Millions of dollars later, Malverne still has brown water

First in a series on the water problem in Malverne

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Last year was the last straw for Jeanne D’Esposito of Malverne. The brown water in her house was beyond bearable, so she called New York American Water to complain. Soon afterward, three employees of the utility were sent to her house, saw the brown water stains, tested the water and followed up with her a week later. “They told me my street’s water main needed to be replaced, and that it was scheduled for replacement in 2014,” she said.

It is now October, and D’Esposito is still waiting.

Despite the opening of New York American Water’s $7.5 million water-treatment facility on Whitehall Street in Lynbrook in May, and the opening of a costly facility on Hempstead Avenue in Malverne in 2011, area residents are still seeing brown water. “I haven’t seen any benefit or change from that plant at all,” D’Esposito said. “People who have had their water mains replaced on their street say that the water is much better, so I’m holding out for that, hoping it will fix the problem.”

For sure, water main replacement has met with excellent results. Tom Grech, who started the “I love Malverne but hate the brown water” Facebook page, said the water main on his street, which was almost 100 years old, was replaced last year and the improvement has been substantial. “They changed the main on Nassau Boulevard in 2013,” Grech said. “That pipe was from 1923. I made a lot of noise with the Public Service Commission, as most people know. I’ve never had cleaner water, and I’d never had better water pressure.”

Many people, however, have not made as much noise as Grech did, which New York American Water is pointing to as one reason it has not been more aggressive about solving the problem. The small number of complaints, the company says, indicates that the problem is not excessive.

“We’ve looked at our logs, and we have not gotten any increase in the number of customer service calls from Malverne lately,” said Peter Eschbach, director of communications and external affairs. “But I’m not saying the problem doesn’t exist.”

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