The Suffolk County Water Authority issued the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and announced upcoming public meetings for the North Fork Water Main Project. The project aims to address the long-term sustainability of the public water supply in Southold. With a thinner, shallower aquifer than in other parts of Long Island, the area is susceptible to saltwater intrusion, threatened by surface level contamination and limited in its supply to meet water demand. SCWA will address these issues with the largest single infrastructure project in its 75-year history.
With the acceptance of the DEIS, SCWA is announcing a revised route for the project. Developed in response to public comments gathered during scoping sessions in 2025, the new route shifts the water main away from Sound Avenue. The transmission line will run exclusively on state and county roads, resulting in a route that is one mile shorter than the original proposal. This modification reduces environmental and traffic impacts and accelerates the project schedule, moving the anticipated completion date from 2030 to 2028.
"This project is a requirement for the long-term sustainability of the North Fork," said SCWA Chairman Charlie Lefkowitz. "It protects our local water resources while ensuring we meet the current needs of our communities. This project is a win for the environment, it protects future ratepayers and ensures that we have a sustainable supply of high-quality drinking water for the North Fork."
"We listened to the public during our 2025 scoping sessions and designed a plan that reflects their input," said SCWA Chief Executive Officer Jeff Szabo. "This new route allows us to execute the project swiftly while keeping community impacts to an absolute minimum."
SCWA also announced that it will hold three public hearings to showcase the plan and accept public comments. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 19th at 6 PM at SCWA’s facility on Old Riverhead Road in Westhampton Beach. The second is scheduled for Thursday, August 20th at 5 PM at the Southold Town Recreation Center in Peconic. A final meeting will take place at 4:30 PM on Wednesday, August 26th at the Riverhead Public Library.
"Construction is scheduled to take twelve months once all the final permits are in place," said SCWA Director of Construction Maintenance Brendan Warner. "We will stage the work specifically to avoid traffic disruptions on the North Fork during the peak summer and fall months."
SCWA currently operates 60 wells across 18 well fields on the North Fork, serving 9,500 customers. Despite conservation efforts, water demand in the region continues to increase. This demand strains existing infrastructure and negatively impacts the local water source.
Most North Fork wells draw from the Upper Glacial Aquifer, which is vulnerable to contamination from pesticides, herbicides and rising chloride levels. Concurrently, concerns over PFAS contamination are driving private well users to seek connections to public water. Over-pumping to meet this demand carries the risk of drawing saltwater into the freshwater aquifer. If saltwater infiltrates the supply, it limits future water availability for residential neighborhoods and the local farming community.
To address capacity deficits and protect the aquifer, SCWA's plan centers on a new 7.5-mile, 24-inch transmission line. The pipeline will transport water directly to the North Fork, bypassing the Riverhead Water District service area where no connections will be made. The project also includes a new booster station to stabilize water pressure and improve system reliability.
Introducing this supply reduces the likelihood that SCWA will need to install specialized treatment systems at existing wellheads. The new transmission line will ease the daily pumping burden on local wells, allowing the thin Upper Glacial Aquifer to recover and preventing saltwater intrusion.
The DEIS is available on SCWA’s website, alongside a submission form to accept public comments through September 11, 2026. For more information, to review the DEIS, or to submit a comment, please visit www.scwa.com/nfp
About SCWA:
The Suffolk County Water Authority is an independent public-benefit corporation operating under the authority of the Public Authorities Law of the State of New York. Serving approximately 1.2 million Suffolk County residents, the Authority operates without taxing power on a not-for-profit basis.