Fishers Island Telephone has received tremendous support for the future of the Islands Internet!! We are almost there. Today, we need just 15 more first adopters to move this project forward! Can you think of a better gift to your household other than super-fast reliable fiber internet? The sign-up is fast and easy so even if you started the process and needed more time, now is the opportunity to become one of the first 50 adopters that will enjoy the benefits package of High-Speed Internet, telephone, and long distance for one special price. After the first 50 have been reached, these special benefits will expire. Sign up now to enjoy High Speed Fiber Internet!
Why Upgrade?
As you know, the Internet has become an essential service and the demand for faster speeds to support the growing number of devices is rising every year. Because the copper cable that is delivering your telephone and internet services today is approaching the end of its useful life, the Telephone company is preparing to launch a major construction project to upgrade the Island residents and businesses with state-of-the-art high speed fiber optic cable to the premise.
What are we hoping to learn from your registration?
With the EVERNET II project, we are strategically evaluating the zones with the highest demand for service where we will plan to engineer and construct our fiber network first. We are looking to identify 50 first adopters to begin the construction of the multi-year Fiber To The Home (FTTH) network project. The information that is collected will aid us in determining where to commence the deployment of this new high speed fiber network.
What can you do to help?
Registering your address and agreeing on a product, you will be one of the first to receive Fishers Island Telephone EVERNET II FTTH High Speed Internet Services. It’s really that simple!
Once enough registrations have been expressed in a specific zone, we will begin the planning to expand our service network to your neighborhood. There are many resources required to bring a fiber-optic network to a neighborhood and Fishers Island Telephone will target the construction to follow the demand to deliver EVERNET II fiber to areas of the highest demand first.
Sign up today to get started on this exciting project before the special pricing and benefits are gone!
Your copies are ready! 2022-2023 Fishers Island Telephone Directory
The 2022-2023 phonebooks are now available at the Utility Office Monday – Friday; 8am – 3:30pm They are on a table outside the Main entrance Please take ONLY the quantity needed
This year’s cover
celebrating 10 years of bringing artists and writers to Fishers Island
The White Pages can be accessed online anytime – from anywhere…on FishersIsland.net’s Island Directory page
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.
The Fishers Island Long Distance circuits will be undergoing upgrade maintenance on Monday night, Tuesday Morning as follows:
Date: Tuesday Morning, 14 December 2021
Time: Midnight:01am EST through 05:00am EST
Impact: During this period, Fishers Island Telephone subscribers that have Fishers Island Long Distance may experience the following:
Unable to make long distance or international calls
Calls in progress may be dropped
Call quality is suffering
Noise on the line
It is highly possible that there will be Zero impact as we work with our redundant configurations.
911 emergency services will not be affected
The internet will not be affected
Inbound calls to Fishers Island subscribers will not be affected.
If you have any questions regarding this upgrade maintenance, please contact Fishers Island Telephone at fitcinfo@fiuc.net.
Stay tuned for updates on the new Fiber Optic Network to the Home that is in the final stages of design.
Steve Head
Telecom Superintendent
Fishers Island Telephone Corporation
+1-631-788-7001 x4 fitcinfo@fiuc.net 161 Oriental Ave
P.O. Box 604
Fishers Island, NY 06390
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.
Update 5:33 pm: The repair seems to be holding and the water has been turned back on. Please run the water from your faucets until it runs clear.
Thank you, The FI Water Co.
12MAR21 @ 3:30: There was a main water pipe break at FIC this morning. The company is working very hard to repair it. Currently, the water is off from Top of the World to the east end. Please check back for further updates. The FI Water Co.
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.
* * * * *
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.
SIGN UP TODAY
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.
The water distribution system on Fishers Island — it’s 22 miles of water mains, control valves and 148 hydrants – needs major renovation. Most of the system’s cast iron pipes are between 100 and 120 years old and increasingly at risk of collapse due to corrosive processes in buried iron pipe. The potential for a collapse is high based on the average pipe age and corrosion observed in samples of pipe. In addition to becoming brittle with age, cast iron mains over time become coated with iron and other minerals, reducing water pressure and flow.
The water system suffers from other constraints as a result of how it was created. Originally, Fishers Island had three systems, operated independently by the East End Water Company, the West Water Company and, at Fort Wright, by the U.S. Army. These were retrofitted into a single system over time as the demands for water services on Fishers Island grew beyond what was envisioned a century ago.
Fishers Island is not alone. Water systems across America, built early in the 1900s, face these issues with water main networks. In 2017, the American Water Works Association estimated that $1 trillion of investment is needed nationwide to renovate the country’s water distribution systems. The costs will only increase over time. Deferred renovation leads to greater system deterioration and requires expensive, crisis interventions.
The good news on Fishers Island is that plentiful, quality fresh water sources at Middle Farms have been secured for the foreseeable future as the result of recommissioning a third well, building a state-of-the-art well filtration plant and, as a back-up, taking steps to better protect the area’s aquifers and the interconnected reservoir ponds. With continued responsible stewardship of the island’s aquifers, the community should not face the hazards of saltwater incursion or toxic chemicals and waste leaching into its fresh water sources.
We now have a golden opportunity to ensure the reliable delivery of water over the next 100 years from Middle Farms to the rest of the island for both potable (drinking) water customers and the fire protection infrastructure needed by property owners. In the process, much can be done to rectify the constraints of the distribution system pieced together as the three separate water systems were interconnected and water reservoirs at the West End and Fort Wright were abandoned. The system can become first rate, with properly integrated engineering design and planning.
The Solution
As a first step, an engineering study and a map of the water distribution system were completed during the fall of 2019. (Some may recall the blue lines and flags on the main roads and adjacent rights-of-way.) As a next step, the Water Company will be developing a Master Plan for the renovation. This will require a detailed engineering design for precise routing of the new mains and for breaking the construction work into manageable phases that can each be completed between summer seasons over a number of years. For example, Phase 1 of construction will likely be a new trunk main, including new hydrants, from Middle Farms to the road intersection by the entrance to the Navy’s Underwater Laboratory, a distance of 2.37 miles. Additional construction phases will follow from Phase 1, continuing west to replace trunk mains on the more densely populated West End out to the Fort area, then east from Middle Farms to the East End and finally renovating lesser loop mains.
During construction of a new main, the existing main will remain in place so that water services are not disrupted. As a section of the new main is completed, it will be interconnected with the existing parallel main. This will avoid disrupting water service. Eventually, the old main will be abandoned and water lines that tap into it will be transferred to the new main.
The new mains will be made of well-proven modern materials that do not corrode. These mains will also be larger than existing mains in order to ensure water volumes that meet the current standards for fire protection. The engineering will address pressure challenges as well.
Cost & Timing
The engineering design is also needed to refine cost estimates, put the work out for bid and get contractor quotes. But there is no question that the renovation will require a multi-million-dollar investment funded over many years.
As part of the Master Plan, the Water Company is considering how to spread the financing costs of the renovation over time. It is also studying how to fairly allocate the financial burden between water rate payers and property taxpayers. As these aspects of the plan become clearer, they will be shared with the Fishers Island community.
Tom Siebens, Director Fishers Island Water Works Corporation
