By Sultan Abdul Haseeb Imran and Mashiat Azmi
The Village of Hempstead’s old water system is getting a new lifeline with $37.2 million in New York State funding, according to a November 2024 release from the office of Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The funding comes through the Water Infrastructure Improvement (WII) and Intermunicipal Grant (IMG) programs to clean up public water systems from toxic contaminants such as 1,4- dioxane and PFAs.
This investment promises long-awaited relief for Hempstead residents, who have endured health risks from outdated pipes for decades. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studies have deemed the solvent 1,4-dioxane an unreasonable risk to human health under the Toxic Substances Control Act. The chemical is known to cause cancer and can damage the liver and nasal tissue.
Testing has found elevated levels of 1-4-dioxane in Hempstead’s water supply, according to the Village of Hempstead Water Department. In 2023, the department took 14,000 water samples, testing for 190 chemicals. Thirty-two chemicals were found in the water, with only 1-4 dioxane testing above state-allowable limits, according to an April 2024 water department newsletter. The publication, found online, noted that treatment systems to remove 1,4-dioxane were planned.
In a recent news release, Nassau County Health Commissioner Dr. Irina Gelman emphasized that Long Island’s drinking-water supply comes from underground. “Nassau County gets all its drinking water from groundwater stored in the porous soil beneath Long Island,” Gelman said, explaining that the region relies on three major aquifers: the Upper Glacial, Magothy and Lloyd.
Chemicals like 1,4-dioxane can make their way down into the aquifers through dumping or accidental release.
Persistent efforts by residents and local officials played a role in securing federal and state funding. Many residents voiced their concerns at a June 24, 2024, meeting of the Nassau County Legislature, demanding action to address the contamination.
Nassau County Legislators Scott Davis of the First District and Siela Bynoe of the Second District, both Democrats, campaigned to secure funding to clean up Hempstead’s water supply.
Before the state’s $37.5 million contribution, the village received an initial round of $1.75 million in funding through the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, according to an October 2024 release from Davis’s office. The ARPA passed with bipartisan support under the Biden administration.
The ARPA funds initially went to Nassau County. The county released the federal funding, according to Bynoe, after months of negotiations with the Legislature. “I worked alongside my colleague, Legislator Scott M. Davis, to marshal county resources,” Bynoe, who is now a state senator, wrote last year in an email. “Following months of negotiations, the county administration agreed, and the funding was approved unanimously by the Legislature.”
“The idea is to bring an outdated infrastructure up to date so that they can clean out the 1,4-dioxane as well as many other contaminants and have clean, safe drinking water for the constituents of Hempstead,” Davis said.
Hempstead’s water system was built more than a century ago. “The Hempstead water system is certainly one of the oldest ones in Nassau County,” said Bob Holzmacher, a consulting engineer. Holzmacher said current projects aim to replace water pipes and increase pipe sizes to improve infrastructure reliability.
“The idea is to bring an outdated infrastructure up to date so that they can clean out the 1,4-dioxane as well as many other contaminants and have clean, safe drinking water for the constituents of Hempstead.”
Scott Davis, Nassau County Legislator
Many community residents and experts see Hempstead’s water contamination as an issue of socioeconomic disparity. “If you are a well-off person, you’ve probably bought a kitchen RO [reverse osmosis] system and spent a few hundred dollars to filter the water to a high standard,” said Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center at Columbia University’s Climate School. “But if you’re not in the high-income category, you’re being exposed. And depending on the contaminant—especially if you have little children—they could face significant lifelong impacts.”
Lall added that middle-and upper-middle-income Black communities often face water-quality issues, with limited resources to mitigate risk. Lall warned that water contamination is a serious threat to public health, noting, “You end up with a population that basically is going to be poisoned.”
“In Hempstead and some other places, there is a lot of legacy contamination from old Superfund sites and industries, but much of the contamination also comes from everyday products like shampoo and laundry detergent,” said Jordan Christensen, program coordinator at the Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “You don’t want to be washing your hands with soap that has 1-4 dioxane in it or giving your child a bath with bubbles that have 1-4 dioxane, so we [Citizens Campaign] worked to ban it in products and worked to get a state regulation.”
Erin Clary, the State Department of Health deputy communications director, said, “While New York State has specific regulations for many contaminants called maximum contaminant levels, the ones most recently added to lists of regulated toxic contaminants are the chemicals that Hempstead is currently addressing.”
Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said the village water department is working to inform residents about progress in removing 1,4-dioxane from the water system. “By putting out our newsletter . . . we address those issues . . . ” Hobbs said. He assured residents that the water plant maintains quality standards and added that new security systems, including cameras, were being installed to ensure the facility’s safety.
To read the Village of Hempstead’s 2023 water-quality report, click here and scroll to page five.
