Expect to pay more for water if you live in East Farmingdale
A water tower in East Farmingdale, where water district customers now are seeing a bill hike of about $130 a year. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
East Farmingdale Water District residents now are being charged a service fee on their water bills, but are off the hook for a more than a year’s worth of such charges after Babylon Town reached a deal with the Suffolk County Water Authority to split the fees.
Residents have started to see the new quarterly charge of about $32 on their bills, which the Suffolk County Water Authority began levying in November, said spokesman Daniel Dubois. It’s a fee all Suffolk water authority customers pay, but the charges initially had been waived for East Farmingdale residents for years at the request of Babylon officials.
The water authority took over management of the East Farmingdale Water District in 2010 after the town determined it didn't have the expertise or money to handle the remediation of industrial contamination in some of the district’s wells. As part of the deal, the water authority gave the town $3 million, which along with a $1.2 million district surplus, helped offset what could have been significant rate hikes in the management changeover, town officials said.
As part of that transition, the town was billed the quarterly service fee charged to authority customers. But in August 2022, the town asked the water agency to begin directly billing East Farmingdale customers the fee, town officials said.
“We've been able to use those SCWA-provided funds to keep the ratepayers' cost low,” said town consultant Doug Jacob. “But those funds are limited and we thought it best to no longer subsidize that expense.”
The town also subsidizes the district by renting cellphone space on the East Farmingdale water tower and last year took in $283,149. According to the town comptroller, as of March 31, the district had more than $1.8 million available in its fund.
Although the authority agreed to bill East Farmingdale customers directly, “due to an internal error, that charge was not properly applied to those customers’ bills and the issue was not recognized until November of 2023,” Jeffrey Szabo, CEO of SCWA, said in a statement to Newsday.
As a result, there was a bill of $247,366 in fees that residents would have been charged, but an agreement was reached between the authority and the town to split those costs, officials said.
“The district has surplus funds and so the district customers won’t be impacted by that mistake,” said Babylon Town attorney Joe Wilson.
There are 2,300 to 2,500 residents who are part of the district, Dubois said.
Nancy Cypser, a trustee of East Farmingdale's Woodland Civic Association, said residents caught a break by “slipping through the cracks” until now, so she’s not upset over the new fees, which amount to about $130 a year.
“I’m not thrilled to have to pay more on any bill,” she said. “But compared to all the other utilities, we pay very little for water.”
East Farmingdale Water District residents now are being charged a service fee on their water bills, but are off the hook for a more than a year’s worth of such charges after Babylon Town reached a deal with the Suffolk County Water Authority to split the fees.
Residents have started to see the new quarterly charge of about $32 on their bills, which the Suffolk County Water Authority began levying in November, said spokesman Daniel Dubois. It’s a fee all Suffolk water authority customers pay, but the charges initially had been waived for East Farmingdale residents for years at the request of Babylon officials.
The water authority took over management of the East Farmingdale Water District in 2010 after the town determined it didn't have the expertise or money to handle the remediation of industrial contamination in some of the district’s wells. As part of the deal, the water authority gave the town $3 million, which along with a $1.2 million district surplus, helped offset what could have been significant rate hikes in the management changeover, town officials said.
As part of that transition, the town was billed the quarterly service fee charged to authority customers. But in August 2022, the town asked the water agency to begin directly billing East Farmingdale customers the fee, town officials said.
“We've been able to use those SCWA-provided funds to keep the ratepayers' cost low,” said town consultant Doug Jacob. “But those funds are limited and we thought it best to no longer subsidize that expense.”
The town also subsidizes the district by renting cellphone space on the East Farmingdale water tower and last year took in $283,149. According to the town comptroller, as of March 31, the district had more than $1.8 million available in its fund.
Although the authority agreed to bill East Farmingdale customers directly, “due to an internal error, that charge was not properly applied to those customers’ bills and the issue was not recognized until November of 2023,” Jeffrey Szabo, CEO of SCWA, said in a statement to Newsday.
As a result, there was a bill of $247,366 in fees that residents would have been charged, but an agreement was reached between the authority and the town to split those costs, officials said.
“The district has surplus funds and so the district customers won’t be impacted by that mistake,” said Babylon Town attorney Joe Wilson.
There are 2,300 to 2,500 residents who are part of the district, Dubois said.
Nancy Cypser, a trustee of East Farmingdale's Woodland Civic Association, said residents caught a break by “slipping through the cracks” until now, so she’s not upset over the new fees, which amount to about $130 a year.
“I’m not thrilled to have to pay more on any bill,” she said. “But compared to all the other utilities, we pay very little for water.”
Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.
