State bond sale to save taxpayer money on completed water projects in Riverhead, North Hempstead towns

Riverhead and North Hempstead towns are the only Long Island communities among 54 statewide that will save $19 million on water-quality projects after a state agency sold more than $144 million in bonds.

The New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation has closed bond transactions for the Series 2021 B of its State Revolving Funds Revenue Bonds, which generated more than $144 million. About $125 million of that money will provide new long-term, low-interest financing for drinking water and wastewater system upgrades for 32 local governments and public authorities statewide.

The remaining $19 million will be divided between clean water and drinking water projects for more than 50 communities. The money will help ratepayers in Riverhead and North Hempstead save on already completed clean water projects by allowing municipalities to more quickly repay money borrowed with taxpayer dollars.

North Hempstead Town officials did not respond to several requests for comment.

Michael Reichel, Riverhead’s sewer district superintendent, said the town will be able to save money on a pair of projects.

"It sounds like it’s going to give us some savings for the payback of the loans," Reichel said. "And if that’s the case, that sounds good, that’s helpful to the residents of the district who have to pay the money back."

One project is for a $24 million upgrade to Riverhead’s sewer district, which the town finished in 2017 and borrowed about $14 million in loans to pay for while the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Suffolk County provided grants for the project. The upgrades included installing additional tanks, pumps and filtration so the district could reuse wastewater to irrigate the Suffolk County-owned Indian Island golf course instead of discharging it into nearby waterways of the Peconic Estuary.

The other project is a $10 million upgrade of a 1950s-era wastewater treatment system at a Calverton sewer treatment plant near the former Grumman naval weapons facility. The upgrades removed about 120 daily pounds of outfall nitrogen being discharged to Peconic waters and treated it to groundwater discharge standards before rediverting it to replenish local groundwater, according to Reichel.

Maureen A. Coleman, president and CEO of The New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation, said the bond sale helped the state to "maximize the amount of funding available to local governments for water quality infrastructure projects."