Calls for Liberty Water, County to Make Fixes, Urges Hempstead Town to Switch to Municipal Water
By Hank Russell
Following another water main break in Baldwin — the second such incident in the area — Nassau County Legislator Debra Mulé (D-Freeport) once again urged Liberty New York Water and the county to make the necessary investments toward securing all aspects of Nassau’s aging infrastructure, and for the Town of Hempstead to complete the transition to municipal water under the South Nassau Water Authority.
During the early morning hours of September 30, a water main broke underneath Winona Road. This interrupted water service for 115 Baldwin homes for most of the day and caused severe flooding in properties throughout the impacted area.
According to Mulé, this is the second water main break that has happened since mid-June, making it the latest example of what she said are serious infrastructure issues in the Liberty Water network and throughout Nassau County. Following the first incident, Mulé held a rally in front of the Irish Pub on June 14 with small business owners and residents demanding immediate reimbursements from Liberty Water and calling for greater emphasis on bolstering Nassau’s aging infrastructure.
Previously, during the summer of 2023, Mulé urged the county to dramatically increase its investment in infrastructure remediation after south shore communities suffered three sinkholes over a two-month span. As part of her call to action, she demanded infrastructure studies of sewer pipes and water mains so that potential hazards can be proactively addressed.
In addition to repeated calls to replace the aging pipes in its water system, Mulé urged Hempstead Town to switch its water from “a for-profit corporation that has failed ratepayers time and again.”
In response to Mulé’s comments, Liberty said in a statement, “Liberty takes seriously our commitment to providing safe, reliable water service to our customers. We want to apologize for the inconvenience customers experienced with the outage earlier this week and want them to know that the replacement of this aging infrastructure is a priority for Liberty. We could not do such a large project during the peak summer season and put plans in place to begin the replacement this fall to help mitigate future main breaks in that area.”
“This water main break is yet another clarion call for Nassau County to take decisive action to secure and repair our aging infrastructure,” Mulé said. “Until that happens, we will continue to experience substandard service and more frequent catastrophic incidents that will cost taxpayers more money to repair than if we take bold action now.”
Long Island Life & Politics also reached out to County Executive Bruce Blakeman’s office and the Town of Hempstead, but did not hear back as of press time.