Dear Neighbors,

Unfortunately our water chlorides levels have more than doubled in November after steadily going down from the elevated Summer levels. Well #1 is at 255 and Well #2 is at 376. SCWA can’t point to a specific reason for this, but we know that there has been additional pumping demand in the past weeks as we have been supplying water to two tanks while we worked to get Health Department approval for the new tank. Now that the old tank is off-line, and we are in the off season, the demands will diminish and chloride levels should improve. As we’ve stated many times, improving our water infrastructure and quality is our #1 priority. Patrick and the SCWA have been working diligently with the DEC on long term solutions, which include digging new wells. They are meeting here on Tuesday to identify sites for three new wells after months of conference calls and planning sessions. Patrick will have a comprehensive update for the December 8th meeting, including the ongoing work to complete the punch list for the new water tank, remove the existing tank, finance all of this work and investigate financing for moving forward.

If you all knew how many hours Patrick and the SCWA have put into this effort they would be first on your list of “thank you’s” for the holiday.

In the small victories column I just received my first UPS delivery using my Harbor Lane address, and Harbor Lane has replaced Shore Road in Waze as well as Google Maps. Both sites have also been updated to correctly show “Locus Point Road” instead of “Locus Road” as it was previously listed, and references to Dering Harbor being in Shelter Island Heights have been removed. We’ve been told these changes may take a few days to push through to all mobile apps in the area, but my apps are already reflecting the changes.

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving,

Betsy