ROSLYN WATER DISTRICT: PROFILE
The Roslyn Water District serves all of the Villages of Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, East Hills, & portions of Roslyn Heights, Roslyn Harbor, Flower Hill, North Hills, Greenvale, Albertson, Glenwood Landing and Port Washington.
◦ In 2019 Roslyn Water District pumped 1.2 billion gallons: February was lowest at 53.5 million gallons and July was the highest at 180.7 million gallons, Max day was July 30th 6.6 million gallons
◦ The Roslyn Water District serves 5,804 residential and commercial customers in a 5.1 square mile area.
◦ The estimated population within the District is 17,900. An additional 1,800 people are served by the District in Albertson and Glenwood Landing.
◦ In 2018, the District pumped a total of 1.26 billion gallons of water: July pumpage was highest at 188,146 million gallons and February was the lowest at 54,962 million gallons.
◦ Maximum daily usage was 6.624 million gallons on July 30, 2019.
◦ In case of a water emergency the District has eight supply interconnections with four neighboring districts — Old Westbury, Albertson, Jericho and Port Washington, with an available capacity of is about 2 million gallons a day.
◦ The District’s transmission-distribution system consists of about 90 miles of 6 to 20 inch water mains.
◦ Every gallon of water consumed by District users is recorded by computer and billed accordingly.
◦ The Roslyn Water District is one of the oldest public water suppliers on Long Island, having been established in 1910.
◦ All of our water comes from underground wells. Unlike New York City, Long Island does not use reservoir water nor have a surface water system.
Some Facts About Roslyn
Your Roslyn Water District Commissioners encourage all residents to be aware of the benefits derived with the continued operation of the Roslyn Water District.
◦ The RWD provides service 24/7/365. Whenever a problem develops, you have fast service from a staff that is well trained and available.
◦ The Board of Commissioners is elected by you. All three commissioners are residents of the District.
◦ The money you pay in taxes and water rates stays in the District. It does not go to a larger entity for selective redistribution.
◦ The average annual cost for water service per household is $240.52 in taxes and $386.73 per year in metered water. This averages $1.50 day.
◦ All money collected is used for the operation, supplies and maintenance required of the District. The District regularly reinvests in infrastructure, preventative maintenance and service upgrades without borrowing or paying interest.
◦ The Roslyn Water District performs 30 to 40 service calls per week for residents of the District.
◦ The District performs hundreds of inspections and tests per year for more than 100 potential contaminants. (Click here to see full list of non-detected contaminants in the AWQR).
Background on the Roslyn Water District
Commissioner Sanford E. Klein has produced a significant paper on the history, organization, current operations and future needs of the Roslyn Water District.
Getting all the water you need is not as simple as turning on a faucet.
Unlike the choices homeowners can make regarding gas or electric for heating and cooking, there is no substitute for water. Nor is there any more efficient means of delivering water to our area residents than a public water system.
The Roslyn Water District system may be regarded as a complex system consisting of multiple moving parts. It is subject to the immutable laws of physics and chemistry, operates under strict governmental rules and regulations, requires sound financing and is dependent on an adequate supply of water and a reliable energy source to operate the equipment necessary to deliver water to you. The balance of this report contains a detailed discussion of why each of these items has a bearing on the Board’s decisions and on you.
The Roslyn Water District’s mission is to provide a safe and reliable supply of high quality drinking water at a reasonable price to the residents within the water district service area and has done so since its founding more than 100 years ago. Periodic upgrades and modernization programs have been implemented over the years to address the changing characteristics and population growth of our service area and the multiple requirements of our system. We are aware that most people probably give scant thought to the physical and financial requirements of getting water to their homes and businesses, perhaps because water is always there when needed – even during severe storms – and perhaps because it is relatively inexpensive. Since 1997, the District has developed a series of strategic five year plans to guide its operations. Now, due to the growing impact of increasing lawn irrigation that severely strains our system during peak demand times, as well as additional and more stringent governmental regulations and the effects of an aging infrastructure, the District commissioned a new strategic plan to facilitate present and future planning.
Background
The Roslyn Water District was created in 1910, as a special improvement District of the Town of North Hempstead. The District services the Incorporated Villages of Roslyn, Roslyn Estates, East Hills and portions of the incorporated Villages of North Hills, Flower Hill, and Roslyn Harbor. Unincorporated areas of the Town of North Hempstead are also within the boundaries of the District and include Greenvale, Port Washington and a portion of Roslyn Heights. The District also sells water to the Glenwood Water District which has no sources of supply of its own, serving approximately 194 accounts and to 74 accounts in the Albertson Water District. The service area of the Roslyn Water District encompasses approximately 5.1 square miles. Its current source of water supply is from 7 individual deep wells distributed throughout the service area on seven separate sites and eight common suction wells located on a single well field. The District also includes three tanks presently out of service for installing (GAC) Granular Activated Carbon treatment. Well #4 is currently out of service for needed Air Stripping Treatment installation. The District also includes three storage tanks, three booster pumping stations, and approximately 93 miles of buried water mains of varying sizes and ages. The Roslyn Water District supplies water to over 5,804 active accounts, servicing approximately 17,900 residents plus approximately 1,800 residents in the Albertson and Glenwood Districts.
Of particular interest from an engineering perspective is that the District is hilly, ranging in elevation from approximately 11.5 to 357 feet above Mean Sea Level. The highest elevations are located in the areas of Tara Drive, Diana’s Trail and Birch and Cypress Drive. The lowest portions are located around Hempstead Harbor. The range in elevation is too great to operate the entire system on one pressure zone without experiencing excessive pressures in the low elevation areas and/or inadequate pressures in the high elevation areas. To resolve this issue there are booster pump stations within the higher elevations of the District.
The District requires adequate financial resources to operate. Its main sources of revenue come from water usage rates and a portion of property taxes. The Town of North Hempstead is responsible for approving the District’s budget and to collect real property taxes on behalf of the District. The District is responsible for maintaining its own debt service and approving any long-term borrowings by guaranteeing its full faith and credit through bonds.
The decision-making authority of the District is vested in the Board of Commissioners, consisting of three (3) members, each of whom is elected on a staggered basis for a term of three (3) years by the residents who reside within the boundaries of the District. The Commissioners are required by law to reside within the boundaries of the District. Consequently all actions of the Board affect them as well.
Where We Get Our Water
The Roslyn Water District, and most other Long Island Districts, obtains its water from deep wells in the Magothy aquifer - one of the three distinct aquifers that underlie the District and Long Island.
The sole source of groundwater replenishment for Long Island aquifers is precipitation. The District receives a yearly average of 47 inches of precipitation, half of which eventually percolates through the soil to the water table. This equates to a yield of water recharge into the aquifers under the Roslyn Water District’s boundaries of approximately 2.22 billion gallons per year.
Over the last 14 years, the District has withdrawn an average of 1.26 billion gallons per year, which is 43% less than the recharge to the aquifers. Therefore, there is a net increase in the water stored in the aquifer.
If properly maintained and conserved our water supply should be capable of meeting all foreseeable future demands.
However, groundwater contamination is a concern for all. Even bottled water suppliers that source their water from wells face the same issue. On Long Island, farm and lawn fertilization, pesticide application, septic systems and contaminants from industrial chemical spills seep into the ground and eventually enter the aquifers. These are dealt with through effective and highly regulated methods and are subject to constant and stringent monitoring methods devised by Federal, State and Local authorities.
How We Deliver Our Water
Wells are operated and monitored by a sophisticated computerized SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system that pumps water into one or more of the three storage facilities within the District. The water is then treated and delivered throughout the District. The District’s supply sources are scattered throughout the distribution network, thereby effectively reducing the size of the transmission main system.
Water is stored in a public water system for several reasons. Among the major reasons for storage is: to establish and maintain uniform pressures in the distribution system, reducing the number of wells which would be required during peak demand periods and providing a reserve supply in the event of a fire or short-term power failure.
Regulatory Requirements
Historically, the water quality found on Long Island has been exceptionally good, but due to the reasons cited above, water quality has been impacted in many areas throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
The Federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) combined with implementation of stricter New York State Sanitary Code regulations has imposed ever increasingly stricter compliance standards upon public water suppliers to assure the public of a continued safe water supply.
Current Improvements and Future Needs Analysis
Based on statistical analyses, projections for water use will increase requiring modifications and upgrades to the system.
Among the completed projects are:
◦ Adding a gas-fired generator at one pump station to provide power during an emergency.
◦ Connection of the Tara Drive tank to the low-pressure zone, requiring facility modification and a half-mile of new transmission mains.
◦ Air stripper tower installations for water treatment.
◦ Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) installation for water treatment.
Future Needs
The strategic plan ordered by the District provides a basis for forecasting estimated revenues for budgetary purposes and the need for supplementary funding to implement the recommendations of our engineers.
Among the plan’s recommended projects are:
◦ An additional new well to account for increased demand.
◦ Purchase of land and erection of facilities for a new well.
◦ Reconstruction of existing wells.
◦ Additional treatment facilities to comply with existing and anticipated regulations. More specifically, Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) and Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) treatment systems at Well 4 and GAC at Well 5
◦ Rehabilitation of existing storage tanks.
◦Rehabilitation and upgrading of the pressure booster pumping stations.
◦ Distribution system upgrades.
Funding
The two primary sources of the District’s revenue are water sales and taxation. The projects discussed above will be funded from three distinct components of the District’s finances (General Fund, Reserve Fund and funds from Town Bonds).
The cost for annually occurring projects such as well rehabilitation are considered operating expenses and included in the annual operating budget. Other projects are part of the capital program.
Budget & Bonding
The District’s budget includes items such as:
(1) salaries and benefits; (2) office equipment maintenance and scheduled replacement; (3) administrative expenses; (4) repairs and maintenance of operating equipment; (5) tools, parts and supplies; (6) water analysis and treatment; (7) treatment chemical costs (8) trucks and service equipment; (9) fuel; (10) debt service; and (11) repairs.