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Water Quality Grants Likely for Springs and Montauk

Thu, 10/17/2019 - 13:36

The Springs School and the Springs General Store, as well as the West Lake Inn complex in Montauk and a modular floating structure intended to remove nitrogen and phosphorous in Montauk’s Fort Pond, should receive grant funding from the portion of the community preservation fund allocated to water quality improvement, the East Hampton Town Board was told on Tuesday.

A request for applications was issued in June with an Aug. 15 deadline, Mellissa Winslow, an environmental analyst with the Town’s Natural Resources Department, told the board. Of 10 applications received, the committee deemed four complete and worthy of approval. Grant recommendations are based on the 2019 C.P.F. water quality budget of $1.25 million, Ms. Winslow said, as well as an applicant’s flow rate compared with an average single-family residence’s 440-gallon daily flow.

The Springs School received “quite a good chunk” of funding from New York State, said Chris Clapp of the committee, and came to the committee for more “to get them as close to over the finish line with as little as possible impact to their budget.” School officials believe they can reduce nitrogen content by  92 percent, he said.

The total project cost is $1.65 million, Mr. Clapp said. The school requested $315,000, he said, and the committee recommended a $227,000 grant.

The Springs General Store also plans to upgrade its failing conventional septic system, Mr. Clapp told the board. The committee recommended a $23,991 grant, of a request of more than $155,000, the recommendation based on a flow rate not much greater than a single-family residence. The store is, however, eligible for an additional $10,000 in state funding, he said.

“You can imagine, this site and the school . . . would have a tremendous impact on the water quality in the back of Accabonac Harbor,” Mr. Clapp said of innovative alternative septic system installations at the sites.

The West Lake Inn, a residential complex on West Lake Drive in Montauk with a flow rate of 2,600 gallons per day, requested funding for engineering and installation of a septic system to replace a failing conventional system. The project cost is around $156,000. “Our award calculation came in at just over $120,000,” Mr. Clapp said.

Lastly, the committee recommended that Concerned Citizens of Montauk be granted the $25,211 requested in order to remove nitrogen and phosphorous from Fort Pond, which has been fouled with blooms of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, in recent years. Mr. Clapp described the “floating islands” that C.C.O.M.’s president, Laura Tooman, had proposed to the board in June. Both illustrated a method of bio-extraction using floating mats. Vegetation affixed to the mats draws nitrogen out of the water. The mats are removed, the vegetation is sent for composting, and the process is repeated. “They are hoping to remove almost 28 pounds of nitrogen and 15 pounds of phosphorous, utilizing this structure,” Mr. Clapp said.

“I support all of these efforts,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said, and his colleagues on the board agreed. “I think they’re significant, particularly the two at Accabonac. . . . The others are quite valid as well.”

The board will schedule a public hearing before a vote to fund the projects. “I think we’re well on our way toward cleaning up our waters,” the supervisor said.


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