Glen Cove adds well for Garvies Point, other developments

A new well in Glen Cove will help meet growing demand for water as the Garvies Point project and other developments are completed, city officials said.

The 270-foot-deep well is the third at the Department of Public Works’ Duck Pond Road plant, and the fifth citywide. It has a capacity of 2 million gallons of water, boosting the total capacity citywide to 10 million gallons a day.

Average usage in peak summer months is about 6 million gallons a day, with the number falling to 2.3 million gallons in the winter, but the city wants to be prepared as the projects are completed in the next several years, said Mayor Reginald Spinello.

“We’re being proactive rather than reactive,” Spinello said.

Garvies Point alone is forecast to use 345,000 gallons of water a day when complete, he said. That project, along Glen Cove Creek and Hempstead Harbor, is slated to include 1,110 condominiums and apartments, parks, stores, offices and other water-consuming uses. Other projects scheduled for completion in coming years are Village Square downtown, with 146 apartments and retail space, and the 176-condominium Villa complex just outside downtown.

The new well also is necessary because one of the other wells occasionally does not operate.

“You want redundancy,” Spinello said. “We want to have enough capacity so if one of your wells goes down, you still have enough to cover your peak time.”

A bond paid for the well, which cost roughly $3.6 million, Spinello said.

Construction took about 18 months, and water began flowing into it in late September, said public works director James Byrne. Water is pumped through pipes from the Magothy Aquifer, source of the city’s water, he said.