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By Tom Siebens
Director, Fishers Island Water Works Corporation
December 20, 2021
Fishers Island Water Works has been invited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to apply for an infrastructure loan under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014. The invitation follows from the EPA’s review of a letter of interest filed by the company in July 2021.
If the application is successful, the loan could finance up to 80% of the estimated $16 million cost to replace 7.75 miles of old transmission mains and associated hydrants and to modernize the surface water filtration plant at Barlow Pond. These are the most critical components of the island’s network for ensuring potable water distribution and emergency fire flows.
WIFIA loans are low-interest, fixed-rate, and long-term, up to 35 years, with possibilities for deferred repayment. These are very favorable terms for a small community water system and help mitigate the increases in water rates necessary to support water infrastructure renovation.
Loans under WIFIA are funded by Congressional appropriations and administered by the EPA. Fishers Island is one of 39 new projects around the country announced by the EPA on December 3, 2021, as being selected to apply for a loan under the 2021 round of WIFIA funding.
Chris Finan, president of Fishers Island Water Works, identified the WIFIA program early this year as a potential source of financing. The company will continue to look for potential funding under federal and state programs, including the infrastructure bill recently passed by Congress. However, most of those programs target acute problems that Fishers Island does not face, such as deficient sewage treatment, poor potable water sources, lead water pipes, and sub-standard water systems in deprived communities.
The WIFIA loan application process will be demanding. The EPA will require compliance with a variety of federal requirements, including an environmental impact assessment. Support will be needed from the Suffolk County Department of Health. Fishers Island Water Works will have to demonstrate the project’s economic feasibility based on water surcharges that fairly allocate the cost of the financing. The New York State Public Service Commission will have to approve any proposed schedule of surcharges.
Despite the effort required, Fishers Island Water Works views a potential WIFA loan as an opportunity worth pursuing as part of addressing the island’s biggest infrastructure challenge.
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This is the third in a series of articles about the renovation of the water distribution infrastructure on Fishers Island. See Fog Horn, January and February 2020
About us: Fishers Island Water Works Corporation provides water services on Fishers Island, New York. It is owned by Fishers Island Utility Company, Inc. and Fishers Island Development Corporation and is regulated by the New York State Public Service Commission.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that 39 new projects are being invited to apply for Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans and 4 projects are being added to a waitlist. The agency anticipates that, as funds become available, $6.7 billion in WIFIA loans will help finance over $15 billion in water infrastructure projects to protect public health and water quality across 24 states.
“Far too many communities still face significant water challenges, making these transformative investments in water infrastructure so crucial,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The WIFIA invited projects will deliver major benefits like the creation of good-paying jobs and the safeguarding of public health, especially in underserved and under-resourced communities. This program is a shining example of the public health and economic opportunities that will be achieved under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
EPA’s WIFIA program will provide selected borrowers with innovative financing tools to address pressing public health and environmental challenges in their communities. Consistent with its announced priorities, the WIFIA program is making $1.2 billion in loans available to support infrastructure needs in historically underserved communities. Additionally, 14 projects will help protect infrastructure from the impacts of extreme weather events and the climate crisis. New and innovative approaches, including cybersecurity, green infrastructure, and water reuse, are included in 24 projects.
By diversifying its geographic reach and the types of selected borrowers, the WIFIA program will also expand the types of projects it supports. For the first time, entities in Connecticut, Delaware, and Hawaii are invited to apply. Three small communities, with populations of 25,000 or less, are selected for WIFIA loans totaling nearly $62 million. In addition, seven projects submitted by private borrowers and public-private partnerships totaling over $1.5 billion in WIFIA financing are included.
EPA is also inviting state agencies in Indiana and New Jersey to apply for a total of $472 million in WIFIA loans through EPA’s state infrastructure financing authority WIFIA (SWIFIA) program. EPA’s SWIFIA loans are available exclusively to state infrastructure financing authority borrowers, commonly known as State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs, and will allow these programs to finance more infrastructure projects in their states. These programs will combine state resources, annual capitalization grants, and the low-cost, flexible SWIFIA loans to accelerate investment in drinking water and wastewater infrastructure to modernize aging systems and tackle new contaminants.
WIFIA Invited Projects include:
Baltimore City Department of Public Works (Md.): $36 million for the Water Infrastructure Advancement 2021 project.
Charlotte Water (N.C.): $169 million for the Mallard Creek Sewer Basin Wastewater Collection and Treatment Improvements Program.
City of Ashland (Ore.): $36 million for a 7.0 Million Gallons per Day Water Treatment Plant.
City of Bellingham (Wash.): $136 million for the Post Point Resource Recovery Plant Biosolids Project.
City of Boise (Idaho): $272 million for Water Renewal Services Capital Investments Projects.
City of Chattanooga (Tenn.): $186 million for Wastewater Compliance and Sustainability Projects.
City of Cortland (N.Y.): $12 million for the Homer Avenue Gateway Project.
City of Memphis (Tenn.): $44 million for Stormwater Upgrades.
City of Oregon City (Ore.): $12 million for Water Rehabilitation, Resiliency and Improvement Projects.
City of Philadelphia (Pa.): $260 million for the Water Department 2021 project.
City of Port Washington (Wis.): $12 million for the Water Treatment Plant Improvement Project.
City of Santa Cruz (Calif.): $164 million for the Santa Cruz Water Program.
City of Westminster (Colo.): $130 million for the Water2025 project.
City of Wichita (Kan.): $181 million for the Wastewater Reclamation Facilities Biological Nutrient Removal Improvements Project.
County of Hawaii (Hawaii): $24 million for Hawaii Wastewater Treatment Upgrades.
EPCOR Foothills Water Project Inc. (Ore.): $76 million for the Lake Oswego Wastewater Treatment Replacement Project.
Fishers Island Water Works Corporation (N.Y.): $14 million for Water System Improvements.
Gainesville Regional Utilities (Fla.): $14 million for the Sanitary Sewer Replacement and Improvement Project.
Helix Water District (Calif.): $16 million for the Drinking Water Reliability Project.
King County (Wash.): $287 million Master Agreement.
Marin Municipal Water District (Calif.): $11 million for Marin Water.
Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) (Mo.): $278 million for MSD Project Clear – Deer Creek Watershed / Lemay Service Area System Improvements.
Metro Water Services (Tenn.): $186 million for the Process Advancements at Omohundro and K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plants Project.
Narragansett Bay Commission (R.I.): $28 million for Field’s Point Resiliency Improvements.
New Castle County (Del.): $32 million for the Christina River Force Main Rehabilitation Project.
Project 7 Water Authority (Colo.): $39 million for the Ridgway Water Treatment Plant.
Rialto Water Service LLC (Calif.): $68 million for Microgrid and System Improvements.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (Calif.): $618 million for Wastewater Capital Plan Resilience Projects.
Santa Clara Valley Water District (Calif.): $575 million for the Pacheco Reservoir Expansion Project.
Santa Clara Valley Water District (Calif.): $80 million for the Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection Program.
Santa Margarita Water District (Calif.): $22 million for Recycled Water Conversion.
Sharyland Water Supply Corporation (Texas): $14 million for Sharyland Water Supply Corporation Water System Infrastructure Improvements.
South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority (Conn.): $20 million for Lake Whitney Dam and Spillway Improvements.
Tualatin Valley Water District (Ore.): $16 million for the Water System Upgrades Program.
United Water Conservation District (Calif.): $52 million for the Santa Felicia Safety Improvement Project.
Upper Santa Ana River Watershed Infrastructure Financing Authority (Calif.): $177 million for the Watershed Connect project.
Village of New Lenox (Ill.): $70 million for Phase 1 Improvements projects.
Waitlist Projects were also announced, and include:
American Infrastructure Holdings (S.D.): $20 million for the Sioux City Biosolids to Fertilizer Project.
Lake Restoration Solutions, LLC (Utah): $893 million for the Utah Lake Restoration Project.
Northern Water (Colo.): $464 million for the Northern Integrated Supply Project – Glade Reservoir Complex.
Southland Water Agency (Ill.): $479 million for the Southland Water Agency Infrastructure System.
August 19, 2020 By Tom Siebens, Director Fishers Island Electric Corporation
Over the past two decades, Fishers Island Electric has researched three forms of renewable energy generation: wind, tidal and solar. The island’s current source of supply from the New England grid via an undersea cable from Groton Utilities has proven reliable for decades and is expected to remain so. Renewables, however, offer carbon-free generation, enhanced energy security and, potentially, a hedge against rising costs of conventional power.
The research shows that renewables face technical, regulatory and economic challenges, some of which are unique to the island. A way forward is becoming clearer, though it will require overcoming significant obstacles.
Technical Challenges
Wind Energy. Onshore, studies commissioned by the Electric Company over a decade ago indicated that the airfield is the only viable location on the island for a mini-wind farm of several turbines. The airfield has the best wind profile with little topographical interference and, given some concern with generator noise, has the benefit of some distance from residential areas. However, abandoning the airport in order to install wind turbine towers would likely be a non-starter for the island community and the Town of Southold, which owns the airport.
Offshore, the Electric Company has considered whether it might tap into any of the wind farms being developed far offshore of Montauk and Block Island. To date, the Company is unaware of any plans to route transmission cables near Fishers Island from these projects.
Tidal Energy. In 2015, the Electric Company consulted a developer of tidal power on the viability of installing tidal turbines in The Race. The evidence available indicated that the tidal velocities in The Race are insufficient to make the tidal turbines currently available cost-effective. An application to the New York State Energy Research & Development Authority for grant funding for a survey to confirm velocities in various water columns in The Race was denied because the Authority views tidal technology as unproven. Given the costs for further research and the limitations of turbine technology, the Electric Company did not pursue tidal energy.
Solar Energy. The Electric Company first considered in 2013 whether it could take electric power from a house built with a solar photovoltaic system on its roof. Proposals for a solar farm on the Pickett Landfill were considered in 2014 and 2017. These initiatives highlighted two technical challenges to incorporating solar or other renewables into the island’s energy mix.
The first is load balancing. The entire demand for electric power on the island, the “demand load”, is met today with power supplied by Groton Utilities. Taking power from a second source, such as a solar farm, will require “load balancing”, controlling power input from two sources so that it matches the demand load. Additional infrastructure will be needed, as well as operating agreements among Groton Utilities, the Electric Company and whoever owns the second power source. Load balancing will get more complex if power input to the island’s electric grid comes from multiple sources such as solar panels on houses and commercial buildings.
The second technical challenge is the seasonality of the demand load. The island’s demand for electricity fluctuates significantly between its low point in winter and peak in summer. Micro-generation capacity, from solar panels or otherwise, that can meet the low demand could be used year-round. Generation capacity beyond that might make sense to supply high demand load in summer, but would be under-utilized and wasted in lower demand periods.
Regulatory Challenges
An electric utility generally is required to maintain electricity distribution infrastructure with enough capacity to provide 100% of each customer’s power needs, even if some customers, at times, use solar or other renewable sources of power. Maintaining that capacity represents a fixed cost that the utility recovers in electric rates, which include a “capacity charge” component. Yet rate revenue from a customer that uses its own renewable generation typically drops. The customer buys less power from the electric utility. In addition, under “net metering”, revenue from power the customer does purchase is reduced by credits for surplus renewable power the customer does not use but supplies to the electric grid.
Faced with such a reduced revenue scenario, Fishers Island Electric would have to increase rates to recover its fixed costs, resulting in higher electricity bills for customers, including those who do not have renewable energy facilities. An upward spiral of rates could drive still more customers, if they could afford it, to install solar or other renewable power generation, compounding the problem.
In effect, although more renewable generation would be good for green energy, it could conflict with the Electric Company’s policy goal of recovering its fixed costs in a way that is fair and keeps electricity as affordable as possible across the community. To accommodate net metering, the Company would need to introduce a system charge, applicable regardless of power consumption or net metering. Revenue would have to increase to cover the financing of load balancing infrastructure as well as a costly rate study required by the Public Service Commission to help it evaluate whether the new rate structure unfairly impacts different groups of customers.
The challenges of designing fair rate structures and revenue recovery is the reason small electric utilities like Fishers Island Electric are not required to offer net metering.
Economic Challenges
Given its other investment needs, the Electric Company cannot justify to its ratepayers or the Public Service Commission building its own renewable generation capacity, especially with the risk that the power produced would cost more than power purchased from Groton Utilities. Similarly, if renewable generation capacity is built by others, the Electric Company cannot commit to purchasing the power produced unless the price is competitive with Groton Utilities. The Company has not yet seen a proposal that addresses the competitive cost challenge.
Another challenge to renewable power developers generally is the uncertainty of subsidies and tax incentives for renewable energy. Government tax credits for construction are changeable. State tax credits for building renewable generation facilities in New York may not be available if the power is transmitted out of the state to Connecticut and the New England grid. In New York, rate subsidies are not currently available to enable renewable power producers to sell their power at rates low enough to compete with power from conventional generation.
The Way Forward
Despite the challenges, renewable energy is being incorporated into the Electric Company’s plans for modernizing the electricity infrastructure on Fishers Island. The modernization has three goals: (1) updating obsolete and aging infrastructure, (2) expanding the infrastructure to supply higher demand loads and (3) integrating renewable on-island generation. Planning is needed to ensure that these goals are addressed in a coordinated and cost-effective way.
Three main issues have to be addressed. First is how to ensure the ability to load balance power supplied from micro-generation, which may be configured in different ways. Solar power, for example, could come from individual houses, from a solar farm, or from micro-grids. These grids are small networks that share renewable power generation and power storage but at times produce surplus power in excess of the network’s needs.
The second issue is how to make development of renewable generation cost-effective. It will be less economic to build micro-generation capacity that produces power in excess of the island’s lowest average demand during the off-season if that excess capacity cannot be fully utilized all year long. The Electric Company might be the off-taker for some of the surplus power during higher demand periods. But power beyond the needs of the Electric Company will be lost unless it can be sold to a purchaser off-island.
This leads to the third main issue: how to plan for an additional undersea cable that provides more power transmission capacity than is available with the present cable. Among the justifications for a new cable is that it would provide capacity for producers of surplus renewable power to deliver and sell that power to an off-taker on the mainland.
Modernizing the island’s electricity infrastructure with these issues and goals in mind will take time, engineering studies and, eventually, financing, supported by rate increases. The challenges to bringing cost-effective renewable generation to the island are significant. A number of modernization projects will have to take priority over renewables. The technical and regulatory environment will continue to change. But the Electric Company fully supports renewable generation as an objective and looks forward to the community’s continued interest and support in achieving it.
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Image credit: Harvesting Solar, Wind and Tidal Power – Environment for Kids | Children’s Earth Sciences Books
From the CodeRED Community Notification System c/o FI Utility Co.
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We want to remind you that Fishers Island has licensed the CodeRED Community Notification System to help disseminate important or critical information or in the event of an actual or impending emergency. We encourage all residents and businesses to go to the www.fiuc.net/emergencies Website and click on the Code RED text located in the left-hand column and follow the instructions to enter their contact information, including additional phone numbers, and text and email addresses, to ensure all of the data in our system is accurate and current.
Alternatively, you may also call Office of Emergency Management’s Customer Service Center 631-852-4900, Monday through Friday, (9AM-5PM) to supply your information over the phone.
In the off chance 911 is down, and you reside in the Southold Town Police jurisdiction including Fishers Island or Shelter Island and have an emergency please call Southold Town police at 631-765-2562.
On Fishers you can also call directly to the Trooper (788-7600), constables or doctor on Island. Southold Town police (non-emergency) # is 631 765-2600
On Fishers you can also call directly to the Trooper (788-7600), constables or doctor on Island.
The Water Company is planning a major renovation of the water distribution system on Fishers Island. This multi-year, multi-million-dollar infrastructure project has to be undertaken given the age and condition of the island’s network of cast iron water mains, many of which date back to the early 1900s.
This article is an overview of the investment required for this project, plans for financing that investment and the Company’s review of its rate structure.*
Project investment and borrowing. Based on preliminary estimates, the investment required for the renovation will be substantial. For example, the cost of detailed engineering plans for a network of replacement water mains is estimated at over $1.0 million. Phase 1 of actual construction, a new trunk main running west from the wells at Middle Farms to the intersection of Montauk and Oriental Avenues, is estimated at around $4.0 million.
The Water Company expects to finance the renovation by borrowing. It plans to do so in several tranches of loans over a period of years as the design and construction phases progress. In parallel stages, the Company will have to increase its revenues in order to finance the borrowing costs, mainly interest and principal payments, over the life of the loans.
The Fair Allocation Issue. Given the size of the impending financing costs for the renovation, the Water Company is considering whether its rate structure allocates the costs of the water system fairly between water customers, who benefit from potable water services, and property owners, who benefit from the fire protection infrastructure.
This allocation issue was debated in many water districts during the 20th century as water systems originally built exclusively for potable water were made more robust for fire protection or, conversely, systems built for fire protection were adapted to add potable water services. While charging customers based on water consumption is fairly straightforward, charging for fire protection infrastructure that is used sporadically in emergencies is less so. That infrastructure includes hydrants, standby water reservoirs for surges in water demand during a fire, supplemental high lift pressure pumps, and over-sized water mains to deliver higher volumes of water than needed for potable water services.
In the end, the water industry developed an allocation formula, now widely accepted, for estimating a water utility’s costs that are fire-related based on fire demand vs total utility demand for water. Applying the industry formula to Fishers Island, 70% of the Water Company’s revenue would come from water customers. The remaining 30% would come from property owners via property taxes allocated to the Fire District, which leases the fire protection infrastructure from the Water Company.
The Company’s current revenue split between these two sources is 93% from water customers and 7% from property owners via the fire infrastructure lease. In effect, according to the industry formula, water customers are providing a 23% subsidy to property owners for fire protection infrastructure. Year-round water customers pay a disproportionate amount of this subsidy.
The Goal. The Water Company has not made a final determination on how to change its rate structure to ensure that it has funds when needed to finance each phase of the distribution system renovation. The goal will be to raise Company revenues, in stages over time, in a way that spreads the costs the entire water system more in line with industry standards. The process will involve migrating the rate structure by weighting rate increases more toward property owners.
This could mean, for example, increasing incrementally charges to the Fire District under its infrastructure lease, leading to increases in property taxes to fund the resulting increases in the District’s annual budgets. However, the Fire District faces other budget considerations, such as financing a proposed firehouse renovation and housing a paid professional.
In any case, the Water Company is continuing its discussions with independent professional advisors, the Public Service Commission and the Fire District as a matter of priority given the critical nature of the renovation project. Fishers Island is not alone. Fresh water for daily use and water at high pressure from neighborhood hydrants have been taken for granted in water districts across the United States for decades. But water main networks over 100 years old are now in many ways obsolete. Across the country, water districts are facing this issue and an estimated $1 trillion of renovation costs.
The good news is that, by spreading the financing costs over time and across water customers and property owners, the community can support the renovation. Moreover, with modern materials and engineering, renovated water distribution infrastructure is highly cost-effective: it is easy to maintain, reliable and can serve for another 100 years.
Tom Siebens, Director Fishers Island Water Works Corporation
*This is the second in a series of articles about the renovation of the water distribution infrastructure on Fishers Island. See “Renovating the Island’s Water Distribution System”, January 27, 2020, posted on www.FishersIsland.net and included in the February 2020 Fog Horn e-newsletter.
After many requests we have added a new feature to our website to enable you to view twelve months of your water and electric usage. Our website will also allow you to view or download at least two years of your past bills. You may also choose to have your bills emailed instead of sent through the regular mail.
To utilize this feature, you must first sign up for online bill viewing. The steps to do this are listed here.
Click on the “view my bill” link on the top of the screen.
If you already have a username and password just sign in and the usage should be on the first screen. You may change usage type or meter (if you have multiple) by clicking on the drop-down menu.
If you do not already have a username and password:
Click on new user register button. You must have your full account number including all leading zeros.
Once signed up you will be able to view your usage history, as well as past and current bills.
If you have any issues trying to sign up or sign in, please contact our offices and we will be happy to assist you.
By Professor Pete Raymond Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies peter.raymond@yale.edu May 22, 2019
Clean and sufficient water is an important part of any community’s well-being. As stated in the Fishers Island Watershed Protection Standards set by the Suffolk County Health Department, our community relies on “an interrelated fragile system of ground and surface water sources for public water supply.” Currently, we rely on a mixture of groundwater from wells and surface water from Barlow Pond. The ponds, in particular, Middle Farms Pond, are also connected to the groundwater we rely on. That is, water from the ponds flows directly into the groundwater aquifers that are used by our community.
Historically, the Island started by consuming untreated surface water. In the early 1900s water was sourced from Barlow Pond and into a distribution system without any treatment. In the 1920s a water treatment facility was built and a number of the other Island ponds, including Middle Farms, were connected to Barlow in order to augment Barlow during times of water shortage. In the 1960s two groundwater wells were placed in the Middle Farm Flats to the west of Middle Farms pond, with additional wells and a groundwater treatment facility added in the 1980s. Currently, via the new well filtration plant, the groundwater wells provide water to the Island year round. Reserve capacity can be provided with treated surface pond water from Barlow.
Google Earth image showing algal bloom in Middle Farms Pond during the early summer of 2016.
In 2016 the Northeast was hit with a major drought. During the drought, I had an active project on the Connecticut River and many of the streams of Connecticut witnessed their lowest flow in 80 years of record. This was a historic one hundred year drought. The Water Company saw signs of an algal bloom at Middle Farms Pond. In fact, the algal bloom could be seen by space from a May aerial from Google Earth. Due to the bloom, the Water Company restricted recreational use of the pond and asked me to do a preliminary evaluation of Middle Farms Pond. During the summer of 2018, I deployed an instrument, and with help from the Water Company took water samples for a number of months. I also reviewed the information made available to me from past measurements and studies. My more detailed preliminary report can be found here: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.8168042.
During 2018 there were no indications that Middle Farms was in, or near, bloom conditions. Oxygen and nutrient measurements were not consistent with an algal bloom, nor was the pond visually impacted as it was in 2016. My initial assessment, informed from some depth profiles of oxygen, is there is likely a large amount of organic matter, with its associated nutrients stored in the sediments of Middle Farms. This organic matter has probably accrued slowly over the past decades due to inputs of nutrients from the human activities in the watershed and with rainfall. During the summer, as water temperatures warm, this organic matter is decomposed by natural communities of bacteria and the nutrient associated with the organic matter are released. Since Middle Farms is shallow it does not thermally stratify like many deeper lakes, and these nutrients can easily and quickly diffuse into the surface waters where they support summer algal growth. During most years it appears this growth is moderate. During drought conditions, however, the water temperatures of the pond become higher due to a lower lake volume and increased sunlight. This likely leads to greater organic matter decomposition and better conditions for algal growth. Furthermore, droughts are also associated with optimal sunlight due to less frequent cloud cover that can also stimulate aquatic plant growth.
In addition to warmer water temperatures and more sunlight that stimulate algal growth from nutrients stored in the lake sediments, algal growth can be stimulated by other factors. Other potential sources of nutrients to the pond include bird waste, fertilizer and septic input from properties within the watershed, and atmospheric deposition. Furthermore, any other processes that alter the water balance of the pond and lead to low summer water levels will exacerbate the problem. Fortunately, the low level of recreational swimming does not likely have any significant impact on lake nutrient concentrations or volume.
The ponds of Fishers are an asset. They are an integral component of our water resources. They are also unique ecosystems, offering great habitat for aquatic, terrestrial and even marine organisms. As others have noted, however, the ponds of Fishers Island are also fragile. As part of my recommendations, which are expanded in the online preliminary report, I urge the Water Company to continue to understand how these ponds function, and to work with the Fishers Island community to ensure that the ponds will have an adequate amount of clean water to support the community and the organisms that rely on them.
Middle Farms Pond November 17 Photo Credit: Jane T. Ahrens
At 9:00 a.m. on Nov. 6th, 2018 your email account will be moved to a new host. You will not be able to access email during this time. It is your responsibility to backup before Nov. 6th your current emails, contacts and address books, if you wish to keep them. We can help with data migration for a fee, if desired, and by appointment only. So please call us first. Please understand that we cannot guarantee the retention of data thereof, nor will we be held responsible for the loss of data.
Contact us after the migration to get reconnected. You will receive a new password and instructions for setup at this time. The “fishersisland.net Webmail” link on the FishersIsland.net homepage will still be an option but with new login credentials.
Middle Farms Pond has become contaminated with elevated levels of nitrates, turbidity, bacteria and algae. Although the causes are not yet clear, human activities, including potential septic leeching and fertilizer run-off, as well as boating, fishing and swimming are all potential contributing factors.
The risks are serious. For example, nitrates can cause algae blooms. While not all algae blooms are toxic, some produce a type of toxin called microcystis that can cause serious liver damage under certain conditions.
Fishers Island Water Works Corporation owns the pond and is responsible for monitoring its quality. Under the Fishers Island Water Protection Standards adopted by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services in 1997, we are also responsible for monitoring compliance with land use restriction that apply to the surrounding primary watershed.
To start the process of restoring the health of the pond, we are placing it off limits to the public. Various information and warning notices will be posted around the pond.
The absence of human activity will facilitate testing the pond water to identify the causes of contamination and target efforts to eliminate them. We have already sent notices to surrounding landowners, requesting their help in identifying potential sources of contamination in the watershed, particularly on ground sloping toward the pond and any level areas within150 yards of the shore. Fertilizers, pesticides, septic tanks and fuel storage tanks are among the possible hazards. Earlier this year we welded shut an access point where tank trucks were tapping into the pond with potentially contaminated hoses.
Closing Middle Farms Pond to boating will address another threat: the potential introduction of the invasive Zebra mussel. This fingernail-size mussel can attach itself to a boat or paddleboard that is used in another body of water and then used in Middle Farms Pond. There would be no way to eradicate the bivalve from the pond once that happens.
By removing sources of contamination and avoiding a mussel infestation, the pond could have water that is potable with little filtration within a few years. Although we are moving to produce more water from wells, preserving both Middle Farms and Barlow Ponds as back-up reservoirs is an important part of our strategy for assuring ample water supply despite the uncertainties of climate change. During droughts in the 1960s, for example, water was pumped from Middle Farms Pond to Barlow Pond for filtration and distribution into the island’s water mains.
Everyone’s understanding and cooperation with this initiative will be very much appreciated. We know that Middle Farms Pond has been enjoyed by boaters, fishermen and swimmers. Yet, we strongly believe that conserving this natural resource is part of responsible environmental stewardship and in the best interest of the water supply for the entire island community.Please feel free to contact company President, Chris Finan, or Water Superintendent, Chad Mrowka, at 631-788-7251 with any questions.
Please feel free to contact company President, Chris Finan, or Water Superintendent, Chad Mrowka, at 631-788-7251 with any questions.
Fishers Island Water Works Corporation
October 22, 2017
Middle Farms Pond November 17 Photo Credit: Jane T. Ahrens
