Riverhead presses zoning fight as SCWA advances revised pipeline route

Riverhead officials are standing firm in their demand for zoning oversight of the proposed North Fork pipeline, despite route changes the Suffolk County Water Authority says would reduce traffic disruptions during construction.

The Town Board voted unanimously Oct. 6 to demand local permits and other approvals for SCWA’s revised Main Road proposal, extending the position it took last year on the original pipeline route.

Those requirements include a special permit for a proposed booster station at Main Road and Cross River Drive in Aquebogue, site-plan review, wetland and road-opening permits and utility easements.

The vote marks the town’s second Monroe determination — its formal finding that the project should be subject to local zoning and land-use requirements. The earlier determination addressed SCWA’s proposed Sound Avenue route, which the authority has since replaced with Main Road as its “preferred” alternative.

“The Town’s position on the project and whether it is or should be immune from local zoning and land use regulations is unchanged,” town attorney Erik Howard told the Riverhead News-Review in an email Friday. “The new determination simply reinforces that notwithstanding the altered route proposed for the project.”

SCWA filed suit against the Town of Riverhead in Suffolk County Supreme Court earlier this year over the town’s demand for local approvals. The case remains pending, with a conference scheduled later this month, Mr. Howard said.

Mr. Howard said the latest determination addresses the potential impacts of the preferred route and what the town considers shortcomings in SCWA’s own review.

“It also highlights technical conditions that compelled the change and procedural deficiencies in SCWA’s prior Monroe Determination,” Mr. Howard wrote, citing the absence of SCWA governing board members from the authority’s public Monroe hearings.

On Monday, SCWA said that the town’s latest vote does not change the authority’s position that the project is exempt from local zoning. The agency maintains that imposing town requirements could delay infrastructure needed to provide reliable drinking water to its North Fork customers.

“Public authorities are specifically designed to carry out critical infrastructure work efficiently and without municipal obstruction and imposing local zoning requirements can delay a project that directly affects public health and water reliability,” said Daniel Dubois, the SCWA’s communications director. “SCWA, in performing its essential governmental function, has clear statutory authority to construct and operate water supply facilities, and longstanding case law supports this position. We are moving forward to ensure the delivery of reliable, high quality drinking water to our customers on the North Fork.”

SCWA’s preferred Main Road route would shorten the pipeline by a mile and move the anticipated completion date from 2030 to 2028. It would still bypass the Riverhead Water District, with no connections planned within its service area.

The revised project is expected to cost $22 million to $25 million, compared with the original $35 million estimate, according to SCWA.

The new plan calls for a booster station at “an undeveloped sparsely vegetated” property the agency owns at the intersection of Cross River Drive and Main Road in Aquebogue, rather than the previously proposed location at the intersection of Sound and Pier avenues.

The water main would then be directionally drilled under Main Road from south to north and continue east along the north side of Main Road to a point near the intersection of Franklinville Road and Main Road in Laurel, where it would connect to an existing 16-inch SCWA water main.

SCWA officials have said Main Road’s lower elevation would eliminate the need for a second booster station and allow for a shorter route, reducing the time water spends in the pipeline, according to previous reporting.

Construction on the narrow Sound Avenue corridor would also be avoided, SCWA officials explained, reducing the traffic and safety concerns raised about that route.

Residents nevertheless raised concerns at an SCWA public hearing in August about how construction along Main Road could disrupt traffic, affect local schools and disturb wetlands in Aquebogue.

Those concerns included possible impacts on daily school bus activity for Aquebogue Elementary School and disruption to the $2.2 million Meetinghouse Creek wetlands and habitat restoration effort currently underway.

In a recent interview with the News-Review, Supervisor Jerry Halpin, who is running for reelection next month, said he has made multiple attempts to bring SCWA CEO Jeff Szabo and other authority board members to the table to discuss the town’s requirements, but it has not happened.

He expressed quality-of-life and safety concerns with the rerouting to Main Road, especially how it could negatively affect the area’s emergency services. He said he had been told the pipeline project is going to happen, whether the town likes it or not.

“I’ve put a flag in the ground on that one,” Mr. Halpin said.