On sweltering summer mornings, while sprinklers spin atop freshly cut lawns, showers are taken and pools are filled across the North Fork, officials at the Suffolk County Water Authority hold their breath. Tara Smith reports in NEWSDAY that seasonal overpumping, driven by irrigation, puts the agency in the “danger zone” in Southold, threatening water quality and capacity for emergencies. Water usage in the Town of Southold has nearly doubled in the past two decades, according to data provided by the agency.

The water authority is proposing a new $35 million pipeline to pump water from the pine barrens north and then northeast to Southold Town on the North Fork as it tries to keep pace with demand. The proposal has sparked debate over conservation and development pressure in the region.

The pipeline, which officials hope to complete by 2030, would stretch 8.5 miles from Flanders in Southampton to the Southold town line, bringing up to 6,000 gallons per minute to boost supply and reduce stress on existing public wells. A second proposed phase would extend public water 3.8 miles from East Marion to Orient, the easternmost tip of the fork. The Suffolk County Water Authority is in the process of conducting an environmental review. Tensions over the proposal were on full display at a recent community forum in Peconic. There, Southold residents, environmental groups and elected officials said the increased demand for water shows a dire need for conservation — and that supplying more water could be a catalyst for development on the North Fork. About 70% of water pumped in the summer is for irrigation.

Surging demand at peak summer periods puts stress on the water supply, according to the Suffolk County Water Authority, which serves 9,500 properties in Southold from about 60 shallow wells. Straining the supply puts the wells at risk from saltwater intrusion and other contaminants and places the agency in the “danger zone,” Jeff Szabo, the authority's CEO, said in an interview.

The pipeline would allow water to be pumped from the "South Shore Low Zone" in the Town of Southampton, an area with deeper supply, officials said.

“Every morning, the area I’m concerned about is the North Fork, because when it’s hot … we have every well running,” Szabo said. “Our tanks are draining down to, at times, just a couple of feet.”

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An affordable housing developer who has worked with Southampton and East Hampton towns on several previous projects has proposed building a 40-unit rental apartment complex with a ground-floor retail space in Riverside. Georgica Green Ventures, a Jericho-based development firm, has applied to the Southampton Town Community Housing Fund for a $2.4 million grant to help cover the purchase cost of about an acre of land off Flanders Road near the Riverside traffic circle. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Southampton Town Board will hold a public hearing on the CHF grant request on August 12 at 1 p.m. The town’s Community Housing Fund Advisory Committee has recommended that the town grant the funding award. The Community Housing Fund draws revenues from a half-percent sales tax on most real estate transactions and earmarks it for housing-related funding programs intended to increase the supply of residential units affordable to low and middle income residents increasingly priced out of the south fork housing market by soaring prices driven by second-home and investment markets. The project will not move forward until the planned Riverside sewage treatment plant is completed. The apartments would be built on three properties that Gerogica Green plans to purchase at 47 Flanders Road, just steps from the Riverside traffic circle and on the fringes of the land that the Town of Southampton has targeted to anchor the revitalization of the Riverside hamlet.

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This Saturday – tomorrow - is a chance to explore the 20 varied demonstration gardens planted by Cornell Cooperative Extension Gardeners at the annual Open House at Cornell’s Long Island Horticultural Research Center, 3059 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

Explore the 20 varied demonstration gardens planted and maintained for Long Island Horticultural Research Center tomorrow from 10 AM – 3 PM.

This free event features workshops, demonstrations, wagon rides, and tours of the gardens led by experienced and master gardeners.

There is also a plant sale with excellent prices for finishing off your gardens.

Rain or shine.

Tomorrow from 10 AM – 3 PM at Cornell’s Long Island Horticultural Research Center, 3059 Sound Avenue in Riverhead.

And it’s Free.

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A proposed 81-room hotel at the site of the former Capital One Bank headquarters in Mattituck will now be able to go forward with review by the Southold Town Planning Board, after the Southold Town Board unanimously granted a waiver from its ongoing hotel moratorium this week. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that the Southold Town Board on May 28 had extended a one-year moratorium on consideration of hotel development proposals while the town undergoes a zoning update. The moratorium is now in effect until June of 2026. But the owners of the sprawling bank building, Alan Cardinale’s limited liability company, 9025 Main Road LLC, this spring requested a waiver from that moratorium, arguing that the project is an adaptive reuse of a blighted building, and that, as currently designed, it would meet the requirements of the newly proposed zoning code. They have been looking to develop a hotel at that site since at least 2018. Past design proposals have included as many as 200 rooms, and a proposal for an indoor water park, which were roundly criticized by many in Mattituck. The request was the subject of two public hearings in May. The Southold Town Board granted the waiver for the Mattituck Hotel with four conditions — that the proposal “be subject to all code requirements in existence at the time of the final site plan determination, that it contain a “maximum of 81 rooms,” that the applicants “adhere to their pledge that no request for Suffolk County IDA property and/or school tax abatements will be requested,” and that “consideration of on-site resident management and/or employees is deferred to planning review.” The proposed new town zoning code would allow employee housing on commercial property.

The project will now go to the Southold Town Planning Board for review.

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More than two dozen Long Island water suppliers will get $250 million as part of a sprawling multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement against 3M, a manufacturer of toxic PFAS "forever chemicals," water district officials said this week. Tracy Tullis reports in NEWSDAY that districts received the first round of payouts last week and more will flow in later this year and over the next 11 years, according to Robert McEvoy, chair of the Long Island Water Conference, a trade group for local suppliers, and commissioner of the Oyster Bay Water District, which is party to the suit.

The Suffolk County Water Authority announced it will receive $34 million and more will be paid out until 2033.

It wasn't immediately clear how the payouts would affect ratepayers.

"We’re gratified to be receiving this award, and to see a major polluter of our aquifer be held to account for their actions," SCWA chair Charlie Lefkowitz said in a statement.

The Suffolk County Water Authority did not respond to a question about whether $80-per-year surcharges added to customers' bills in 2019 to help pay for PFAS treatment would continue. In total, 3M will pay $10.5 billion to water utilities across the country.

The money will help defray the costs of installing and maintaining treatment systems to remove PFAS compounds from drinking water.

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Major work on a heavily trafficked Riverhead road is set to begin Monday morning. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the Riverhead Town Highway Department will be repaving two stretches of Middle Road in Riverhead, Northville Turnpike to Roanoke Avenue and Osborn Avenue to Mill Road. The road will be closed to most traffic in those areas while the project is underway this coming Monday and Tuesday. It is expected to take two days to complete, Highway Superintendent Mike Zaleski said today. “We’re asking people who live on Middle Road in those areas to try and get shopping and errands done ahead of time,” Zaleski said. The highway department will have crew members at all intersections to assist residents. “I know it’s an inconvenience but it’s very important to get this done,” the highway superintendent said. “Starting Monday they will grind everything down, and on Tuesday they will pave,” Zaleski said. Paving work by nature is weather-dependent, so the project will be postponed in case of inclement weather. As of now, there is no rain in the forecast for Monday…a 30 percent chance of showers Tuesday morning in Riverhead according to weather.com.

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About three million New Yorkers rely on food stamps, and around 10 percent could lose them because of changes in the new law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, officials say. Over the next decade, it is expected to cause 22.3 million families nationwide to lose all or some of their benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP or food stamps, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research group. The law also includes about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, many for the wealthy. “It’s just a given that a civilized society would want to take care of people who are struggling to put food on their table,” Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, told THE NY TIMES. “To see that all unwound for the sole purpose of ensuring there was more money to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires is beyond unconscionable — it’s cruel.”

Sarah Maslin Nir reports in THE NY TIMES that New York State administrators say they are still trying to understand the full implications of the law for SNAP. Preliminary data from the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which oversees the program, shows that some 400,000 New Yorkers may no longer be exempt from work requirements; 300,000 of them might lose benefits entirely. The fallout is expected to be wide-ranging, experts said, affecting businesses from urban bodegas to rural farm stands that rely on customers who use SNAP.

Anna Kelly, a spokeswoman for the White House, said the tax savings in the bill “will put more money in New Yorkers’ pockets and support families across the state…The One, Big, Beautiful Bill restores common-sense work requirements to SNAP for able-bodied recipients to work, volunteer or take classes.”

1st Congrfessional District Rep. Nick LaLota (Republican – Amityville) in an e-mail to constituents writes, “…work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid and SNAP…do not apply to seniors, pregnant women, or people with disabilities...One Big Beautiful Bill Act isn’t about punishment. It’s about restoring the dignity of work—making sure government assistance helps people get back on their feet, not stay stuck in dependency. Both parties supported this approach when President Clinton was in office. I’m proud we brought it back,” states U.S. Congressman Nick LaLota.