Officials recommend water conservation plan for Glen Cove

Nassau County has recommended that Glen Cove begin developing a water-conservation plan as the city faces having at least two of five water wells shut down during the summer, when water use spikes.

The county ordered one well offline on Nov. 1 and the other on Jan. 17 after elevated levels of the chemical Freon 22 were discovered.

The water-conservation recommendation came Friday during a meeting between city and county health department officials on measures to ensure there is enough drinking water for residents, and to examine ways to remove the Freon 22.

Mayor Timothy Tenke has said that the city likely would expand existing restrictions on the hours and days residents can water lawns this summer.

Consultants for the city already are gathering cost and other information on the possible installation of at least one air stripper, a multimillion-dollar piece of equipment that removes Freon 22 from wells, city spokeswoman Lisa Travatello wrote in an email.

The chemical has been linked to nervous-system and heart problems in laboratory animals.

City and county officials stressed that Glen Cove water is safe to drink. Tests from taps in mid-January found either undetectable levels of Freon 22 or levels far below the state limit of 5 parts per billion, said John Ingram, the city’s water operator.

Glen Cove’s Janine DiMasi Fakiris, 41, and other residents criticized the city for not keeping them informed enough about the contamination.

“Tell us something. Is it a concern for us?” she said.

Travatello said Tenke “has been completely forthcoming in addressing the water situation” in “public forums,” such as a City Council meeting and work session, in the news media and by “personally responding to resident inquiries.”

As city and county officials grapple with the contamination, Great Neck-based HD Water NY is mailing out “free water test” kits to city residents. Residents, some of whom received the mailing on Thursday, are asked to mail a small sample of tap water for testing. The company sells water-filtration systems, although HD doesn’t disclose that in the mailing.

Tenke “believes that companies like this are taking advantage of residents by creating and marketing fear,” Travatello wrote in an email. Any filtration system will not remove Freon 22, Ingram said.

A man who identified himself as Eric, “the manager” for HD Water NY, said in a telephone interviewthe timing of the mailing “has nothing to do with” news of the Freon 22 contamination. Eric, who declined to give his last name, said “different towns on Long Island” randomly receive the mailings. He said he did not know which other communities on the Island have received them and when. Several longtime Glen Cove residents said they had never previously received a test kit.

Eric said that the company provides test results — the tests are for pH, water hardness and total dissolved solids, but not for contaminants — by phone for free, and that “there’s no obligation” to buy a filtration system.