A major investment in drinking water infrastructure in the Westbury Water District headlined a Town of North Hempstead public hearing on Tuesday, April 21, where officials approved more than $60 million in improvements.
The Town Board unanimously adopted two resolutions authorizing capital improvements and financing for the Westbury Water District, including a total project cost of $60,474,671. Of that amount, $16,976,000 is expected to come from grant funding, with the remaining $43,498,671 to be financed through bonds.
Westbury District Engineer Phil Sacks told the board the funding is needed to continue ongoing efforts to address contamination and upgrade aging infrastructure.
“We’ve been working for about five years to implement considerable treatment,” Sacks said during the hearing. “We’ve made great accomplishments with cleaning the public’s water. We have additional projects in our capital plan that require funding.”
According to the presentation, the work includes expanding treatment systems for contaminants such as 1,4-dioxane and other organic compounds, completing construction at an existing facility on Brush Hollow Road, and adding new treatment capacity at other sites.
The plan also calls for replacing a failed well known as Well 14, originally built in the 1970s, and upgrading undersized four-inch water mains that do not meet fire flow requirements.
Sacks said the district has already secured several grants to support the work, including $5 million for wells 15 and 18, $3 million for a well 16 treatment project, and $9 million for work involving wells 10 and 14, along with additional anticipated funding.
“These are reimbursement grants, so we do need to bond for the value in order to qualify,” he said.
Town officials acknowledged the scale of the investment but emphasized the necessity of complying with evolving water quality standards.
“Some people don’t realize how complicated it is to provide water,” Town Supervisor Jennifer DeSena said during the discussion, adding that systems must meet new state mandates while maintaining supply.
Source: LI Press
