Riverhead’s pioneering sewer district superintendent retiring after 40 years

Riverhead Sewer District superintendent Michael Reichel, who is one of the town’s longest-serving employees and is credited with completely transforming the now state-of-the-art waste management facility, is retiring from his position this week after nearly 40 years on the job. 

Starting his career in 1984 as an operator trainee, Mr. Reichel quickly climbed the ranks to become superintendent in 1990, and since then, has played a crucial role in thrusting the facility’s methods and capabilities into the 21st century. 

“Not everybody has that opportunity to be in a position where you have a direction and your opinion matters,” Mr. Reichel said, “and it makes a difference.”

The Riverhead Sewer District plant was first constructed in 1937 as a primary treatment plant with chlorination for disinfection, and only served downtown Riverhead. Mr. Reichel said the facility’s service boundaries originally ended at Ostrander Avenue and Route 58, but has since expanded to include the Commercial Sewer District corridor, which runs all the way down Route 58. 

This extension allowed for the building of Tanger Outlets in 1994, as well as other major developments and big box stores in the commercial district, Mr. Reichel said. Today, there are 12 pumping stations and approximately 25 miles of sewer mains that transport sewage to the treatment plant, according to the town website. 

Mr. Reichel is not only responsible for the daily operations of the sewer plant on River Avenue, but also oversees the Riverhead scavenger waste plant that treats waste from private and commercial septic systems and cesspools. The Calverton Sewer District was also formed in 1999, when the old Grumman site was transferred to Riverhead Town and consists of three pumping stations from the early 1950s, as well as 550 acres within the industrial core area. 

To keep up with the evolution of technology and the various upgrades implemented at the plant throughout the years, Mr. Reichel said he has had to make sure his licenses and certifications were up to date as well. 

“Major wastewater treatment technology changes take place probably every 20 years, because it’s a huge investment to turn around and put something together that’s the flavor of the week, and then you know, well, next week, it’s a different flavor,” Mr. Reichel said. “The more technology gets better, the tougher the regulations, because now you can meet the limits of technology, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve kind of stayed ahead of that by looking down the road and seeing what’s coming.” 

In 2000, Mr. Reichel led a significant upgrade to enhance nitrogen removal from the plant’s effluent, the treated wastewater that flows into the Peconic River. 

The sewer district previously conducted a $24 million sewer system upgrade in 2016 to further reduce the amount of nitrogen and other chemicals discharged into the waterway. Riverhead’s sewer plant discharge accounted for about a quarter of the nitrogen in the Peconic Bay system in the 1980s. 

Because of the upgrades overseen by Mr. Reichel, it’s estimated that roughly 100,000 gallons of effluent has been diverted away from Peconic Bay. The project also allowed some of the treated effluent to be used to irrigate the adjacent Indian Island golf course, a first on Long Island. 

Mr. Reichel and Riverhead Town earned a National Project Excellence Award from the Water Environment Federation in 2017, a recognition given to only three projects nationally. Prior to this award, Mr. Reichel received the “Environmental Champion Award” from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for his role in the project. 

The most recent upgrades to the Calverton sewer plant in 2022 were also noteworthy for Mr. Reichel, as the initiative has removed outfall from entering the headwaters of the Peconic Estuary to instead go into groundwater recharge. 

“It’s the kind of upgrades that really took [the sewer district] to where it is now,” Mr. Reichel said, “and are milestones to me.”  

Current Sewer District deputy superintendent Tim Allen is slated to be promoted into Mr. Reichel’s role following his retirement. The retiree’s advice to his successor — and the entire next generation of sewer district leaders — is simple: “Come in early, stay late, be honest with yourself and your staff.”

He said he will miss his staff and all the people he has worked with at Town Hall over the years. He has served on the town’s Labor Management Committee and described his fellow members as “some of the best people.”

Above all, Mr. Reichel said he thoroughly enjoyed conducting tours for anyone who wanted to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at the sewer plant. 

In his four-decade career, he has educated hundreds — perhaps thousands — of young people, from local environmental science clubs to students from area schools. He recalled hosting nearly 350 students in one day during a Riverhead Middle School field trip to the River Avenue plant. 

“It’s not flush it and forget it, because there’s so much that really goes into it,” Mr. Reichel said. “When talking about process — biology, science and chemistry — all those things that feed into a wastewater treatment plant; then it’s funding, employees, all those things that come into play.”

“I’m going to miss helping people that are coming in with a problem hoping for a solution, and it’s easy because I just have all the answers,” he said. “Over the number of years, there’s nothing that you really can’t fix —  you just point and shoot and everything just comes together, because it’s just been so, so long of a journey.”