EAST GREENWICH — Members of the East Greenwich Town Council on Monday night questioned why consultants and members of its Fields Construction Committee neglected to check into potential irrigation problems before beginning to build athletic fields near the high school.

Although construction of the first fields is well under way, there is no plan for watering them in the summer because the Department of Environmental Management fears the area is too dry to draw water from a high-yield, but unused, well on school property.

Instead, the construction committee drafted an $850,000 plan to build an irrigation basin, a controversial decision because it wipes out money for two badly needed public recreation fields.

Monday night, the council asked why the committee didn’t first check with the Kent County Water Authority to see if the water could simply be purchased from the agency.

“All those costs and aggravation could have been avoided by picking up the phone [and] calling the Kent County Water Authority,” said council President Michael B. Isaacs.

That request has now been made.

Town officials had urged the construction committee 1½ years ago to seek the needed permits for the project from the DEM. Instead the committee filed the request in November, and was told using the well was problematical.

“Why didn’t Caito get this [water issue] nailed down early in the process?” said Councilman Richard P. Buonauito, referring to the Caito Corporation, which is in charge of the project.

John Caito, president of the firm, explained that “we can’t just sketch out a project and send it to DEM. The plans have to be complete from an engineering perspective. They have to be final plans.”

“We were told by town officials that there were massive amounts of water in the [school] well,” he said.

Councilman Mark Schwager said he couldn’t believe that nobody looked at the irrigation question before moving ahead with the project. “Someone familiar with water resources would say [the aquifer] was stressed. That doesn’t seem tremendously complicated.”

gemery@projo.com