Mr. Jones appeared before a highly skeptical Town Board Tuesday for the first time since controversy erupted last year over his agency's plans to tap $3.8 million in stimulus funds to run 17,000 feet of new 12-inch water mains out to the Browns Hills neighborhood.
During the work session, board members made it clear they believed the authority had been less than forthcoming about its long-term plans for Orient. Later in the day, the board set April 6 as the date for a public hearing on a proposal to amend its water map to include the new mains.
The authority has long maintained that it doesn't need town permission to proceed because Browns Hills is within its service area.
When it announced the receipt of stimulus funding for the new mains, the authority said the project would serve only the 24 homes in Browns Hills that have private wells contaminated with agricultural chemicals. Affected residents soon disavowed the project, saying they preferred to keep the under-the-sink filtration systems the water authority had given them.
Town officials, meanwhile, doubt the authority's claim that only people living along the route of the mains would be able to tie in. While there are 144 homes along that stretch of Route 25, the governor recently said the project would serve 700 properties, which is all of Orient.
Mr. Russell also has questioned the size of the proposed mains. "As a practical reality, a 12-inch main isn't being put in to serve Browns Hills," he said. It also suggests the authority plans on serving all of Orient, he has said.
Mr. Jones said on Tuesday said that 12 inches is a standard size throughout the authority's system and that pipes of that diameter help maintain high water pressure, which is key when hydrants are opened to fight fires.
Referring to information the town hopes to receive from the authority, the supervisor said, "Everything has to be up-front from the beginning. This started on a bad note."
Mr. Russell, who came under intense criticism during his Orient community meeting on Saturday for not doing more to stop the new mains, contends that the authority did not follow its own procedure before committing to the construction. Every other time the SCWA has proposed serving a new neighborhood, it has first sought to assess local interest in a new connection.
"How do you know if there's any interest out there if you haven't canvassed?" Mr. Russell asked.
Mr. Jones said the authority skipped that step because federal funding was available. When it considers bringing water to a community, the authority measures not only general interest, but also whether the residents are willing to take on a share of the cost. Without the federal subsidy, an Orient homeowner would have been required to pay an authority surcharge of about $4,000 to hook up, said Mr. Jones. Even with the stimulus money, homeowners will still have to pay $2,000.
The supervisor on Tuesday asked the authority to contact Orient residents prior to the April 6 hearing, but Mr. Jones expressed concern about missing people who are away for the winter. That shouldn't be an issue, Mr. Russell responded. "They seemed to show up on Saturday," he said, referring to his contentious public meeting. "I have at least 130 sets of teeth marks on my butt."
Opponents fear the water mains will breed new development by making water abundantly available. Mr. Jones has long argued that has not been the case in any area of Southold to which the authority has expanded service. This week he urged board members to mark a town map with a dot for every home built since 2000. That, he said, would show there's no growth-inducing aspect to public water.
But referring to the Heritage condo project in Cutchogue, which is also the target of continuing public opposition, the supervisor said, "I wouldn't have an application for 160 condos in Cutchogue if there wasn't public water. It opens up doors."
The Heritage is proposed for one of the few properties in town still covered by the HD Hamlet Density zone, which permits up to four attached units per acre.
Board members questioned why Orient's water needs couldn't be met with separate in-home systems.
Mr. Jones replied that running new pipe was not the authority's first choice for improving water quality in Brown's Hills. For five years, the authority pursued Environmental Protection Agency approval for a central reverse osmosis system for Brown's Hills, which would treat water by forcing it through a membrane. That prohibitively expensive effort would have required injecting the brine left at the end of the treatment process into a salty section of the local aquifer.
He added that, as a public service agency, the authority has a fiscal responsibility to take advantage of the federal funding.
"Unless no one wants it," said the supervisor.
Although the authority says it is undertaking an environmental review of Orient's water needs and how to meet them, a group of residents is pursuing a state court action to compel the agency to the conduct a full review. The court has yet to issue a ruling.
William Ryall, one of the litigants present for Tuesday's discussion, remains convinced that the authority is being less than honest about its Orient plans.
He said the authority never contacted anyone from Brown's Hills before announcing the water main project. He also contends that the extension budget includes $75,000 to pay Goldman Sachs for handling potential bond sales, but doesn't include any funding to replace the community's central water supply line, which has been in place since 1948.
"This is about something else," Mr. Ryall said. "This is not about water for Brown's Hills."
tkelly@timesreview.com