Express Sessions Will Tackle Montauk's Sewer Debate - 27 East
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Express Sessions Will Tackle Montauk's Sewer Debate

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authorStaff Writer on Apr 12, 2023

The Express Sessions panel series this month will wade into the complicated debate over the need for a sewer system, and associated sewage treatment plant, for downtown Montauk and its surroundings.

A panel of players in the debate will join Sessions sponsors, members and guests at Gurney’s Seawater Spa & Resort on Friday, April 21, from noon to 2 p.m., to discuss the intricacies of Montauk’s needs for the future and the hurdles faced by the hamlet’s downtown in the coming decades without a centralized wastewater management system, as well as the concerns that creating such a system would raise.

On the panel for the event will be Leo Daunt, president of the Montauk Chamber of Commerce; East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc and town Councilman David Lys; Rick Whalen, an attorney and member of the Coalition for Hither Woods, a citizens group that has opposed a town proposal to put the sewage treatment plant for a sewer adjacent the town landfill and recycling center in Hither Hills; Robert DeLuca, the president of the Group for the East End, a regional development watchdog; and others.

Montauk’s seaside downtown faces a very fraught future with sea levels rising and severe storms expected to become more frequent in the coming decades. In the town’s hamlet study, consultants and the town crafted a plan to allow the oceanfront “front line” of hotels to retreat from the oceanfront and be redeveloped elsewhere in the downtown area. But doing so may require a sewer.

Town officials have also argued that better wastewater treatment is also needed to ease chronic water quality problems in the Fort Pond and most properties in the downtown area are not large enough, or far enough above groundwater, to fit individual advanced septic systems. The town has also said that future phases of the sewering could serve other areas of the hamlet, like the harbor, where septics are also a concern.

The town has proposed a land swap with Suffolk County for parklands near the town-owned landfill where a sewage treatment plant could be built.

But neighbors and environmentalists have opposed the idea, and were successful in convincing the Suffolk County Parks Trustees to reject the idea, which would have to be approved by the Suffolk County and New York State legislatures.

Concerns have also been raised that a sewer could spur a development boom in the downtown, and other areas served by the sewers.

Tickets are still available for the event itself at ExpressSessionsApril20@eventbrite.com, and a video of the discussion will be posted on 27east.com afterward.

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