What Is In My Water?

Answering Your Water Quality Questions

Recently there has been a lot of attention in the media regarding the possible presence of Perflourinated Compounds in the drinking water on Long Island. The drinking water provided by the Water Authority of Great Neck North meets or exceeds all local, state and federal regulations.

Each year, the Water Authority publishes a comprehensive Water Quality Report showing exactly which contaminants are being treated for in the water.

The contaminants mentioned in the article are called Perflourinated Compounds and appear below in an abbreviated section of the most recent Water Quality Report. (The complete Annual Water Quality Report for 2021 can be found here.)

Note that the 4 compounds highlighted in yellow are part of the 6 compounds referenced in the Newsday article.

The 3 compounds highlighted in green are NOT part of the 6 compounds mentioned in the article and should NOT be counted in the total number.

The 4 compounds highlighted in yellow represent the highest number seen during the 2021 year, but on different dates and from different Wells. Therefore, the numbers shown by Newsday are completely inaccurate and the data is manipulated to not show a true representation of the water quality.

Please see below for the Wells with detections for the contaminants with the highest sample level:

• Well 9 - 13.0
• Well 13 - 11.5
• Well 2A - 8.2
• Well 14 - 5.4
• Well 12 - 2.8
• Wells 5, 6, 7, 8, 10A and 11A each registered as non-detect for the 6 compounds.

As you can see, the Water Authority never came close to 26.1 and in fact was less than half of the number used in the article in Newsday. Note, the amount being proposed by New York State is 30.

Furthermore, please understand that these highest sample numbers represented above are from the individual Well itself and not the final product consumed by the customers. Typically, other Wells are running at the same time which creates blending of different water sources which ultimately reduces the concentrations of the numbers shown above.

Protecting our customers is as important as protecting our water supply, so the Water Authority of Great Neck North along with other Long Island water suppliers have filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers of some of these emerging contaminants. We firmly believe that those responsible for the mess should be responsible for the costs of cleaning it up.

The Water Authority of Great Neck North was established in 1985 as a public benefit corporation by Title 8-B, Section 1197, of the Public Authorities Law of the State of New York. In December 1989, the Water Authority purchased the assets of the Citizens Water Supply Company, which was a private for profit business enterprise. Since its creation by the State of New York, the Authority has been authorized to provide potable (drinking) water to the northern areas of the Great Neck Peninsula, which encompasses the villages of Great Neck, Great Neck Estates, Kensington, Kings Point, Saddle Rock, portions of Great Neck Plaza and Thomaston, and portions of the unincorporated areas of the Town of North Hempstead. The Board of Directors of the Authority is made up of the designated representatives from each of the seven villages and the Town of North Hempstead in the Authority's service area.