Hearing on Camp Hero Water

Long-awaited improvement in the water at 27 houses at Montauk’s Camp Hero will be in sight at a public hearing at  East HamptonTown Hall tonight on the reconstruction of the water system there at a cost of $200,000.

Residents of Camp Hero, a former Air Force Base transferred to the town in 1984, have coped with brownish, undrinkable water and stained clothing for years. At one point, the water was found to be contaminated and daily deliveries became necessary. Even now, homeowners are advised to run cold water for at least three minutes each morning before using it.

Relief will come at a cost to homeowners, who will be responsible through a special taxing district for the debt service on bonds the town expects to authorize for the work following the hearing.

East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said in an email this week that the cost to households on a debt of $200,000 for 20 years at 2.5-percent interest would be about $480 per year. However, he said his figures were estimates and the cost could be lower, or $330 per year, if the term of the bonds was 30 years.

The work planned includes reconstruction of the the facility’s upper and lower pump stations, its leaching pools, other furnishings or equipment as found necessary, and related engineering and other costs.

The Suffolk Water Authority monitors the site daily, having taken it over from the town on the condition that the system be updated. Lombardo Associates subsequently designed the project, which is an unlisted action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, based on an evaluation that the environmental impact on the area, which is about a mile west of the Montauk Lighthouse, will be negligible.

 “It has had continuing problems that will now be addressed through this bond authorization,” East Hampton Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby said in a message yesterday.