On sweltering summer mornings, while sprinklers spin atop freshly cut lawns, showers are taken and pools are filled across the North Fork, officials at the Suffolk County Water Authority hold their breath. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that seasonal overpumping, driven by irrigation, puts the agency in the “danger zone” in Southold, threatening water quality and capacity for emergencies. Water usage in the Town of Southold has nearly doubled in the past two decades, according to data provided by the agency.

The water authority is proposing a new $35 million pipeline to pump water from the pine barrens north and then northeast to Southold Town on the North Fork as it tries to keep pace with demand. The proposal has sparked debate over conservation and development pressure in the region.

The pipeline, which officials hope to complete by 2030, would stretch 8.5 miles from Flanders in Southampton to the Southold town line, bringing up to 6,000 gallons per minute to boost supply and reduce stress on existing public wells. A second proposed phase would extend public water 3.8 miles from East Marion to Orient, the easternmost tip of the fork. The Suffolk County Water Authority is in the process of conducting an environmental review. Tensions over the proposal were on full display at a recent community forum in Peconic. There, Southold residents, environmental groups and elected officials said the increased demand for water shows a dire need for conservation — and that supplying more water could be a catalyst for development on the North Fork. About 70% of water pumped in the summer is for irrigation.

Surging demand at peak summer periods puts stress on the water supply, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves 9,500 properties in Southold from about 60 shallow wells. Straining the supply puts the wells at risk from saltwater intrusion and other contaminants and places the agency in the “danger zone,” Jeff Szabo, the authority's CEO, said in an interview.

The pipeline would allow water to be pumped from the "South Shore Low Zone" in the Town of Southampton, an area with deeper supply, officials said.

“Every morning, the area I’m concerned about is the North Fork, because when it’s hot … we have every well running,” Szabo said. “Our tanks are draining down to, at times, just a couple of feet.”

***

An affordable housing developer who has worked with Southampton and East Hampton towns on several previous projects has proposed building a 40-unit rental apartment complex with a ground-floor retail space in Riverside. Georgica Green Ventures, a Jericho-based development firm, has applied to the Southampton Town Community Housing Fund for a $2.4 million grant to help cover the purchase cost of about an acre of land off Flanders Road near the Riverside traffic circle. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Southampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the CHF grant request on August 12 at 1 p.m. The town’s Community Housing Fund Advisory Committee has recommended that the town grant the funding award. The Community Housing Fund draws revenues from a half-percent sales tax on most real estate transactions and earmarks it for housing-related funding programs intended to increase the supply of residential units affordable to low and middle income residents increasingly priced out of the south fork housing market by soaring prices driven by second-home and investment markets. The project will not move forward until the planned Riverside sewage treatment plant is completed. The apartments would be built on three properties that Gerogica Green plans to purchase at 47 Flanders Road, just steps from the Riverside traffic circle and on the fringes of the land that the Town of Southampton has targeted to anchor the revitalization of the Riverside hamlet.

***

This Saturday – tomorrow - is a chance to explore the 20...