A group of Long Island homeowners living with contaminated well water are finally set to be connected to the public supply, thanks to a new injection of federal money. According to News 12, more than two million dollars in federal funding will be used to connect homes in the Riverhead and Calverton area to the water supply, addressing a problem that residents say had been left unresolved for too long.
The funding is aimed at a specific cluster of properties. The money will go toward connecting 28 homes around River Road, a pocket of the community whose water situation had put it at the center of long-running concerns about contamination in the area.
Those homes sit in the path of a known source of pollution. According to News 12, the 28 properties are located south of a plume coming from the old Grumman site in Calverton, and it is that plume that has been tied to the trouble with the local groundwater relied upon by the households nearby.
The contamination at issue involves so-called forever chemicals. The residents' private wells had become contaminated with PFAS, a class of chemicals that has been linked to health concerns and that has driven efforts across Long Island and beyond to get affected households off tainted well water and onto treated public systems.
For the people who live there, the announcement carried a strong sense of vindication. Residents on River Road said they felt they had been forgotten and pushed off to the side while other people in the area got connected, and expressed relief that the funding would finally bring them a long-awaited solution sooner rather than later.
One resident captured the significance of the moment in simple terms, saying they were looking forward to drinking that first cup of water straight from their own tap, a basic comfort that the contamination had taken away. With the money now secured, officials said the work to connect the homes is expected to begin next year.