Public Vote To Determine Fate Of Hampton Bays Water District Would Be Final Say

A public vote to determine the fate of the Hampton Bays Water District—if one is held—could potentially be scheduled for as late as May, or even June, according to Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman.

On Monday, he said that the vote would differ largely from a typical referendum, as it would be available to all property owners and not just registered voters in the hamlet. The vote would give the Town Board a sense of the community’s position on whether the Suffolk County Water Authority should take over management of the locally owned district.

A public vote would be binding and would be the final action to determine the fate of the water district, according to Southampton Town Attorney James Burke.

However, whether the Town Board decides to hold a public vote at all is still an open question. Mr. Schneiderman said last week that the determination to do so would ultimately be based on the results of a survey that was mailed to residents last month.

At a recent work session, Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone explained that paper surveys were sent out to the district’s estimated 6,400 customers, asking whether they supported or opposed the potential merger.

“That will give us a sense of how they feel,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “Based on that, the board will decide if there is significant number of people looking for different operation. Then we would move to put it up for public vote.”

The results of a previous online survey, still available on the Southampton Town website, showed that out of the estimated 500 responses, 53 percent were “not satisfied” with the district’s current operations.

“That does indicate that we have some work to do,” Mr. Schneiderman had said at a public meeting held at the Hampton Bays High School auditorium last month.

At that meeting, opponents of the merger argued that those results could have been easily tainted, as there was nothing stopping someone from filling out the survey multiple times. The mailed survey, which is due back on January 14, aims to eliminate that concern.

However, there are still more pressing concerns at hand—such as what to do in the interim, between now and a potential public vote in the spring.

At a previous public meeting, Suffolk County Water Authority CEO Jeff Szabo said that the district needs a $2.5 million iron and manganese filtration system installed as of “yesterday.”

Mr. Schneiderman referred back to the pending survey, calling it the “first step” in determining which entity would complete the upgrades, and when.

Under the water authority’s proposal to take over operations of the district, the filtration system, along with an additional $3.6 million to be spent on infrastructure upgrades, would be completed by the water authority within the first three years of entering into an operational agreement. Those costs would be shared among the authority’s 1.2 million customers across Suffolk County, rather than just customers within the hamlet.

Under such an agreement, the Town Board, which acts as the water district commission, would continue to maintain control of the district’s infrastructure, as well as continue to set the water rate for Hampton Bays residents.

If the Town Board opts to maintain the district as it is, taxpayers in the hamlet would likely see an $80 to $100 increase in their annual property tax bills to cover the costs, according to Town Comptroller Leonard Marchese.

That is unless the Town Board is awarded grants to complete the work. HBWD Superintendent Robert King noted last week that district officials have already started applying for applicable grants to cover significant costs associated with installing the iron filtration system and the resurfacing of several water tanks.

Water authority officials have recommended that the district enclose the year-old carbon filtration system, which was installed last year after Mr. King was forced to shut down three of the district’s 11 wells due to contamination. The $1 million filtration system, which has been successful in eliminating all traces of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, known as PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, is not built for year-round use. An enclosure is estimated to cost close to $1.5 million, Mr. Schneiderman said.

However, this upgrade is not immediately necessary, according to Mr. King. He explained that the three wells serviced by the filtration system are only used during the summer to meet demand, and stressed that they had not been used for more than seven years otherwise.

He did, however, agree that the iron filtration system and resurfacing of the tanks was a priority.

“We know we need to invest millions of dollars into modernizing the utility,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “If we do that now, that will be borne by the residents of Hampton Bays. The first step is to see what the appetite is among users.”

The consensus among Town Board members, however, is to hold a public vote.

“I believe in people's voice in government,” Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni said on Thursday, January 3. “If the public voted a certain way, we honor the vote—I certainly do.”

At the same time, he admitted that there were several “compelling reasons” why the Town Board should consider entering into a management agreement with the Suffolk County Water Authority. He referred to the water authority’s in-house laboratory, as well as the list of capital improvements proposed to be tackled by the entity in the first three years. “That, to me, is a compelling reason to look at the SCWA as a management group for the water district," he said.

Councilwoman Julie Lofstad said she would also support the results of the vote. “If 70 percent say they want HBWD and 30 percent say they want Suffolk County, then 70 wins,” she said.

However, she noted that she would like to see a comprehensive list of pros and cons be constructed by the Town Board prior to a vote.

“For me, the bottom line is we need to provide healthy water to everybody,” she said. “I think, in the end, everyone wants the same thing. It’s just a matter of how we get there.”