The newly created New York State Water Authority of North Shore (WANS)

The North Shore community of Nassau County, Long Island, New York has for over a dozen years suffered with excessive water supply costs imposed by privately owned utility companies. Unlike most communities in the United States who receive their water supply through not-for-profit local municipalities, some of Nassau County’s North Shore communities are supplied water by private publicly listed utilities. These for-profit entities maximize their own shareholders’ value through inflated water bills passed onto water customers. It is important to know that these water customers have no recourse other than to pay the excessive water charges.

During the past eight years, the local Civic Associations, local villages, and grassroots organizations have taken the lead in organizing and working with local legislators and volunteers to become independent of private for-profit companies. Water is a basic human necessity, and every Long Island resident should have access to similarly priced water whether it is provided by a for-profit or not-for-profit company. To achieve this goal, our organizations sought to establish a local municipal water authority that would ensure reasonable water pricing for the Nassau County North Shore communities. In 2020 bipartisan state legislators from Nassau County introduced a bill, and they subsequently passed a law to create the Water Authority of North Shore to be the sole provider of water for our local communities.

In early 2022, the Town of Oyster Bay (representing the hamlets of Glen Head and Glenwood Landing), the Villages of Sea Cliff, Brookville, Roslyn Harbor, and City of Glen Cove, presently served by Liberty Utilities, appointed six Board members to the Water Authority of North Shore. The objective of the Water Authority of North Shore is to negotiate for the acquisition of the private water supply system in the affected communities from the private water companies and to provide public drinking water with a local governmental not-for-profit water company.

At this time, the Board members have initiated and are progressing with discussions with Liberty Utilities to remove them as the community’s water supplier and replace them with the Water Authority of North Shore. Our sole focus is to become a community public water company. This website and other social media venues will be used to provide you with information and updates on our goal’s progress.

The North Shore water community has been outspoken at numerous community meetings and through active engagement with our legislative representatives on the state, county, and local levels. Extensive research was conducted on community take-overs of public water companies throughout the United Sates that has culminated in the New York State establishment of the Water Authority of North Shore that will provide a public water supply to our North Shore community.

Along with this web site, updates will be provided on local Facebook groups so this community will continuously be informed of developments in this fight.

With your help, public water can replace all private water suppliers. Join our publicized open meetings; we are available to speak at any local forum or respond to emails and phone messages through the following contacts:info@wanorthshoreny.gov

Water Authority of North Shore Board Members and Contact Information

• George Pombar (Glen Head Member)
  george.pombar@wanorthshoreny.gov
• James Versocki (Sea Cliff Member)
  james.versocki@wanorthshoreny.gov
• John Vasilakis (Old Brookville Member)
  john.vasilakis@wanorthshoreny.gov
• Sandeep Kapoor (Roslyn Harbor Member)
  sandeep.kapoor@wanorthshoreny.gov
• James Greenberg (Glen Cove Member)
  james.greenberg@wanorthshoreny.gov
• Richard Arena (Glenwood Landing Member)
  richard.arena@wanorthshoreny.gov