SCWA answers: ‘What’s in our water?’

In light of the national discussion of what should and shouldn’t be in the public water supply, local water quality is an ongoing concern for residents of the North Fork. Representatives from Suffolk County Water Authority, an independent corporation that filters, tests and supplies groundwater on the North Fork, visited the News-Review office recently to address the issue.

There are approximately 45,000 private wells remaining in Suffolk County, serving around 200,000 people. Private wells are vulnerable to contamination from both pollutants and saltwater intrusion. 

“Private wells are typically very shallow wells, and just by the nature of how they are constructed and their depth, they are at risk to other environmental factors. Many of those wells, when they do tests, are determined that they have high levels of PFAS” said Jeff Szabo, CEO of the SCWA. “Our wells are typically much deeper. It could be several hundred feet. I think the deepest is eight.”

Regular water testing in private wells provides a picture of any changes in quality, but the cost of that testing falls on the homeowner. 

“When you talk to people, most people get their well tested when they buy the house, and they’re not going to test it annually,” said Brendan Warner, director of construction and maintenance at SCWA. “Your water quality, if you bought your house 20 years ago, could be different today than it was when you tested.”

According to a recent press release, SCWA has been testing for PFAS since 2013, well before regulations were in place. They began installing PFAS treatment systems before the New York State standard went into effect in 2020. In the past year, SCWA has installed 17 new Granular Activated Carbon systems for PFAS removal. Only about one-third of SCWA’s supply wells require PFAS treatment, but SCWA will install systems on all wells with any detectable PFAS. Their treatment methods are effective at removing not just PFOA and PFOS, but also compounds being reconsidered by EPA, including PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA and PFBS. 

“We run 200,000 test results a year. We test right at the well, pretreatment; we test post treatment; and then we test in the distribution system, out in the mains that go to the homes,” Mr. Szabo said. “So we’re constantly testing, and we’re looking for a whole wide variety of chemical compounds over 500, and we do that to make sure that people know what they’re getting in their water. We know the quality of the water. We know by the time it’s getting to your tap, it meets or exceeds all standards.”

The New York State Department of Health website states that New York’s drinking water standards for emerging contaminants are among the most protective in the country. In 2020, New York State set maximum contaminant levels (MCL) of 10 parts per trillion (10 ppt) for PFOA and PFOS, and 1 part per billion (1 ppb) for 1,4-dioxane.

The SCWA maintains an even stricter standard for many compounds. The agency usually treats the water to a greater degree than is required for contaminants. They are part of the drinking water quality council at the state level, meeting quarterly to discuss emerging compounds that suppliers across the state should be looking for. Most of these compounds are already removed by the treatment methods SCWA has in place. They also participate nationally in the EPA’s unregulated contaminant monitoring rule, where contaminants that may be regulated in the near future are listed for monitoring. 

“If there is a an MCL — a maximum contaminant level set up — we typically treat to have that compound removed. We’re not required to do that. We’re ahead of the game if we need to take a well out of service, if we need to get a treatment involved, or blend some of the water of that site, we can do that,” said Mr. Szabo. “New York State, over the last 10 or 15 years, has been much more aggressive in lowering the threshold to remove as much as possible from drinking water, which is great. We’re treating to non-detect for all PFAs compounds, and we do that today, and that’s a big accomplishment.” 

Mr. Warner stated that customers should feel confident about the water the authority is providing, since they are testing and treating beyond what is required. 

The SCWA is able to provide detailed results for the water quality of any area they service through a new test reporting tool on their website.

“Everything is required to be reported and available to the public. We also will send people out to customers’ homes and take it from the tap, and we’ll run tests and then provide the result to the customer,” said Mr. Szabo. “You can type in your address and pull up your specific water quality. People should feel confident that when they turn on the tap, the water they’re drinking meets their standards.”

Most wells in the SCWA system do not require any kind of treatment, but when they do, the water is tested repeatedly at different sites to ensure its safety.

“When a compound is detected and needs to be removed, you’ll have the well, and then you typically have granular activated carbon, a carbon system that the water will flow through. It will remove those compounds, and then it will return back out to the distribution system,” said Mr. Szabo.

The only other things added to the water, aside from granular activated carbon for filtration, is chlorine, which is required by law, and a substance that counteracts the natural acidity of the aquifer. “We do a pH adjustment … [because] the water is naturally acidic under Long Island. So we adjust the pH as part of the corrosion control,” said Mr. Warner.

According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first city in the world to fluoridate its drinking water in 1945. The Grand Rapids water fluoridation study was originally sponsored by the U.S. Surgeon General. During the 15-year project, researchers monitored the rate of tooth decay among Grand Rapids’ almost 30,000 schoolchildren. After just 11 years, they announced that the cavity rate among Grand Rapids children born after fluoride was added to the water supply had dropped more than 60 percent. 

Advances in oral hygiene since the mid-20th century have reduced the need for fluoridated water. Fluoride is the main ingredient in toothpaste. The Suffolk County Water Authority has never provided fluoridated water to its customers.

“We’ve never put fluoride in our water. We’ve never needed to. It’s sort of a simple question we’ve been getting for a long time,” said Mr. Szabo. “Years ago, many of the different water agencies [added fluoride]. The thought was that it was beneficial, because individuals weren’t being protected, because of the drinking water that they were getting, cities and things like that added fluoride as a protective measure. In Suffolk County, we’ve never needed to. It’s never been something that the Water Authority has done.”