Lakeview’s brown water problem becomes public

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At the beginning of the year, County Legislator Siela Bynoe was getting a handful of complaints from Lakeview residents about discolored water. So she started going to different community meetings and asking people if they were having the same problem. “Residents would ask me, ‘How did you know?’” Bynoe recounted. “They thought it was an internal issue within their own home.”

She contacted New York American Water and the Nassau County Health Department, and was told by both that the water was safe to drink and suitable for daily use despite its discoloration. “New York American Water stated they were aware of a problem in a particular part of Lakeview where new single-family dwellings were built — the Meadows at West Hempstead,” Bynoe said. But she soon discovered that it was a much more widespread problem.

So she called a meeting of Lakeview residents and the water company, giving New York American Water executives an opportunity to explain what steps they had already taken and what they planned to do in the future to resolve the problem. “They’re working toward replacing some of the mains, and getting a portable water-filtration plan approved by the Department of Health, which has already been constructed,” Bynoe said.

At the meeting, on March 21, residents from 64 homes signed up to get their water tested. Christopher Buday, vice president of New York American Water, told Newsday recently that the testing would be done after the company’s annual main flushing is complete.

“I think it’s important for families to participate in the water testing program so American Water can become more familiar with the impacted areas,” Bynoe said. “That information would be useful when they lobby the [state’s] Public Service Commission to get the approval and assistance to change the mains, although I can’t imagine that the Public Service Commission would deny the replacement of mains knowing that families are so negatively impacted.”

Bynoe said she planned to work with the Public Service Commission and to contact Malverne Mayor Patricia McDonald to ask for her help.