Williston Park’s Board of Trustees passed a law to raise water rates by 33% on Monday night after a heavily attended public hearing in which residents complained they had received little notice.
The increase, which will apply to Williston Park and East Williston residents who both use the village’s water, are to fund the planning and construction of new filtration systems to bring the village into compliance with new federal water quality regulations, Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehbar said.
During the public comment portion of the hearing, which lasted for over an hour, residents said they were concerned about what they felt was a lack of information shared with them about the project and the short period of time between the public hearing and the rate increase.
Multiple residents said they had only learned of the rate raise a few weeks ago, with one East Williston resident, Mike, stating the closeness of the hearing and the start of the rate increase did not allow the board to reflect on the public’s comments.
“Everything that we say is really for show, because you’re not going to factor anything into what we have to say, because you’re going to go ahead with March 1, no matter what,” he said.
East Williston Mayor Bonnie Parente said she was also only informed of the increase a few weeks ago.
Other major concerns residents expressed regarded the village’s uncertainty about where exactly the filtration systems would be built and exactly how large they would be, whether the new filtration systems were truly necessary, and the volatility of the current federal government, which has recently removed other federal regulations.
To comply with the new Environmental Protection Agency standards, which require the drinking water to have less than four parts per trillion of PFAS chemicals by 2029, the village will need to install granular activated carbon filtration systems at its three wells that supply drinking water to Willison Park and East Williston, Ehbar said.
The filtration systems will bring PFAS chemicals, which can cause serious health problems, down to untraceable levels, said William Merklin, an engineer the village is working with, in a presentation on the rate raise during Monday’s hearing.
A median residential user, which the village described as a household that uses 17,000 gallons of water a year, can expect to pay an additional $115.60 annually, stated a water study report by NewGen Strategies and Solution, a consulting firm the village worked with to draw up the plans for this rate increase.
Ehbar emphasized that the board did not want to raise the water rates and that they were only doing it because it was necessary to comply with federal regulations.
The mayor said the board was working to obtain federal and state grants to help pay for the filtration systems to take the burden off residents, stating they had already received one state and one federal grant totaling $10 million.
Merklin said that the filtration systems will be near to each of the wells, however, that it was not possible to know their exact locations and dimensions until further planning – which the increased rates are needed to pay for – occurs.
He said it was likely that the filtration system for two of the village’s wells would be near Old Motor Parkway and the filtration system for the village’s third well will be placed at the corner of Sheridan and Pennsylvania Avenues.
“None of us want to spend any more money than we have to. It’s something we’re required to do, and we’re doing it begrudgingly,” Ehbar said.
