Water quality has been in the news this summer, thanks in part to Suffolk Executive Steve Bellone’s seizing on it in his re-election bid. Locally, there have been closures of Georgica and Hook Ponds after potentially harmful bacteria were found. At the state level, there is a bid to allow up to a fifth of future income to be skimmed off the community preservation fund for water improvement projects.

 And, looking farther back, a consultant’s study of wastewater requirements in the Town of East Hampton produced a back-of-the-napkin proposal for a sewage treatment system for a part of Montauk that is not generally known to have a water problem. There is a lot going on, but just how much reflects actual need and how much is being played for politics or is really a cloaked giveaway to developers remains murky.

As with the Army Corps of Engineers’ looming remake of the downtown Montauk oceanfront, there is no assurance that officials can be trusted to make the right — or even the legal — decision. Massive water quality initiatives would stand an equal if not greater chance of getting it wrong. Sewage treatment plants, which some in power seem ready to throw millions at, have a poor record on Long Island, and state and county oversight has lagged. Consider that in Nassau County officials want to spend more than half a billion dollars to extend a nitrogen-spewing outfall pipe from a sewage plant two miles into the Atlantic rather than try to improve the plant’s efficiency.

What is clear is that environmental organizations and truly independent experts must be brought in before big money is committed. And, in the meantime, small steps might well produce important results in the near term, as long as they are properly conceived and rigorously vetted.

Take, for example, the elevated bacteria levels frequently found at Fresh Pond, Amagansett, in samples taken by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk. The highest enterococcus concentration is consistently from a tidal creek that feeds the pond, raising suspicion about the creek’s proximity to a town restroom. A modest project to correct this might provide immediate environmental benefit if a link was found. Strengthening Suffolk County’s limits on the use of fertilizers would be important as well, perhaps expanding the law to a year-round ban for those high in nitrogen.

Another start would be for the county to adopt tough new discharge limits and numerical measures in keeping with those of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. As critics have said, without standards there is no way to assure that water projects are meeting their goals. Initiatives begun in the absence of a way to gauge results could flush good money down the drain

It is surprising that the big story of the summer of 2015 was not a celebrity drunken-driving arrest or a devastating fire but instead the summer itself. East Hampton Town — and Montauk in particular — hit some kind of tipping point by the Fourth of July, and residents had had enough. They packed a July 14 town board meeting, demanding action on a host of complaints, including nightlife, litter, traffic, and taxis. It was enough to drive the fight about noise from the East Hampton Airport or whether the town had intentionally banned the car service Uber out of the news for weeks on end.

The season’s quality-of-life apocalypse reached The New York Times, which asked a top reporter, who had just come off producing a widely celebrated story on the 50-year assault on the federal Voting Right Act, to take a look. Jim Rutenberg likened the changes here to a through-the-looking-glass manifest destiny as a “new horde of speculators” rushed east to cash in — or spend wildly in a determined show of wealth. Things got so bad that the local Republicans, until only recently the party that could be counted on to look the other way when business interests were at play, began to call for a hard line.

As July gave way to August, the atmosphere began to shift. More intense enforcement by officials resulted in a storm of citations for a range of offenses. Among them was a clampdown on hotel fitness classes organized without proper town approvals. Then, it was garbage that drew attention, notably at the beaches and reaching a crescendo on the first morning of this month when early visitors to the Navy Road beach in Montauk were horrified at the remains of a bacchanal staged by a restaurant and nightspot’s staff. Beer, food, and wine lay strewn across several tables. If ever there was a single symbol of the disrespect with which some people treat this place this was it. The restaurant’s public relations team sprang into action, though by then outrage was widespread.

Trash at the beaches, trash on the beaches, and trashy behavior everywhere might well be the epitaph for the summer just past. Who’s to say what 2016 will bring.

Long Island Sound is a federally designated no-discharge zone, but apparently no one told the right people at the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers. The corps, which is rapidly readying a lunatic plan to destroy the Montauk downtown oceanfront in order to save it, and the E.P.A. are ready to continue dumping dredged material in the Sound, as close to eastern Long Island as off New London.

An unusual coalition has sprung up to demand alternatives to placing toxin-laden silt from Connecticut rivers into this highly important waterway. Those calling for a better solution include New York State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, Brookhaven officials, Suffolk Legislator Al Krupski, and Kevin McAllister, a well-known activist. They want the corps to find other places for the spoils and to segregate those that are toxic from the rest, which they say should be placed in upland sites, not in the water. They and others have pointed out that this is exactly what New York and Connecticut pledged to do in 2005 with a promised phase-out of at-sea dumping.

Several hearings have been held on the plan to continue using the Sound’s dump sites, and written comment will be taken by the Army Corps until the end of next week. However, we get the sense that, as with downtown Montauk, the corps in particular is taking the easy way out. Obviously, what is needed is for the region’s representatives in Washington to get involved, and fast. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer of New York and Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, as well as Representative Lee Zeldin, have all signed on to measures designed to protect and restore Long Island Sound. They each should take an immediate, personal role in bringing an end to the use of it as a garbage dump.

Go ahead, make a left. Make two, if you want. It’s September! Tumbleweed Tuesday, some call it, the day after Labor Day when we East Hamptoners get our town back. It is a day for celebration, as they did in Montauk with a live band and cookout on the downtown green. But when you think about it, there is a rather depressing notion at its core — that for the preceding three months locals have too often felt like strangers in their own hometown.

This year more than most, East Hampton has suffered the sour fruit of its own popularity. Sure, certain businesses were booming, notably Montauk’s bars and restaurants and places that sold carry-out beer, but others, like a furnishings shop in Sag Harbor whose owner we spoke with the other day, have been looking forward to this month eagerly. Short-term renters and the day-trippers who mobbed that village and the various hamlets this year do not spend money on her duvet covers, hand-sewn pillowcases, and the like; residents and second-home owners who emerge about now actually do. It is a sea change, she said.

We hope local officials will think long and hard about how to make the weeks of the high season more like this one, when peace returns. With important town elections coming up in Southampton and East Hampton, moving the clock back to a more civilized time is something each candidate should be pressed about. Tumbleweed Tuesday should be a model for how we like the rest of the year, not a passing reward for putting up with a summer’s worth of nuisances.

As the 2015 high season comes to a close, East Hampton Town officials should begin working on to-do lists in an effort to make next summer a better one. To succeed will be a monumental undertaking and it is not likely to be completed in the span of just several months, but elected leaders, law enforcement officials, and town staff must make every effort to control growth. Given the unprecedented population surge, dialing things back a little might not be such a bad thing. The question is where to start.

Simultaneously with worrying about the coming Nov. 6 election, town officials will be working on the next year’s budget. This is where the battle will be won or lost in trying to win back East Hampton for those of us who live here, those who spend substantial amounts of time here, and those for whom this place no longer feels like home.

Elected officials now live in fear of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s government-starving 2-percent tax cap. And, this being an election year, it would be a surprise if any of the political parties’ candidates advocated exceeding the cap in 2016. Keep in mind that the Cuomo cap means there is less ability to spend every year because the tax rate lags behind inflation. So if there is to be no increased revenue from taxes, the big problem is figuring out where the money will come from to do what needs to be done, be it for more staff or taking the fight to court.

An approach that could find broad support here is taking on the problem spots directly. That might mean increasing fines for quality-of-life penalties, and particularly commercial violations, as far as possible.

One idea that also should be considered is installing parking meters on the downtown Montauk streets used by beachgoers. We can think of no other ocean beach on Long Island that offers free all-day parking for visitors — and you can believe this is well-known among daytrippers. The cost for a vehicle to enter Jones Beach in Nassau County is $10; charging even half that for a day at Montauk would be useful. Look, we’re not saying the town should charge an up-to-$8 per person fee just to walk on the sand the way such places as Long Beach Island do in New Jersey, but given the problems in the hamlet in recent summers, not seeking income for improved services and police patrols would be a missed opportunity.

Those looking ahead on behalf of the public should not forget that many businesses here plan for summer’s onslaught and respond accordingly. That is something local government has heretofore found impossible. Being better prepared for next year should be among the highest off-season priorities.

Faced with residents who have become more vocal about unwanted changes, the Sag Harbor Village Board is getting serious about how land-use decisions are made, and by whom. It is about time. The charm and sense of place that have characterized the village since its time as a thriving port is being threatened by overblown Hamptons-style construction, a good proportion of which, it is safe to say, is driven by speculators and investors.

The law does not allow building projects to be reviewed more strictly if they are for-profit ventures. Rather, the boards that oversee development, both in Sag Harbor and elsewhere, must apply the law and community common sense to each application, regardless of its backers’ motives. Noticing a spate of out-of-character projects and heeding protests from citizens, the Sag Harbor board recently shuffled its zoning and other appointed boards, bringing back some experienced hands to steady the ship. This includes appointing Anthony Brandt and Christopher Leonard to the board of historic preservation and architectural review and hiring an architectural historian, Zachary N. Studenroth, as a consultant.

Meanwhile, the board this week approved a construction moratorium on most new projects to buy time to study the staffing of the Building Department and possible zoning code changes. These moves strongly signal the village board’s interest in keeping Sag Harbor Sag Harbor — a place its residents and visitors know and love. They are to be commended.

It is remarkable to think that Soldier Ride began here, with the vision of a single man, Chris Carney, who wanted to raise some money and increase awareness for a fledging organization that was helping injured military veterans. Back in 2004, when Mr. Carney first decided to ride more or less alone across the United States, the Wounded Warrior Project had a single employee and had raised about $10,000 in all. By the time Mr. Carney reached the West Coast that August, he had tallied over $1 million in donations. The next year, he was joined by two soldiers, Ryan Kelly and Heath Calhoun, who had endured the loss of limbs after combat, on a ride from Los Angles to Montauk that brought in millions more.

Wounded Warrior has grown from there. Among its milestones has been a $100 million contribution for veteran’s mental health care at hospitals in Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It also provided $30 million in seed money for a nationwide in-home care. In addition to the annual Hamptons event this weekend, there have been 27 rides all over the United States and several overseas. The organization predicts that by the end of next year it will have provided services to about 100,000 veterans and their families, including educational opportunities.

For those readers who are not taking part in Saturday’s ride or party afterward, there are other ways to give, and the Wounded Warrior Project website can explain how. There are also other charities set up to help United States veterans in a range of ways.

Soldier Ride is East Hampton’s homegrown effort to embrace and acknowledge those injured in the line of duty. It is a source of pride that it all started here.

A bill awaiting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s signature that was recently approved by the State Legislature could signal the beginning of the end of the much-vaunted community preservation fund program. The proposal is to allow local governments to take up to 20 percent of the money for water quality projects, including new and upgraded sewage treatment plants. Doing more about water pollution is a good thing; this bill is the wrong way to fund it.

Its chief backers are State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who piggybacked the proposal onto a reasonable 20-year extension of the fund, which is set to expire in 2030. At a minimum, the two proposals should have been de-coupled, allowing them to be considered separately in the participating towns and voted on in the November general election as independent referendums. Since that did not happen, Mr. Cuomo’s veto is essential.

Long eyed by politicians as a potential and pain-free source of cash for all sorts of things, the community preservation fund has withstood most assaults. Should it become law, this measure, however, would chip away at one of its fundamental precepts, that the initiative is independent of the rest of government services. If local officials want water projects, they should do so through ordinary bonding, tax credits for septic upgrades, or permissive referendums.

It is outrageous that Mr. Thiele, who has recently expressed the opinion that the fund should not be tapped to buy buildings, would be eager to see money diverted to projects that on Long Island have been marked historically by corruption, cost overages, and poor environmental record-keeping. To think that more money will make this any better is to enter a fairyland fantasy. That there is a problem is hinted at by a caveat tucked into the bill, that the fund cannot be used for any project that would increase development. This is hardly assuring nor is it meaty enough to function as intended.

Given that in East Hampton Town the only proposed sewage project nearing shovel-ready status is a head-scratching one in downtown Montauk, officials here need to think carefully before agreeing to allow themselves — or future governments — to skim so much from the preservation fund for ill-thought-out boondoggles.

Before East Hampton goes looking for new ways to spend the C.P.F., it should try to stop development of all remaining vacant parcels of land in the town, take additional steps to assure crop farming on already-preserved acreage, protect more historic sites, and remove structures in environmentally sensitive areas. Once that is done and there is no land at all left to buy, maybe then, and only then, will it be time to talk about taking that 20 percent off the top.

The tone was cordial, though the message from the massive crowd of citizens at Tuesday’s East Hampton Town Board meeting  at the Montauk Firehouse was unmistakable: Do something and do it fast.

From among the hundreds who spilled out of the firehouse’s huge truck bays one after another speaker stood to implore the town board to do whatever it could to save Montauk from overcrowding and a nearly 24-hour alcohol and drug-fueled party scene, which has left residents frustrated and distraught, and reaching for their earplugs. By extension, as venues catering to the summer scenesters expand, notably to Napeague’s Cyril’s Fish House and now, nearly in the shadow of Town Hall, to Moby’s in East Hampton, there is a sense that the entire town is at risk.

That is, of course, outside of the more-restrictive villages, including Sagaponack and Sag Harbor as well as East Hampton. Imagine just for fun how long it would last if, say, the Palm, at Main Street and Huntting Lane, decided to put some beer taps and a D.J. on the back parking lot. The difference isn’t in the respective local governments’ laws; such things are impermissible in all these jurisdictions. However, in Montauk, the Memory Motel, for example, has been unofficially allowed to expand its guest service area into its parking lot because no one in authority gave a hoot, and it has been allowed to continue, we suspect, because current officials are overstressed and, frankly, afraid to pick yet another fight what with the airport battle on their hands. Other examples are numerous of how town government has for years failed to protect the interests of many of its residents while cutting too much slack for those who profit by pushing beyond the limits of the law.

Supervisor Larry Cantwell and the other members of the town board may talk a good game, but it is regrettable that it took what amounted to a citizens’ uprising to draw serious attention to the ongoing — and growing — crisis.

The latest developments in the United States Army Corps of Engineers project to build a 3,100-foot-long sandbag wall on the downtown Montauk oceanfront warrant close attention. Though a private lawsuit could still derail this massive boondoggle, the Corps, East Hampton Town officials, and the state appear to be moving forward. Recently described details concern pedestrian and vehicular access over the planned artificial dune and what happens to rainwater there. Barring a court ruling, work is expected to begin in October.

Now, unbelievably, the same people who brought us the Katrina disaster are considering installing some kind of a floodgate to allow rainfall and runoff to escape to the ocean. Sorry. We are not convinced.

From the start, the project has been marked by rule-bending, false claims, inadequate review, and, going back several years, an embarrassing, overstated back-of-the-napkin economic analysis. All this has not appeared to shake current town support. Politics plays a role; woe be the elected official who speaks out to block the effort then sees heavy damage caused by a hurricane or bad winter storm. But expediency comes at the expense of sound planning and a responsible answer to the long-term issue of erosion.

Downtown Montauk was built where it should not be. It’s that simple. No Army Corps seawall by itself is going to change that fact. The Corps’s poorly conceived project only delays the day of reckoning, which should have taken place after Hurricane Sandy’s near miss in 2012. Tough leadership is desperately needed, but it is not coming — from any level of government.