Town Engineer Joe Finora briefed the Town Board Tuesday on updated plans for the proposed wastewater treatment facility, which will be designed for a Manwaring Road site formerly earmarked for Community Housing.
The goal is to collect wastewater from eight municipal buildings in the Town Center and subject it to treatment before discharging it into the ground. These facilities — the Community Center, Firehouse, Justice Court, Library, Police HQ, Town Hall, Town-owned rental housing, and School — rely on antiquated septic systems that contribute to high nitrate levels in drinking water.
The proposed treatment facility would reduce nitrates and address pharmaceutical wastes and so-called emerging pollutants, like PFOS and PFOA.
[To learn the basics of the proposed treatment facility, read this Gazette post.]
The 1.23-acre Town-owned property at 16 Manwaring Road meets newly-modified criteria for locating the proposed facility, Finora said. Initially, the consulting firm working with Finora on the grant-funded project design had proposed a Town-owned parcel at Klenawicus Airfield.
But in response to largely negative community feedback, Finora said the planning team adjusted the project criteria to remove properties purchased using Community Preservation Fund revenue from consideration.
The Klenawicus Airfield site was purchased using CPF revenue; the Manwaring Road site was not. Until recently, the Manwaring Road parcel was under consideration for Community Housing. The Town’s Community Housing Board had reviewed conceptual plans to construct up to four homes there as part of an affordable homeownership project.
However, rejecting the airfield site left few alternatives, Finora said. Under the other selection criteria, the preferred location must:
- Be available to the Town (either wholly-owned by the Town or ready for short-term acquisition)
- Be outside the exceptionally long (100 year+) groundwater travel time that exists in the Town Center*
- Be suitable in size, shape, grade and have soil characteristics that accommodate system needs
- Have suitable zoning (such as adequate setbacks from adjacent uses)
- Be in the vicinity of system users to minimize infrastructure costs (i.e., downhill is better)
- Have limited or no downstream groundwater users
*NOTE: Groundwater is drinking water. Wastewater from traditional septic systems leaches through the soil via gravity until it reaches groundwater. During the “leaching” time, organic processes degrade some compounds from the septic effluent, but once the wastewater reaches groundwater, limited, if any, “treatment” is possible. Due to other natural processes, all groundwater moves toward surface waters (the sea, inland freshwater bodies, etc.) Shorter groundwater travel time means pollutants spend less time in groundwater. Thus, faster groundwater travel times are better for drinking water supplies, as pollutants “flush out” more rapidly. The idea of a system like the one proposed is to subject wastewater to more effective treatment processes before it leaches into groundwater. In the case of the proposed system, Finora says, the water exiting the system will be orders of magnitude healthier than the largely untreated effluent now accumulating in the Town Center, where groundwater travel time is 100+ years. In other words, many of the pollutants now going into the ground in the Center may remain in the shared drinking water supply for more than 100 years.
What about other sites?
Among the other parcels considered was the Town-owned Sachem’s Woods, a 36-acre second-growth forest on former farmland between Route 114 and North Midway Road. But the conveyance of that property specified the land can be used for drinking water supply, and the Town reasonably anticipates needing such wells in the future, Finora said.
The Town also approached Sylvester Manor about possibly hosting the wastewater treatment facility. However, the timeline for the project is mainly driven by the needs of the Shelter Island Union Free School District.
The school district was ready to move ahead with its wastewater treatment project. But Town Supervisor Gerry Siller said he and School Superintendent Brian G. Doelger agreed to combine projects to save taxpayers money by realizing economies of scale.
As a result, Finora said the Town had to find “an immediate willing partner to accommodate the [school’s] accelerated installation schedule.”
Regarding a possible collaboration with Sylvester Manor, Finora said, “partnership complexities could not be worked out within the existing project schedule.”
That left only other Town-owned sites for consideration. During extensive public comments since the treatment facility was first proposed, many have suggested using a portion of Fiske Field.
But Finora said the planners quickly ruled out that site as the system layout would require fencing that would inhibit recreational uses. And, locating the facility within the Town Center would not place the effluent outside the area of slowest groundwater travel time (see the note above).
They also rejected:
- 87 North Ferry Road (formerly Bob’s Fish Market), a parcel that was for sale but traded before the Town could evaluate it
- 75 North Ferry Road (owned by the IGA), which would require subdivision and sale to the Town not possible under the time constraints
- 18 Midway Road also required acquisition and was within the Center watershed uphill from most users (adding to the cost to pump wastewater for treatment)
- 60 Smith Street, a sizeable agricultural property that, like Sylvester Manor, required complex partnership agreements
Finora told the Town Board the 16 Manwaring Road parcel meets all the conditions except that it was in the planning phases for Community Housing. In addition, it offers an advantage over the airfield site as it is significantly closer to the eight municipal facilities where wastewater will be collected, while still being in an area with a faster groundwater travel time.
Another work session, but no public hearing
The Town Board will invite Pio Lombardo, director of Lombardo Associates, to a work session on Tuesday, April 26 at 1 PM to further discuss the new location. All are welcome to attend.
There will be no formal public hearing; Town Attorney Stephen F. Kiely said none is required and that Finora and the consulting firm can move to the design phase under a Town Board resolution.
Loss of a potential housing site
With the parcel at 16 Manwaring now officially devoted to wastewater treatment, the Community Housing Board will focus its efforts on two other sites: a newly purchased Town-owned property at 69 North Ferry Road (that the Town recently purchased from The Nature Conservancy, which had received it as a legacy) and 12 South Ferry Road, formerly the location of the Town Highway Barn (the Shelter Island History Center uses the roadside area for overflow parking; housing is envisioned deeper into the lot).
As Siller pointed out, providing wastewater treatment will be a vital element of the Town’s Community Housing Plan, which is now in the works. So while the Manwaring plot will not be the location of future Community Housing, it will nonetheless contribute to the overall effort of meeting this urgent need, while supporting cleaner drinking water for the Island’s most densely populated area.
