Village of Kensington, NY Drilling Into Subsurface Water Sources

The State Legislature has found that the potable water for the northern portion of the Great Neck peninsula is derived from aquifers which are the sole source of water for all of Long Island and that the issues of contamination and conservation of the aquifers and the need to better manage the groundwater system on the Great Neck peninsula, which had been operated by a private utility in 1985, were of such statewide concern that the State Legislature created the Water Authority of Great Neck North. It was the hope of the State Legislature that said Authority would not only protect, preserve and enhance the quality and quantity of the water within its supply area, but that it would also serve as a model and as a leader of other water suppliers to better manage, conserve and protect the groundwaters within and outside its supply areas. The said Authority, after investigating water conservation, regulation, and management programs, has recommended that all of the municipalities within, or partially within, the Water Authority of Great Neck North District adopt regulations prohibiting persons from drilling, digging or tapping into any aquifers or other subsurface source of water because of the possibility of contamination to the aquifer systems; pumping, which could adversely affect salt water intrusion into the public supply wells; and unregulated overpumping, which could adversely deplete supply facilities and the delicate balancing of the pumping from public supply wells.

This Board has determined that it would be in the best interest of the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the Village to adopt said water conservation regulations.