EDITORIAL: Don't fear water main in Orient

If health officials had been consistently saying that your drinking water is deficient, and that you need public water, and then the federal government stepped up to pay for the pipes, you'd applaud, right? Wrong.

A few homeowners in Orient reacted by suing the Suffolk County Water Authority to keep it from installing a main to pipe in public water from East Marion. If cooler heads don't prevail, the federal stimulus funds could disappear - and people in Orient will still have substandard water.

So what's all the fuss? Some residents fear that the water main will encourage overdevelopment. That concern is baseless. The current zoning is mostly multiple-acre residential, so no heavy development can happen without the Town of Southold's OK.

Besides, the authority voted to use the main only to serve the Browns Hills community and existing premises on its route. And the authority will do a water supply plan and environmental study for Orient - a suitable role for an agency charged with supplying clean water countywide. That's guarantee enough.

Residents in the Browns Hills area now pay the authority a flat fee for helping with the local system, which includes carbon filtration at the well and under-sink filters to remove nitrates. County health officials consider it inadequate.

Without the federal dollars, the households' costs of hooking up to the main will be higher. It's time to stifle the irrational fear, end the lawsuit, and let high-quality water flow. hN