The owners of a Cutchogue farm are being required to extend a Suffolk County Water Authority main some 1,300 feet in order to construct a kitchen inside their existing farm store.
The Suffolk County Department of Health Services will not allow 8 Hands Farm to drill a private well to serve their 28-acre farm on Cox Lane. Instead, owners Tom Geppel and Carol Festa must extend a water main from the north side of County Road 48 to their property south of the divided highway — at a cost of about $70,000.
The Southold Town Board last night voted to amend the town water map to allow the extension, after a brief public hearing.
“We are voting to give you the right to spend over $60,000 — $70,000,” Supervisor Scott Russell said. “You’re welcome. You can’t pull it out of the water table but they can pull it out, filter it and sell it back to you. Nice work if you can get it,” Russell said.
Chris Baiz, chairperson of the Southold Agricultural Advisory Committee testified during the hearing to ask the town board’s support for the water map amendment, though he expressed dismay with the county’s position that a public water hook-up was required.
“As members of the agricultural community we are eager to have the support of the town board on this matter. On the other hand, we find it confounding that a local farmer has to pay thousands of dollars per acre to meet some incredibly over-wrought convention that suggests this is commercial activity, not agricultural activity,” Baiz said.
“Overzealous requirements on the agricultural industry will drive it out of business,” Baiz said.
But he asked for the town’s support “so the agricultural activity at the site can move forward.”
County Legislator Al Krupski, the first farmer to ever serve on the legislature in its history, said this morning the issue has been a matter of “longtime discussion” dating back to when he was a town councilman.
“Where in the health code does it say you have to hook up to public water?” Krupski asked.
Krupski said he hopes a farmer will be named to the board of health so the agricultural community will be represented. He said South Fork legislator Bridget Fleming is putting in a bill to require it.
“You need to have agriculture represented in all these decisions that affect the business of agriculture,” Krupski said.
Geppel and Festa founded their farm in 2011. They raise heritage sheep, pigs and chickens. They built a farm store where they sell their meats, poultry, eggs, soft goods made from their sheep’s wool, and a smattering locally sourced products from other farms and small businesses on the North Fork.
They want to build a kitchen and food prep area in a portion of the farm store building. They sought permission to drill a well for that use, but were denied and told they must tap into the public water main approximately 1,300 feet north of their farm. Fighting the health department on that would take at least a couple more years and has no guarantee of success.
“It could put us out of business,” Festa said.
