Sag Harbor Receives Grant for Sewage Line Expansion From Southampton Town

Sag Harbor Village has learned belatedly that Southampton Town has awarded it $2.34 million in funding for a major expansion of the coverage area for its sewage treatment plant.

Trustee Aidan Corish, who oversees both the treatment plant and grant applications for the Village Board, said the Town Board approved the grant request on October 25, but did not inform the village that it was one of 11 projects to receive a share of $6.66 million in funding that was awarded.

The village is waiting to learn from New York State if it has received the necessary matching grants in the 2022 round of funding before it can go out to bid on the work. Corish said it is possible that the state will reject the funding request this year because the village did not have the necessary local matching funds in place by the state’s deadline in July. He said he was hoping to receive an answer early this month. If the state rejects the application, Corish said he was confident it would approve funding in the coming year.

“It solidifies the project,” Corish said of the Southampton grant award. “It has now been vetted by the water quality committees of both towns.”

The Southampton grant will be added to another $1.3 million in funding obtained from East Hampton Town earlier in 2022.

Both town grants are from the respective towns’ Community Preservation Funds, which allow 20 percent of the revenues they generate to be used for water quality projects.

For several years, the village, citing excess capacity at the sewage treatment plant, has sought to connect more private residences to sewage lines, to reduce the amount of pollution seeping from residential septic systems into the groundwater and bay.

As part of a sewage treatment master plan, the village has been divided into 16 sewer sheds, with those closest to the harbor or in the lowest-lying areas identified as priorities. The grant money received from the towns will cover work in two of those zones.

One of those sewer sheds, Zone L, runs from Bay Street to Division Street and is mostly in East Hampton Town, although several homes on its route are in Southampton Town. The other sewer shed, Zone K, covers the area behind the municipal parking lot behind Main Street from Meadow Street to Spring and Garden Streets.