately 0.63 miles by directional drilling beneath the Peconic River, the Long Island Rail Road and Main Road, with the remaining 7.52 miles installed by open-cut trenching.

The daily installation rate for trenched sections is estimated to be 300 to 400 feet per day, and up to 600 feet per day or more on long stretches within grassed shoulder areas such as along sections of Cross River Drive.

An alternate route could run north from the Flanders Road and Cross Island Drive intersection, then north to the Cross River Drive and Main Road intersection, and east along Main Road to the Franklinville Road intersection in Laurel, connecting to an existing SCWA main.

Phase two would extend existing water infrastructure 3.79 miles from East Marion to Orient. SCWA says it is not currently planning the extension and included it only to avoid “segmentation” violations under state law. No cost estimate for the second phase was available.

Southold Councilman Brian Mealy said at the Dec. 2 meeting that data from an ongoing U.S. Geological Survey study on the aquifer should be included in the pipeline environmental review.

In October, Southold Councilman Greg Doroski questioned whether SCWA was overstating the water crisis. Mr. Doroski — who won election to the county Legislature last month and will leave the Town Board in January — asked whether “the urgency created by the SCWA in moving this proposal forward is artificially created.”

Environmental review process

Throughout the environmental review, consultants will evaluate potential impacts, including land disturbance from construction, coastal habitat and wildlife effects, surface water quality, groundwater supply capacity, traffic safety, and proximity to schools and hospitals.

The Final Scope notes that “the Towns of Riverhead and Southold have raised concerns that the proposed action may induce secondary development or will be growth inducing.”

Impacts such as potential property value increases near public water are considered “out of scope for an environmental review,” according to the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) handbook.

An analysis of how the project would affect future development at EPCAL in Calverton was also determined to be outside the review scope and is “not expected to be significantly or adversely impacted.”

SCWA and other agencies with permitting authority will be consulted on mitigation options, the Final Scope states.

The draft impact statement, beyond the review of the proposed project, potential impacts and alternative routes, will assist in SCWA’s “final determination of impact and the appropriateness of moving forward with the project.”

The Final Scope determined that water conservation programs alone, like Southold’s irrigation legislation passed in July modeled after an SCWA program, would not achieve the project’s goals of bringing potable water to the North Fork.

The post SCWA pipeline project moves to environmental review phase appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

In the last week, between a public forum held Aug. 13 and the public hearing at Tuesday night’s Riverhead Town Board meeting, both Riverhead and Southold town officials and community members have thoroughly questioned the benefits of the proposed $35 million North Fork Transmission Line from Flanders to Laurel. 

The SCWA has continued to stress that the sole purpose of the pipeline is to draw water from existing wells in the Flanders area to meet demand in Southold, which the agency’s attorney, Brody Smith, said provides public safety solutions. These, he said, include addressing the threat of PFAs detected in Orient’s private wells and aiding area fire departments in emergencies. 

However, when evaluating the significant construction that would take place through Riverhead, town officials repeatedly questioned the exact benefit the pipeline has for Riverhead itself, and why the SCWA refuses to list Riverhead Town as an involved agency in the process. 

Confusion among Riverhead town officials and consultants also remains over the exact placement of the water main extension, as do concerns about their exclusion from the actual planning of the pipeline and a general distrust for the consideration of the project’s local impact. 

“[The SCWA is] trying to fly the plane while they’re building it,” said Jeffrey Seeman, the environmental consultant hired by Riverhead Town. “Without the ability to have strong engineering plans, other than this routing line on a map, it’s been very difficult for our team to assess not only what the impacts would be, but where the location of this project is physically placed.” 

With no knowledge of what other infrastructure may be in the way during construction, and no bounds with which to assess any requirements for easements or land purchases, Mr. Seeman strongly recommended that no exemptions be granted under Riverhead Town’s site plan review process. 

SCWA pipeline plans were evaluated by Riverhead town officials on Tuesday through a Monroe Balancing Test — a nine-part process used to assess the nature of a proposed project, its impact on the local community and how the public would benefit. All of these components factor into determining whether or not the project should be exempted from land use regulations and local zoning rules. Questions were also posed about alternative locations for the project and whether other ways to meet Southold’s water demand were considered. 

The SCWA believes they should be granted immunity because the pipeline is addressing a “regional problem” and Riverhead’s land use regulation would “defeat” that solution. Mr. Smith also stressed that construction impacts would be temporary and any disrupted land would be restored.

Other locations were explored for the pipeline, as was potentially increasing the number of wells in Southold, Mr. Smith said. However, SCWA found that the town’s aquifer system would not be able to support the well increase and that, regardless of the availability of alternative routes, the water main must travel through Riverhead to get to Southold. 

Mr. Smith also noted that the SCWA previously installed 7,000 feet of water main in Riverhead and is currently installing around 20,000 feet of main in the Manorville area, neither of which required the water authority to obtain local approval. 

“That has been the relationship between the two entities, that has been the standard operating procedure for as long as anyone can remember,” Mr. Smith said. In a rebuttal, Councilman Kenneth Rothwell and other town officials claimed SCWA left local roads in poor condition in the construction process.

SCWA was also criticized for closing its scoping session on Aug. 4, after the town requested it be kept open until after the Monroe public hearing was conducted. Mr. Smith hand delivered a letter from SCWA’s legal representation to Riverhead town officials that described the town’s actions on the pipeline project as “confounding.” 

The SCWA alleged in a letter to their attorney that they were not invited to the town’s Aug. 13 public forum and expressed the information presented was “one-sided.” Riverhead town attorney Erik Howard previously told the Riverhead News-Review he had not received any information indicating SCWA intended to participate in the public forum, nor did he hear from SCWA when they were notified of the public hearing. 

“This smells strongly of the fox in the hen house. You design it, you approve it, and you do it, and step all over Riverhead while doing it, with no benefit to us whatsoever,” said Riverhead Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard. “This doesn’t cut it for the people in this town, so there’s going to have to be some sit-downs with the Suffolk County Water Authority.” 

At the public forum at Riverhead Town Hall last week, Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski commended Riverhead for its informational and municipal efforts regarding the pipeline project, and agreed that concerns regarding the pipeline’s impact on Southold and Riverhead have not been openly discussed. 

Recent scientific studies have seemingly played no part in the development of the pipeline proposal, Mr. Krupski said regarding the Monroe Balancing Test. He noted that the reason given by the SCWA for not including studies like the United States Geological Survey study in Orient was that its report has not been finalized yet. 

Southold Town officials expressed an interest in partnering with Riverhead Town as a “unified front” to have their questions and concerns answered throughout the scoping period of the project proposal.

The post Local impacts of SCWA pipeline weighed at Town Hall  appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

Concerns expressed by Riverhead officials and consultants included confusion over the exact placement of the water main extension, a lack of inclusion in planning of the pipeline, and a general distrust for the consideration of local impact of the project. 

“There’s virtually no other information other than this line on a map, which makes for me, as an analyst, very difficult to determine what the impacts might be and also what they really should study in the scope,” said Jeffrey Seeman, environmental consultant for the Town of Riverhead. 

Mr. Seeman added that no tax map numbers had been provided to Riverhead Town to evaluate whether the project would go through private properties with underground infrastructure such as gas lines or existing water lines for the Riverhead Water District. Impacts of the pipeline could stand to affect Riverhead’s own development plans in the future, he posited. 

“We have been requesting that information, and we haven’t received anything yet,” Mr. Seeman said. “And to put it in the draft impact statement is a little late, to say the least.”

The notion that Riverhead Town has not been treated as an involved agency for the proposed SCWA pipeline is something Mr. Seeman disagreed with on the grounds that “all of the land that this will run through in Riverhead is owned by the town.” He compared the project to someone building a fence on private property, with the property owner not having a say in the height, construction and placement of said fence.

“I don’t think they are up to speed on the requirements of really what the SEQRA standards are,” Mr. Seeman said. 

Riverhead Town will conduct its own Monroe Balancing Test on Tuesday, Aug. 19, at 6 p.m. at Riverhead Town Hall to determine whether or not, and to what extent, the SCWA pipeline project may be exempt from local zoning and land use regulations. The test was originally developed in 1988 after a New York Court of Appeals decision between Monroe County and the City of Rochester. 

It is a nine-pronged test that weighs a host community’s impacts, effects on local government authority, land use regulation, the potential of improvements, and the extent that the public interest is to be served by the improvements, among other considerations.

“The SCWA’s initial position on this was that they were going to conduct a Monroe Balancing Test through their DEIS scoping, which I believe is legally insufficient and procedurally improper,” Riverhead town attorney Erik Howard said. 

The decision to list the Town of Riverhead as an interested agency instead of an involved agency in respect to the project is something Mr. Howard said is a “majority deficiency in the proposal.” He added that the pipeline, meant to service Southold and improve its water infrastructure, is something that would not serve to benefit the Riverhead community. 

Southold Town Councilman Greg Doroski noted the importance of both Southold and Riverhead towns working as “a unified front” on this matter. 

A similar informational meeting was hosted in Peconic in June where community members listed hundreds of concerns about the pipeline — concerns that Southold Town officials noted and submitted in a six-page questionnaire to the SCWA, Mr. Doroski said. 

“There is a fundamental question for us all to ask, you know, ‘Whose water is this?’” Mr. Doroski said. “They’re taking water from Southampton, bringing it through Riverhead to serve Southold. 

“I think we need to look at this together, because it’s not just about this one well; I have similar questions whether there is capacity in that individual well to supply the water that they say they need now and potentially in the future,” Mr. Doroski said. 

Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski commended Riverhead for its informational and municipal efforts regarding the pipeline project. He said some of the concerns Southold officials brought up regarding the impact on Southampton and Riverhead of the proposed project have not been openly discussed. 

“For anyone to propose to move water that far, through different boundaries and through different watersheds and different aquifers, without considering the work of the United States Geological Survey, doesn’t seem to make any sense at all from a resource management standpoint,” Mr. Krupski said. He stressed the importance of considering the recent scientific studies when creating the project plan. 

“There’s a finite amount of water,” Mr. Krupski said. “I don’t know who’s done the work to really determine is that enough water.”

The post Riverhead, Southold officials question North Fork pipeline appeared first on Riverhead News Review.

The SCWA’s proposed $35 million North Fork Transmission Line will run 12 miles across the North Fork to supplement existing systems in Riverhead and Southold Towns. The pipeline would draw water from existing wells in the Flanders area to meet demand in Southold, ensure water quality and availability, increase system reliability, and recharge the aquifer with fresh water, according to SCWA documents. 

The town is looking to evaluate SCWA plans through a Monroe Balancing Test — a nine-part process used to assess the nature of a proposed project, its impact on the local community and how the public would benefit. All of these components factor into determining whether or not the project should be exempted from land use regulations and local zoning rules.

This process was similarly used at the end of last year to evaluate a zoning exemption request for the Wading River Fire Department‘s proposal to construct a wireless communications facility, equipped with a 190-foot concealment pole that would strengthen its emergency correspondence. 

Due to the significant construction that would take place within Riverhead for this project, the town board has previously objected to being listed as an “interested” agency rather than an “involved” one in the environmental review process, according to the public hearing resolution approved on Aug. 5.

The town board also disputed SCWA’s attempt to “circumvent” Riverhead’s authority to conduct its own Monroe Balancing Test by suggesting the agency’s test findings will be included in its draft environmental impact statement.

In the first phase of the project, the main from Riverside and Flanders in Southampton to the Riverhead-Southold town line in Jamesport and Laurel would be 8.15 miles. A 24-inch diameter transmission water main would begin at the intersection of Flanders Road and Cross River Drive, continue north along Cross River Drive under the Peconic River and north along Cross River Drive to its intersection with Northville Turnpike. 

From there, the pipeline would extend northeast along Northville Turnpike to the intersection of Northville Turnpike and Sound Avenue, then east along Sound Avenue to Pier Avenue at a proposed booster station north of the Pier Avenue and Sound Avenue intersection. 

The 405-square-foot booster station would be built on a 1.5-acre property owned by SCWA. Two 16-inch mains will be installed to and from the booster station to service the pipeline. The SCWA property is 200 feet north of the Pier Avenue and Sound Avenue intersection on the west side of Pier Avenue in Jamesport. The booster station would be set roughly 97 feet back from the street and about 40 feet from the closest adjacent property line. 

From the booster station, the Riverside to Laurel main would continue east along Sound Avenue for 1.39 miles to the Jamesport Wellfield and Pump Station at the Town of Riverhead and Town of Southold municipal boundary between Jamesport and Laurel. 

If SCWA is required to go through Riverhead’s process, the county agency may need approvals for easements along the town’s roadways, road opening permits, building permits for the construction the Pier Avenue booster station, as well as review by the town’s Conservation Advisory Council.

Riverhead Town Attorney Erik Howard said in an email the SCWA has been notified about the public hearing, he has not heard if any representatives plan on attending.

Riverhead town officials are hosting a public forum on Wednesday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. at Riverhead Town Hall to discuss the pipeline project, outline the differences between SCWA and the Riverhead Water District, provide updates on the SEQRA review and the town’s role in this process and educate community members on the Monroe Balancing Test.

Mr. Howard confirmed he also did not receive any information indicating SCWA intends to participate in the public forum either.

“Generally, SCWA’s actions have indicated intent to avoid or otherwise work around the Town of Riverhead,” Mr. Howard said in an email.

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