Residents waiting 26 years for water pressure

Warwick — The residents of Hilltop Lane in the Village of Warwick don’t have an extravagant wish list. About eight residents came to the Village Board meeting Monday night to say they just want to be able to wash their dishes and have someone else in the house take a shower at the same time. Even though the water tank that services this area of the village is in plain sight, residents on Hilltop Lane have sub-par water pressure coming into their houses; pressure so bad, they say, many can’t even have a dishwasher installed. Lorraine Portelli decided to do something about it. She and her husband, Anthony, a former mayor in the village, are the original owners of their home near the top of Hilltop Lane. Christmas morning was the last straw for her. She said her son and husband couldn’t even take showers that day because there just wasn’t enough water pressure coming into the house. “It’s ridiculous,” Portelli said. “We have never had good pressure, but on Christmas, it was worse. They couldn’t even take a shower.” So, Portelli sent out a survey to all of her neighbors, asking to describe their water pressure, the quality of their water and what improvements they’d like to see. When she got the surveys back, most were asking for the same thing — a permanent fix to a problem that has plagued the neighborhood since it was built. Most respondents described their pressure as “horrible” or “getting worse.” Many said they want a permanent fix to this, not a band aid. She sent the results to the village last week. “The joke is I could put a load of laundry in, run to ShopRite, and be back before the washer filled up,” she laughed. “That’s how poor the pressure is.” Her neighbor, Robert Rinker, also an original owner, told the board he bought a new dishwasher but can’t even use it. “You need a minimum of 20 pounds of pressure to use it,” said Rinker. Rinker said his water pressure is constantly low - last Friday it was 15 pounds of pressure; Monday it was 18 - still well under the minimum requirements from the Department of Health, which say water pressure inside a residential house must be a minimum of 35 pounds and 20 pounds in hydrants. That’s never been the case, say residents who have been here from the beginning. Ironically, since the water system loops around the neighborhood, residents on Hilltop get the lowest pressure because of gravity — the water must flow up to their houses after looping around the rest of the neighborhood. What can the village do? There are three options for these homeowners, according to Village Attorney Michael Meth, the same three the builder had 26 years ago. The village can increase the size of the holding tank; it can install a main pump to service all of the houses; or have homeowners install individual pumps. The last option - individual pumps - has already been done. The pumps are noisy, Portelli said, and hers burned out with everyday use in a short period of time. “No one wants to see the village taxpayers have to spend lots of money on this,” Portelli added. “But we just can’t continue like this. We wanted to open a dialogue with the village and have them put themselves in our shoes. We want to explore our options.” Mayor Michael Newhard said the village’s engineer will look at the issue and report back at the next meeting, which is on Feb. 21. In the meantime, Portelli and her neighbors will wait it out, hoping that soon the village can rectify something that wasn’t done right from the beginning.