The Plainview Water District held a community forum Tuesday night in order to publicly unveil and discuss its new Master Plan, which calls for $28.6 million worth of infrastructure updates and capital improvements during the next five years.

Water District Superintendent Paul Granger, who wrote and coordinated the Master Plan, called it "a planning tool to accurately guide us for the next five years." Based on two years of studies and reports conducted by both the state and private companies, the plan projects Plainview's future water needs and recommends the best solutions for both current and anticipated problems.

Joel Kessler, chairperson of the Water District's Board of Commissioners, said drawing up a master plan every decade or so was nothing new in the ever-fluctuating world of water supply. This latest plan should serve Plainview for the next five to ten years, Kessler said.

According to Granger, Plainview hasn't had a Master Plan since 1989. That 15-year-old plan, which was updated in 1994, saw many changes based on the town's growing water needs and new federal and state environmental regulations. With an increasing demand for outdoor irrigation and a need to keep a stricter eye on volatile organic compounds in the water, this year's plan is much of the same. "You cannot manage a water system without the bigger picture and a vision for the future," Granger said.

Only a handful of residents showed up at Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School for the forum, during which Granger outlined everything the Master Plan entails, how its conclusions were reached, and how it will be financed. Because the plan calls for nearly $30 million in capital improvements, the construction will be done in four separate phases. "To do funding and fund everything all at once makes no sense," Granger said. "Not only because of the dramatic increase to the taxpayer, but things change over time."

According to Granger, under the plan there will be a $0.85 tax rate increase during the first year, but that will decrease to $0.61 in the plan's last year. And to fund the $5.4 million the plan's first phase needs for necessary improvements right now, there will be an average extra $31 cost per single-family household in Plainview during the first year. Granger said the Plainview Water District's rates are "mid-level" when compared to other water districts on Long Island.

The Plainview Water District is hoping to finance some of the construction with money from lawsuits against local polluters. But like any legal process, said Granger, the district's lawsuits are moving slowly. "We're doing our best to catch these polluters and hold them accountable," he said.

In the meantime, the Plainview Water District will lean on its own reserves and the support of its paying customers to fund new water treatment processes and new infrastructure at each of its seven plants. "Of course, we're dealing with the sins of the past here," Granger said of pollution in the water supply. The studies conducted for the Master Plan found an increasing level of nitrates and a "medium to high" susceptibility to volatile organic compounds, but a low susceptibility to microbials. Granger stressed that the water is perfectly safe and that any problems are treatable.

Despite popular belief, said Granger, there is no danger of getting cancer from the drinking water. "We're just not pumping untreated water," he said. Granger called the plan's commitment to improved water quality its biggest highlight, and that people should understand it's a complicated process.

The Master Plan's report also examined the town's residential water flow, water demand at peak hours, fire department flow, and main breakage. As part of the distribution system, there are still 18 miles of unlined cast iron pipe that were installed when the Plainview Water District was founded in 1928. Today, the Plainview Water District covers nine square miles and serves nearly 32,000 residents in Plainview and parts of Syosset and Woodbury. Granger said the cost of replacing the old pipes was far too much when compared to the flushing program that was used in 1998 to treat them. Overall, the report found that the Plainview system is at 5.8 times less than the critical breaking factor.

The report did give warnings about the risks that come as outdoor irrigation demand increases, but Granger said those increases and other projected water losses are all being taken into account. "We're trying the best we can to be pro-active," Granger said. "In water supply, you cannot be reactive."

Granger also discussed in his PowerPoint presentation one factor that is driving extra costs today much more than it did 15 years ago. "One of the challenges that figures into our financing and our master plan is security," he said. Already there have been new fences built at several of the plants, and more construction is planned. Much of the push for tighter security came only after September 11. "Not that I think [Osama] bin Laden's army is going to come to Plainview," Granger said. "But anything can happen."

Residents in attendance seemed more concerned about the Master Plan's money than its security. "The plan is fine. It's the financing that I think is a little heavy on the borrowing," said Fred Gang of Syosset. Gang's suggestion included increasing the usage rates now so that residents don't have to pay later. "It's like living off the credit card," he said.

The Master Plan is available to residents at either the Plainview Water District's main offices on Manetto Hill Road or the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library on Old Country Road.