Read the full article by Desirée Keegan (The Independent)

“East Quogue residents now have access to clean, safe drinking water thanks to the completion of a project installing new water mains.

Suffolk County Water Authority announced last week it added more than 10,800 feet of new lines, plus service connections from the street up to the 115 homes that were impacted by private well contamination.

‘More than half those homes are now connected,’ Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman said. ‘It’s a big, successful project. We’re doing our part to make sure people in that area are confident when they drink their water.’

Including the connections, the project cost approximately $1.9 million. A state grant, coming in just under $1.06 million, partially funded the project, with the rest paid for through the Town of Southampton’s Community Preservation Fund, 20 percent of which can be used toward water quality improvement projects. The town and the water authority applied for the state grant jointly…

Private well testing conducted by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services in 2018 showed elevated levels of the unregulated contaminants perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, commonly known as PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA. Studies indicate that PFOA and PFOS can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects in laboratory animals. Both chemicals have caused tumors in animals. The most consistent findings are increased cholesterol levels among exposed populations, with more limited findings related to low infant birth weights, effects on the immune system, cancer (for PFOA), and thyroid hormone disruption (for PFOS), according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency…

In response to the findings, the Town of Southampton implemented a public drinking water infrastructure improvement program, which allowed residents with contaminated private water to switch to public, filtered water at no cost. The homes were provided bottled water while the switchover was made possible through the SCWA project and the state allowance of CPF money being used to help cover the cost…”