Medford-Bellport homes to get public water after PFAS contamination

Families in the Medford-Bellport area are finally getting relief after years of worry over PFAS in their private wells. A Suffolk County Water Authority and Suffolk County deal will bring public water to homes near National Boulevard, ending a long stretch in which residents had to rely on wells that tested positive for the so-called forever chemicals.

The project will extend 4,660 feet of water main and connect up to 20 homes to the public system. The county and the water authority are fully funding the work, so homeowners will not have to pay the hookup costs. The homes sit in a Suffolk County Department of Health Services PFAS assessment area, where well testing identified contamination severe enough to make the neighborhood a priority for public-water service.

The timeline underscores how slowly PFAS cases can move from discovery to action. Newsday reported that the contamination was found in water sampling about four years ago, leaving families waiting through testing, planning and funding negotiations before the first pipe is laid. The authority said the financing package includes a New York State grant and county American Rescue Plan money, framing the project as both a cleanup effort and a public-health intervention.

The urgency is heightened by the limits of private wells. Unlike public water systems, private wells are not covered in the same way when contamination is found, leaving individual households to shoulder the burden of testing, treatment or connection to municipal water. New York State’s private-well PFAS pilot program now offers free testing and rebates of up to $10,000 for public-water connections when results exceed state standards.

County officials have long treated PFAS as a broader threat to Suffolk’s sole-source aquifer, and this project fits into a wider response that has already reached Medford, East Patchogue, Bellport and Calverton. Suffolk County says PFOS and PFOA in drinking water are regulated in New York as Unspecified Organic Contaminants at 50 parts per trillion.

The Suffolk County Water Authority says its treated water is now in full compliance with federal PFAS standards, six years ahead of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2031 deadline. For the affected homes near National Boulevard, that means the long gap between contamination fears and a lasting fix is finally closing, one connection at a time.