Nearly 100 people showed up to the Peconic Lane Recreation Center Monday evening, June 2 to hear a North Fork Civics forum on what proposed new Suffolk County Water Authority pipelines might mean for the North Fork, ahead of scoping sessions being held by the Water Authority in the upcoming week.

Pictured: A Water Authority pipeline being installed elsewhere on Long Island. |. Beacon file photo

At the forum, environmental and town leaders shared their feedback on the proposed pipeline and gave an overview of how the public can best participate in the environmental review process.

The Water Authority’s scoping sessions will be held on Tuesday, June 10 6 p.m. at the Riverhead Free Library at 330 Court Street in Riverhead, and on Thursday, June 12 at 6 p.m. at Southold Town’s Peconic Lane Recreation Center at 970 Peconic Lane in Peconic (This is a venue change from the original location at Greenport’s Floyd Memorial Library).

The pipeline proposal includes two separate projects — one 8.5-mile segment traveling from Whitebrook Drive in Flanders up Route 105 and Northville Turnpike to Sound Avenue, where it will travel east to the Southold Town line. The Water Authority expects it to be completed by 2030.

The second portion, which the Water Authority says will likely be completed much later, would be a 3.8-mile pipeline connecting to existing infrastructure at the Dam Pond Bridge in East Marion and extending east to serve several roads in the heart of Orient.

The Water Authority is conducting its own environmental review of the project under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), and has prepared Environmental Assessment Forms (EAFs), the first step in the SEQRA process.

The Water Authority gave the project a “positive declaration” under SERQA on May 7, 2025, determining “the potential for one or more moderate to large environmental impacts.” This means the project must undergo a more lengthy Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS).

These scoping sessions are an attempt to get public feedback on the nature and extent of environmental concerns that should be reviewed in the DEIS.

Save the Sound Long Island Project Manager & Senior Science Advisor Louise Harrison, Peconic Green Growth Director Glynis Berry and Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski gave suggestions for how to provide feedback at the June 2 civic forum.

“Convert your questions into directives to give to the Water Authority,” suggested Ms. Harrison. “Ask them to please describe, please study or please explain” environmental impacts.

Ms. Berry shared numerous potential topics to be addressed in the DEIS, including detailed data on current and projected water use on the North Fork, and on how that water use is broken down by different types of users — commercial, residential, institutional and municipal users, and on how the Water Authority came up with its calculations for the capacity that is needed.

“What were the assumptions for use and future buildout?” she asked, adding that Southold Town’s Comprehensive Plan estimated 4,300 additional single family homes could be built under current zoning, but “permits have numbered in the 50s, annually.”

“The Town of Southold has one of the lowest densities in the county,” she said, adding that the town has actively reduced the amount of developable land through its use of conservation subdivisions and purchases of development rights.

The town is also in the process of updating its zoning code, which could have an impact on its future potential build-out.

“Has the Water Authority coordinated the need with the Comp Plan?” Ms. Berry asked, adding that the EAFs released to date don’t include any information about the cost of the pipeline, who will pay for the construction, and what the cost to hook up to the water would be.

She also suggested asking for an explanation of the “peak factor” — the ratio between the peak and average water use, especially in an area where a vast majority of the water is used in the peak summer season.

“How can we reduce the peak factor so we’re not overspending and overbuilding the supply?” she asked.

Mr. Krupski took issue with several statements in the Water Authority’s current advertising campaign in another North Fork newspaper.

He said the ads say the pipeline is necessary “despite conservation efforts,” but “conservation efforts are more than just saying you should be cautious with water use. They are selling our water. I don’t think we have scratched the surface on water conservation.”

The Southold Town Board is holding a public hearing at its June 24 meeting at 4:30 p.m. on proposed irrigation conservation measures.

Mr. Krupski added that the ads say the current demand “strains the infrastructure,” and the new transmission line “will bring pristine water from where we have it to where we need it.”

“They’re saying it’s not a public resource. In fact, it seems to be their resource. I question the pristine part also,” said Mr. Krupski, who has long advocated that water is a public resource. He added that Southampton Town is currently planning to build a sewage treatment plant not far from the proposed source of the water in Flanders.

“Their plan has changed, oddly, and it may be a total coincidence,” he said, from an original plan to lay the pipeline down Peconic Bay Boulevard. “There were these proposed hotels on the Long Island Sound in Riverhead, and now all of a sudden [the pipeline] goes all the way up to Sound Avenue. That was a big change.”

East Marion resident Anne Murray, who serves on the town’s Water Advisory Committee, said the U.S. Geological Survey, which is currently surveying the aquifer throughout Suffolk County, has offered to contract with the town to do a more detailed study of its aquifer, at a cost of $20,000 per year, using advanced new technology that is particularly good at mapping saltwater intrusion.

“The U.S. Geological Survey used to be the premiere science agency in the United States of America,” said Ms. Harrison. “They’ve been reduced now to an agency that relies on funding from public or private entities and they have to function now as consultants.”

“What we could do, if we want this information, is to use the scoping process to demand — each person in this room could write into their comment — that the the SCWA should base their estimates on solid science by the US Geological Survey,” she said. “You could demand the survey take place before they take action. That’s an example of the kind of directive you could give now.”

She added that many of Ms. Berry’s questions could also be rephrased as directives to request in the scoping sessions.

“The town’s forecast of the future population’s need for water supply — that is a very legitimate question that can be asked with any Environmental Impact Statement,” she added. “What are the growth inducing impacts of this change — this is done in an EIS all the time when there’s a public utility involved — it could be water, electric, sewage. Say ‘please examine the growth-inducing impacts of this project.’”

She added that other “involved” and “interested” agencies identified by the Water Authority in its initial environmental documents may also respond to public pressure for answers on the environmental impact.

“We can say to Governor Hochul — please make sure the DEC reviews this,” she said, adding that both Southold and Riverhead Towns and the Suffolk County Planning Commission have an interest in this project.

Mr. Krupski added that Suffolk County is also an interested party, because the pipeline has to cross Indian Island County Park. He urged residents to contact Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine to give him feedback on the proposal.

The East Marion to Orient portion would also cross property owned by the Orient-East Marion Park District, and panelists were unsure whether work there would require alienation of parkland, which requires an act of the New York State Legislature.

In the meantime, Ms. Harrison urged the community to be clear and direct in their requests for information.

“Make it easy for them to understand what you want,” she said, adding that the Water Authority doesn’t want to produce a “Draft Environmental Impact Statement that disappoints hordes of people.”

“They don’t want controversy. They want to sell water. Get involved now and get the Environmental Impact Statement you want,” she said.

The environmental review documents prepared to date and a link to comment on the plan are available on the Water Authority’s website at www.scwa.com/nfp.

Written comments will be accepted until June 25 by contacting Joseph M. Pokorny, PE, Deputy CEO for Operations, Suffolk County Water Authority, P.O. Box 38, 4060 Sunrise Highway, Oakdale, NY 11769, or by emailing joseph.pokorny@scwa.com

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