Patchogue Calling On State For Additional Sewer Funding

Village of Patchogue and Town of Brookhaven officials on Wednesday called on the state for an additional $26.4 million in available funds sewer projects in Patchogue and Mastic.

Patchogue Mayor Paul Pontieri and Brookhaven Supervisor Ed Romaine issued a joint letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, "thanking the Governor for his leadership in providing funding for sewers to protect Long island’s groundwater and waterways and provide an incentive for economic development," according to a news release.

“An effective use of the $26.4 million in funds that were rejected by Great River voters would be to partially fund Phase 3 of the Mastic/Forge River sewer project and to expand sewers in the Village of Patchogue. These projects are already engineered. A site for a sewage treatment plant on Town of Brookhaven land is available for the Forge River project. Patchogue has long had its own sewage treatment plant, and both the Mastic and Patchogue communities (Mastic in a vote just this week), have shown their support for sewers,” they wrote in the letter.

The two officials pointed out that while residents in Mastic and Babylon approved a recent referendum for sewer projects in their communities, residents in Great River rejected a similar plan for their area. Romaine and Pontieri wrote in their letter that the $26.4 million earmarked for Great River could be reallocated to Patchogue and the Mastic project, expanding the environmental and economic benefit for those areas.

“Supervisor Romaine and I stand together in support of the reallocation of the sewer funding," Mayor Pontieri said. "In the Village of Patchogue, we are currently in the planning stages to sewer over 500 homes located in environmentally sensitive areas along the Patchogue River and Great South Bay. This will give us the opportunity to sewer additional homes as well as move ahead with upgrades and future expansion of our sewer plant. Local economic growth is tied directly into our sewer infrastructure and it is imperative that we continue to make improvements to our system. I ask the Governor to consider our request, so we can move ahead with these projects.”

Photo: Town of Brookhaven