Southampton Village's sewer plan runs afoul of dog park enthusiasts

Southampton Village officials have unveiled a plan to build a downtown sewage treatment facility, a proposal they say is critical to improving water quality and allowing new apartments.

The sewer plant would be in the village's business district, behind its firehouse and police headquarters on Windmill Lane. But a group of residents have objected to the plan because it requires the village turn a dog park there into leach fields, where treated wastewater is released into the ground. The village plans to build a new dog park down the street. 

Mayor Bill Manger said the plan is a breakthrough in the long-running effort to build a sewer system following a lengthy search for a suitable site.

“We realized that after years and years of the village existing here with basically only cesspools and septic systems, we’re just really polluting our groundwater and our bays and lakes and shoreline,” Manger said in an interview.

Toxic blue-green algal blooms are prevalent in water bodies in and around Southampton Village, according to a recent Stony Brook University water quality report. That includes Lake Agawam, the 65-acre lake in the village's center.

Sewers and advanced septic systems can prevent those blooms by reducing the nitrogen from wastewater that goes into the ground, environmental advocates and village officials contend. Manger said the hope is for the plant to open by 2030.

Sewers would also allow for expanded development, including more apartments, Manger said. Second-story apartments above many businesses cannot be rented because they are not connected to sewers, he said.

Manger said he hopes those apartments add housing affordable for middle-class residents who work in the village, such as teachers and police officers. 

Legal challenge

The plan requires the village to relocate Lola Prentice Dog Park on Windmill Lane to a nearby property. Five residents who live near the park have sued to block the plan to convert it into leach fields.

“If you wake up one morning and you read the paper and there's a protected park in your neighborhood that your village says is going to become a sewer plant, it's kind of shocking,” Jason Berg, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed March 27 in Suffolk State Supreme Court, said in an interview. 

The park is adjacent to several houses and frequently used by residents, Berg said.

"It's part of the community," he added.

The Southampton School District gifted the park property to the village in 1962. In 2019, a judge ruled in a separate court case that the property could only be used for recreational and educational purposes. The plaintiffs are asking the court to prevent the village from using it now to build a sewer plant.

A separate petition by the same plaintiffs asks the court to find the  village and its trustees in contempt for violating the 2019 ruling and the court's injunction.

 The lawsuit also charges that th e  village failed to study the project’s environmental impacts under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The village recently began that process after the lawsuit was filed. 

Village trustees have hired an outside law firm to defend the case. Manger declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Land transfer

The cost of the plant is expected to range from $60 million to $65 million, Manger said. Officials said they hope to use town, county and state grants to help finance it.

Southampton Town is helping the village with the project. The town plans to use $3.4 million from its Community Preservation Fund to buy the office building used by The Express News Group next to the Rogers Memorial Library. The office building would be demolished, and the park would be built on that property. The village would operate the land under an agreement with the town, Manger said.

The State Legislature must sign off on a plan to remove parkland protections from the dog park and transfer them to the new property, Manger said.