Riverhead Town renews boat sewage services for the season

Riverhead Town is accepting sewage from boats in the Peconic estuary.

The town has two fixed pumping stations — on East Creek and in downtown Riverhead — and two pumpout boats that will come to vessels that are anchored in town waters and whose operators want to have the holding tanks emptied. Those boaters can call the town on VHF channel 73.

The free service will run from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week through Sept. 15, and then on weekends to Oct. 1.

The service began two weeks ago, but project supervisor Joseph Maiorana said that, with the weather getting better, boaters are just beginning to call the town about the seasonal pumpouts, which have been offered since 2004.

Last year, 741 boats were serviced, and the town pumped 22,370 gallons of waste for treatment in its sewage treatment plant, nearly three times the sewage taken from boats in 2008.

The service is offered to boats in the Peconic River and in the part of the Peconic Bay estuary administered by Riverhead Town.