Dan's Papers - June 13, 2008 - Water, Water Everywhere, But Not From Town

For most of us, our water comes right out of our faucet, clear as day and good enough to drink. You can sip with confidence thanks to the Suffolk County Water Authority, which has been servicing Long Island since 1951. Though not all homes have public water, 27 at Camp Hero in Montauk will be the latest recipients when 8,600 feet of pipe is be laid in September. What does this mean for those 27 homes?

The answer lies in the larger discussion of water throughout the Hamptons: well water (or ground water), public water, and water that is filtered by homeowners. First, it's worth explaining the terms well water and public water, which some people refer to as public water. This is is the best possible option for your home. Public water is provided by the Suffolk County Water Authority, which treats and tests the water they pump in to thousands of homes two to three times a week. A senior clerk at SWCA who requested anonymity said, "Some people have well water, but we're not responsible for that. There is a big benefit to having public water because we monitor the water, making it very safe to drink. I personally would not use well water to drink unless I had it tested constantly. Public water is constantly tested. We have pump stations throughout the area and we shut down pumps at the push of a button if any problem occurs. If you want to get onto the property near a pump station, you have to be authorized. Well water, on the other hand, is left up to the owner to monitor. So if pesticides or other chemicals were to reach your well, the only way we would know about it would be for the owner to call us and have us send out a tester."

Well water is water pumped up from a private well somewhere beneath a homeowner's property, via pipes and an electric powered pump. The key difference between well water and SCWA water is the treatment and the testing. With well water, the onus of responsibility is on the homeowner to have it tested and treated to discover if any chemicals or bacteria have gotten into the well. The trouble with well water is that if there is a problem with it - like a new contaminate - it can go unnoticed, even for years. Although filtering well water has value, it does not necessarily treat the water for chemical or bacterial contamination. So if a homeowner has the option, public water is the way to go for some very obvious reasons.

In East Hampton on Gerard Drive, before SCWA provided service to the road, homeowners would turn on their faucets and rusty colored water would come out. This is because the well water on Gerard Drive contained natural iron and manganese, which are common metallic elements found in the earth's crust. Water percolating through soil and rock can dissolve minerals containing iron and manganese and hold them in solution. Less than 10 years ago, most people on this street, where houses are valued at a million dollars and above, used bottled water for drinking. After a push by local citizens, led by Ray Hartjen, the SCWA laid out some water pipes and sent public water to the homes on Gerard, just as they'll be doing at Camp Hero.

The good news is that it's relatively easy to have your well water tested, and learn about how to mitiagate any problems, by calling the Suffolk County Health Department (631-852-5810). Odds are the well water you use is safe, but it is worth a call and a test to be sure.

Of course, you could petition for town water. Having a large team of scientists and employees testing the water in your house every week is probably better than drinking the water pumped out from your well.

As far as bottled water vs. tap water is concerned, if you are using public water, feel free to drink away. In fact, SCWA water or any source of water that is treated by a public authority is just as safe to drink as bottled water. In some ways, bottled water may be lower in quality than public water because the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the bottled water industry, requires water testing only when the bottling plant is opened. It does not require testing throughout the year. Also, the chemicals in the plastics of bottled water leach out into it. Although bottled water is certainly safe to drink, there's no assurance that the quality is any better than public water. Bottled water should be viewed as a convenience because it is portable, but other than that there is no proven health benefit.