Suffolk County Water Authority Orient Pipeline Plan – Oct. 2025

At Orient Association’s Oct. 25, 2025 Water Forum, Joe Pokorny, Suffolk County Water Authority Deputy CEO for Operations presented and discussed SCWA’s long term plans for a possible public water pipeline connecting SCWA’s existing water supply in East Marion to certain PFAS affected areas in the Orient Village.

The slideshow accompanying Mr. Pokorny’s presentation can be viewed here.

Mr. Pokorny stated that SCWA is a not-for-profit independent public-benefit corporation, not reliant on taxpayer or investor dollars.

Key points about a prospective Orient pipeline include:

• There is no immediate plan to extend water main to Orient.
• The extension, or “Phase 2”, is being considered in the environmental review to be transparent and incorporate the possible extension in the future.
  • Failing to do this as part of this environmental review could be considered “segmentation”, which is prohibited under SEQRA rules.
• Expansion into Orient would require input from the affected residents and that they cover the cost of the extension
• In some cases, an extension is paid for by third parties.
• Per SCWA rules and regulations, in cases where there is a third party or polluter paying to extend water, the third party is required to pay 100% of the cost.
• The Suffolk County Department of Health Services assesses areas of the county where PFAS contamination may be present. Based on their findings, they create a priority list for public water connection.
• Since 2018, SCWA has been awarded $28 million from federal, state and local governments to connect up to 1,053 homes to high quality public drinking water.
• These grants will reduce or, in some cases, eliminate the cost to connect for these new customers
• Projected cost for an Orient water main is $11m.