Craig Johnson

The topic of brown water was on tap at a hearing Monday morning at the Elmont Library, with irate residents packing a meeting room to air what, in many cases, are 30-year grievances.

The issue, which homeowners in Elmont and Franklin Square have long been familiar with, is the occasional brown — or black — tap water flowing from area faucets. State Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Garden City) organized the hearing after getting multiple reports of the reappearance of undrinkable water in many homes.

The issue was raised in March, in a letter written by Joyce Stowe of the Tudor Manor Civic Association. Johnson received conflicting reports about the seriousness of the issue from the Water Authority of Western Nassau County and the Nassau County Department of Health.

Testimony early in the hearing from the heads of three local civic associations painted an ugly picture of the problem. Pat Nicolosi, head of the Elmont East End Civic Association, said he has been fighting brown water in his neighborhood since he moved there in 1977, and that the problem has gotten progressively worse every year. Nicolosi said that even with the use of filters and top-of-the-line water boilers, he still sometimes travels to the home of a family member in the Bronx and bottles water to use later.

Nicolosi was joined by Mimi Pierre-Johnson of the Argo Civic group and Stowe, both of whom said that their water quality varied, but was always somewhere near the troublesome end of the spectrum — and sometimes simply disgusting. Stowe brought with her what became the hearing’s most troubling prop, a container filled with a thick brown liquid that she said came out of her tap.

“This is the water that came out of your tap,” Johnson said, holding the container in his left hand, “and this is the coffee I’m drinking this morning,” he continued, holding up a clear cup with his right. Both liquids were an opaque brown, and residents laughed and applauded at the comparison. Stowe, however, said she didn’t think the brown water was a joke. “Our water supplies come from four wells along Elmont Road,” she said. “In the area there is runoff from gas stations, dry-cleaning businesses, pesticides, that fall into these wells. I take it that the [Belmont] racetrack runoff goes there, too.”

For answers, Johnson turned to Robert Swartz, chief engineer for the water authority. Swartz, who answered questions for roughly half an hour, gave short answers, and often angered residents who said that the facts contradicted his testimony.

After Swartz claimed that two representatives of his organization are tasked with going door to door to notify residents of a “pipe-flushing” in the area — an annual pipe-clearing that sometimes stirs up debris — a chorus of residents accused him of being misinformed, or of lying altogether.

Swartz said that the infrastructure in the area is 90 year old in some places, and that Elmont and Franklin Square have pipes that could be as old as 70 years, though many areas of Franklin Square had their pipes replaced when brown water became an issue last year.

For many residents, the most upsetting revelation was Swartz’s acknowledgment that the water authority had closed a number of wells in the Elmont area because of contamination. “Two of the wells recently went over the [contamination] limit — those are wells we use more in the summer,” Swartz said. “Years ago we had more wells available to us. Over the past couple of years we’ve lost four or five wells due to contamination that never had contamination before.”

Johnson, using the water authority’s own reports, questioned Swartz about the contamination of untreated well water, and Swartz admitted that of the six wells serving Elmont, four had been tested — when untreated — and were contaminated.

Residents said that all they really wanted was a permanent solution to their problems, in the form of a functioning treatment plant and a replacement of the aging pipes in the area. The most eyebrow-raising moment of the hearing came when Johnson asked Swartz if he would drink or bathe in the brown water that the authority had supplied to residents in the area. “Most of the time, it doesn’t look like that,” Swartz said, before claiming that he had drunk discolored water in the past.

Johnson, incredulous, said he didn’t believe Swartz and rephrased the question, holding the container of brown liquid in front of him. “I can’t say I would drink it, but I would bathe in it,” Swartz said to laughter from the crowd. He also said that the reddish-brown water — often riddled with particulates — that many residents said they had seen almost always resulted from high iron content, not pollution.

The hearing also included testimony from Robert Girillo of the Nassau County Department of Health.

Ultimately, residents said, they were hopeful that some compromise could be reached to ensure that local water was safe, and that the issue finally could be put behind them. “If the county needs money, I’m hoping that the state will be able to facilitate somehow, because for water treatment we can’t wait another year,” Pierre-Johnson said, adding that she was upset that the problem has persisted for so long.

“I’m really mad that the water authority knew this hearing was going to happen, and they sent someone who didn’t really give us any answers,” she said. “From 1980 they knew there was a problem with contamination, but they didn’t think it was important enough to investigate with the state?”

Nicolosi said he hoped a solution comes soon. “I hope something good comes out of this, because our water is horrible here,” he said.

Johnson's office is still anxious to hear from residents about their water quality, and urged constituents to send written testimony to johnson@senate.state.ny.us, or mail it to his office at 151 Herricks Road, Suite 202, Garden City Park, NY, 11040.

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