In a move aimed at slowing the overuse of the town’s water supply, the Southold Town Board voted Tuesday night to adopt new water conservation legislation that mandates smart irrigation technology, enforces odd-even watering schedules and phases in regulations for all existing automatic sprinkler systems.
“This is not hypothetical,” Suffolk County Water Authority CEO Jeff Szabo told the board. “The aquifer beneath Southold is at serious risk of saltwater intrusion … and once that happens, the wells are done.”
The legislation, years in the making, was championed by the town’s Water Advisory Committee and backed by the SCWA, which supplies drinking water to more than half of Southold’s population.
“This is a start for water conservation,” said Town Supervisor Al Krupski, “because we know that aquifer is very limited.”
‘Not enough water’
Szabo painted a stark picture of Southold’s water challenges, saying that the SCWA delivered more than 1.4 billion gallons of drinking water to Southold homes and business — straining local wells to the brink, especially in the overnight hours when automatic sprinkler systems turn on en masse.
“There’s simply not enough water in the aquifer under Southold to meet demand during the summer months,” he said. “We’re pumping all of our wells in the entire township just to keep up with irrigation demand.”
At times, he warned, storage tanks in places like Greenport drop to dangerously low levels overnight, leaving only a few feet of water for emergency services and daily use by morning.
“If this continues,” Szabo said, “we run the risk of drawing saltwater into the aquifer, a process that cannot be reversed … The supply is lost permanently.”
The SCWA is in the midst of the environmental review phase of a plan to build a pipeline from Flanders to Laurel, and possibly an additional pipeline installed from East Marion to Orient in the future. Many of Southold’s community and environmental groups are skeptical of the water authority’s plans, concerned that new pipelines could damage fragile local ecosystems and trigger a wave of new development.
(Public comments on this phase of the environmental review are being accepted through Aug 4. Aspects of the plan are outlined on the authority’s website, and comments can be registered here.)
The new legislation requires smart irrigation controllers or rain sensors on all new lawn irrigation systems, while older systems will have to be retrofitted with rain or soil moisture sensors within three years.
The new code also mandates that irrigation systems automatically shut off for two days after half an inch of rainfall — roughly the equivalent of a 30-minute downpour or two to three hours of intermittent rain, Deputy Town Attorney Ben Johnson said at a recent public hearing. During declared periods of extreme heat or weather, the law also empowers the town board to temporarily ban all irrigation townwide.
Enforcement provisions include a warning and 30-day grace period for first-time violators. A second offense could result in fines of up to $1,000.
‘Sacrifices’
While the law restricts residential landscaping irrigation, it exempts agriculture and residential food production and garden centers and nurseries. Krupski noted that the legislation includes language allowing flexibility in the future, should adjustments prove necessary for farming operations or unforeseen hardships.
East Marion resident Linda Goldsmith supported the law but raised concerns about long-term enforcement and whether the town might eventually impose more restrictive measures.
“I want to see that this … can be fluid,” she said. “I’m hoping it doesn’t become more and more restrictive. That’s the only problem I see with the new law.”
Town Councilman Greg Doroski responded: “We do all recognize the risk… but we felt like it was important to get this on the books.”
Anne Murray of the North Fork Environmental Council read prepared remarks from local high school students who had worked on water conservation research during the school year.
“This solution helps people keep their lawns and gardens healthy without wasting water,” wrote student Zoe King. Her classmate Ryan Hornet wrote that “sacrifices must be made to allow enough of this precious resource to be safe to use for everyone who needs it.”
‘A metric moving forward’
Some expressed concern over technical ambiguities in the legislation and requested clarification on certain definitions, including how the law might treat droughts followed by light rain, or whether the town might one day restrict which plants residents can grow based on water use.
Krupski said that the legislation was crafted in consultation with irrigation professionals and that most modern smart systems can combine rain sensors and timers in a single unit. He also said that the town is open to revisiting the legislation if it proves unduly burdensome or ineffective.
“There’s no surety in anything,” the supervisor said, referencing ongoing studies of regional aquifers. “But this is a quantifiable, limited public resource, and we have a responsibility to protect it.”
Councilwoman Jill Doherty said she opposes the creation of legislation that’s not practically enforceable, and was the dissenting vote in the 4-1 passage of the legislation, with Councilwoman Louisa Evans absent.
“The good actors are going to do what they’re going to do whether they have code or not,” Doherty said. “The bad actors, they’re just going to be bad actors and I don’t see us enforcing this.”
Doroski said “this is a classic example of we can’t let the perfect get in the way of the good — and it’s good that we are going to conserve more water.”
While code enforcement officers will be responsible for issuing warnings and violations, the law will largely rely on the town’s network of professional irrigation installers, who activate, maintain and adjust systems each year for homeowners.
“These are the professionals,” Krupski said. “They have a great deal of interest in water conservation.”
Szabo said SCWA has already invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in public awareness campaigns, rebates and conservation outreach, but voluntary compliance has fallen short. That’s why, he said, a legal mechanism is now necessary.
“We believe [this law] will help stabilize use, preserve pressure and storage capacity and slow the march of saltwater intrusion,” Szabo said.
(The day after the legislation passed, the SCWA issued a Stage 1 water alert due to “elevated demand and low tank levels.”)
Organic farmer Tom Stevenson of Orient, who irrigates with drip lines and dry farming methods, said he opposes the legislation but supports educating homeowners.
“Education is the biggest thing you could do,” he said. “I haven’t found anyone who really just wants to be proud of wasting as much water as they can.”
His comments also prompted the Town Board to restore a provision requiring contractors to provide written certification of compliance to homeowners—language that had been inadvertently omitted from the final draft.
As the hearing drew to a close, Water Advisory Committee member Caroline Yates praised the legislation and urged the town to go further in the future by banning watering between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., when most water is lost to evaporation.
“This will give us a metric moving forward,” she said. “Aspirationally, we hope to reduce water use during critical times of the day by up to 50%.”
Southold is the first town in Suffolk County to pass a smart irrigation law, but similar measures are on the books in some Nassau County towns. The Port Washington and Roslyn Water Districts require smart controllers on all new irrigation systems starting in 2025, while Plainview mandates rain sensors on all systems.
“This is our aquifer,” Krupski said. “It’s the only one we’ve got.”