Oyster Bay Town approves $12M bond request

The Massapequa Water District will borrow nearly $12 million for a wide range of system improvements, including contingencies for pollution migrating from the former Northrop Grumman plant in Bethpage.

The Oyster Bay Town Board approved the bond request Tuesday. The $11.9 million bond, the district's first in more than a decade, could have an annual tax impact of about $45 per household, officials said.

During peak work years, the district will use reserve funds to offset that impact, officials said. It serves nearly 14,000 mostly residential customers in a 6.6-square-mile area.

The pollution, from industrial solvents used to build military aircraft decades ago, includes several plumes moving south through groundwater toward Sunrise Highway. The pollutants have already reached five of eight wells belonging to the Bethpage Water District, north of Massapequa, leading to treatments to filter out the chemicals.

"We have a lot to do," Michael Ingham, an attorney for the Massapequa Water District, told town board members.

The work, some of which is to start soon, includes renovating wells, replacing mains and crossings that provide water to customers south of Sunrise Highway, and upgrading drainage, security and electrical systems.

The state is requiring the district to also build an iron-removal plant.

But mainly, Ingham said, the district must be ready for pollutants from the old Northrop Grumman plant to reach its water supply in as few as five years. If that occurs, workers would install granular-activated carbon-treatment water-cleaning systems.

South Farmingdale's water district, which would be affected first, will be watched closely, Ingham said.

"The Grumman plume is a real concern to us," he said. "We have to be prepared."

No one at the hearing objected to the borrowing, the improvements or projected tax impact.

Town Supervisor John Venditto said "his trust and faith" in the district was "well placed."