The Town of East Hampton is coming to social media. 

Last Thursday, the town board passed a resolution authorizing Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc’s office to establish and maintain official Facebook and Instagram accounts for the town, citing the social media platforms’ effectiveness in disseminating information and raising awareness. 

Social media, Anne Bell, an assistant to the supervisor, told the board at its Sept. 18 meeting, could be utilized to share alerts now posted to the town’s website. Information about hurricanes and snowstorms, services such as the town’s senior citizens center and youth activities, events, job postings, construction updates, LTV’s videos of public meetings, schedule changes, and the like could be more widely disseminated via social media, she said, along with press releases and public service announcements. 

The town’s Police Department runs its own Facebook page, and Steven Lynch, the town’s highway superintendent, shares information on road conditions on his personal Facebook page, Ms. Bell said. “We can centralize all that with our own page that’s monitored regularly . . . so people don’t necessarily have to be friends with Steven” to access such information, she said. “We can use our own page to share the same information, reach more people, and encourage public participation.”

“Any way we can amplify the message and get the word out on any number of topics within the town is very important,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. 

Ms. Bell said in an email on Tuesday that the town’s social media accounts could be active as soon as Friday.

New Union Support for Zeldin

Representative Lee Zeldin’s campaign has announced endorsements from eight unions, bringing the congressman’s total number of union endorsements to 25. 

Mr. Zeldin, a Republican, is seeking a third term in Congress. He is opposed in the race by the Democratic Party’s nominee, Perry Gershon, who lives in East Hampton. 

The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 15, the Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 78, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association of the City of New York, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the Sergeants Benevolent Association of the N.Y.P.D., the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council No.16, the New York State Troopers Police Benevolent Association, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 2230 are the latest unions to announce endorsement of Mr. Zeldin’s campaign. 

“The Congressman’s strong record of passing legislation that protects workers’ rights and helps create good paying jobs has earned him widespread support for his re-election campaign for Congress,” a statement from Mr. Zeldin’s campaign said.

Gershon Gets Grassroots Group’s Backing

Swing Left, a volunteer organization that is working to elect a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, announced last Thursday that it is directing people to donate their time and money to Perry Gershon, the Dem­ocrats’ candidate for the First Congressional District, who is running to unseat Representative Lee Zeldin. The First District is one of six Republican-held districts it is newly targeting. 

Along with the first district, which encompasses the Towns of East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Southold, Riverhead, Brookhaven, and part of Smithtown, the group’s newest targets are districts in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In total, it is working to unseat Republican incumbents in 84 congressional districts. 

“With Democrats contesting nearly every single House seat this year, and grassroots activists fired up and ready to win, we want to ensure that we connect everyone who can help with the smartest ways to invest their time, money, and energy this November to help us take back the House,” said Ethan Todras-Whitehill, co-founder and executive director of Swing Left. “We’re adding these new swing districts where we see the grassroots is building power and volunteers can move the needle to secure critical wins.” 

Swing Left examined districts’ candidates, voting history, fund-raising gaps, and geographic proximity to its volunteers to identify the new districts where its volunteers could make a difference. The group has raised more than $7 million for Democratic candidates since it was formed in January 2017.

Earlier this month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Mr. Gershon to its “red to blue” program, which also seeks to defeat Republican incumbents. The race is one of 82 among the 435 House races to hold that designation. 

A.F.L.-C.I.O. for Thiele

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has announced the New York State A.F.L.-C.I.O., on the recommendation of the Long Island Federation of Labor, has endorsed his re-election effort. 

The 250,000-member Long Island Federation of Labor, A.F.L.-C.I.O., represents a range of union workers including teachers, technicians, public employees, painters, bus drivers, and bricklayers, as well as retail, auto, janitorial, utility, health care, and construction workers.

“I will remain committed to protecting and advocating for good jobs with decent pay and benefits for all working families on Long Island,” Mr. Thiele said in a statement.  

A week after David Lys won the East Hampton Democratic primary for town councilman and voters rejected the Reform Democrats’ efforts to remake the town’s Democratic Committee, the local party remains split even as November’s election looms.  

Mr. Lys, who was appointed to the East Hampton Town Board in January to fill the seat vacated when Peter Van Scoyoc became town supervisor, handily defeated David Gruber in last Thursday’s Democratic primary. 

Unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections had Mr. Lys winning the contest 1,489 to 884, victorious in all but two of the town’s 19 election districts. 

The board of elections received 503 absentee ballots, an official said on Tuesday. Though they have yet to be counted, Mr. Lys’s lead is insurmountable if the unofficial count is certified.

“I think what happened is that the Town of East Hampton decided to go with the moral values of David Lys instead of the moral compass of David Gruber,” Mr. Lys said at Rowdy Hall last Thursday night, a reference to the Reform Democrats’ logo and slogan. “They decided to make sure that the person who stays above the fray and does it for the whole town instead of themselves will always come up above. I always wanted that.”

Mr. Lys will face Manny Vilar, the Republican and Conservative Party candidate, in the Nov. 6 general election. Mr. Vilar lost to Mr. Van Scoyoc in the campaign for supervisor last year. “I think it’s going to be great to talk about the issues, to make sure that the whole town now gets to vote on the candidate, the person that they want to represent them on the town council,” Mr. Lys said. “I hope that’s me.”

The vote was “a reaffirmation of the selection the Democratic Committee originally made of David Lys to be the candidate,” Christopher Kelley, the East Hampton Democrats’ campaign chairman, said on Monday. “It was an affirmation that the Democrats are happy with the job the town board is doing and support the leadership of the party that got them there.”

Looking ahead to the general election, Amos Goodman, chairman of the East Hampton Town Republican Committee, had a different point of view. “This race is really Manny versus the entrenched political machine,” he said yesterday. “It’s a referendum on more of the same versus reform and independence, business as usual versus change. We are confident Manny’s message of experience and independence will resonate with voters.”

But last Thursday, with a contentious primary in the rearview mirror, the mood was jubilant at Rowdy Hall in East Hampton as Mr. Lys and Democratic officials including Supervisor Van Scoyoc, Councilwomen Sylvia Overby and Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, County Legislator Bridget Fleming, Francis Bock, clerk of the town trustees, Susan McGraw Keber of the trustees, and incumbents and candidates for the Democratic Committee watched returns come in on the board of elections website. 

The East Hampton Democratic Committee chose Mr. Lys as its candidate in the spring, in the midst of a fraught campaign to select a new committee chair to succeed Jeanne Frankl, who retired. That struggle, in which the Democratic Committee ultimately chose Cate Rogers as its new chairwoman over Rona Klopman, was followed by the establishment of the East Hampton Reform Democrats. Mr. Gruber became its standard-bearer and candidate for the town board.

The Reform Democrats ran a full slate of candidates for the 38-member Democratic Committee last Thursday. Mr. Gruber won a seat in Election District 7, in Wainscott, but he was one of few among his caucus to win. Party leaders including Ms. Frankl, Ms. Rogers, Mr. Kelley, Mr. Bock, Ms. McGraw Keber, and Betty Mazur, the committee’s vice chairwoman, were among the victors. Ms. Klopman was among the Reform Democrats to lose a bid for a seat on the committee. For a full list of people elected to the Democratic Committee last Thursday click here.

The primary election campaign was at turns genteel and punctuated by attacks. Democrats held a 4-0 majority on the town board after the November 2017 election. Mr. Lys’s appointment to the fifth seat angered some Democrats, who complained that Mr. Lys was a lifelong Republican. Indeed, Mr. Lys had only recently changed his party registration from Republican to Democratic. He said, however, that he had never participated in politics before but had come to realize that his views align with those of the Democratic Party.

Since forming the East Hampton Reform Democrats, which he described as a caucus within the Democratic Party, Mr. Gruber has been a frequent critic of the town board, particularly Mr. Van Scoyoc, Ms. Overby, and Ms. Burke-Gonzalez. In mass emails and on social media, the Reform Democrats harshly criticized the town board over its handling of the town’s emergency communications system and the proposed South Fork Wind Farm. At the town board’s meeting on Tuesday, he continued to criticize the board’s actions with respect to the proposed wind farm. 

Councilman Jeff Bragman, also a Democrat, joined the Reform Democrats in their criticism of Mr. Lys’s move to form an independent party, the East Hampton Unity Party, to ensure himself a line on the Nov. 6 election ballot were he to lose in the primary. Mr. Goodman has mounted a challenge to Mr. Lys’s Unity Party nominating petitions, which is pending. He said yesterday that he believes Mr. Lys is 50 to 60 valid signatures short of the requirement.

In another unusual aspect of the campaign, the East Hampton Independence Party chose Mr. Gruber as its candidate for town board. East Hampton Republicans, however, challenged the validity of the Independents’ nominating petitions. A State Supreme Court judge sided with the Republicans, and the petitions were invalidated. Mr. Gruber was not involved in the gathering of signatures for the Independence Party petitions. 

Ms. Rogers expressed gratitude to Democratic voters on Monday “for overwhelmingly supporting David Lys and the East Hampton Democratic Committee slate. I am proud that running on merit still wins in East Hampton and that attack politics do not resonate here.” She asked that as attention turns to the Nov. 6 election, “all Democrats unite and commit to working together as we always have to continue the good work of electing Democrats for the betterment of our community.”

Last Thursday, his nomination assured, Mr. Lys, the former Republican, also sought to close the chasm that has opened among Democrats. “With time, all rivalries will melt away,” he said to the gathering at Rowdy Hall. “The angst, the anger we might all be feeling will melt away when we all come together as one unified Democratic Committee. That’s what we need to do right now. Let’s go forward. Let’s change Washington, let’s change East Hampton, let’s make sure that we have this on Nov. 6.” 

If he wins in November, Mr. Lys will fulfill the final year of Mr. Van Scoyoc’s term and would have to stand for re-election to a full four-year term in 2019, should he wish to continue on the board. “I think I’ve worked hard, I’ve researched hard, I’ve done my homework, and I’m ready to keep going forward for another year,” he said last Thursday.

Last month, Perry Gershon, the Democratic Party’s candidate to represent New York’s First Congressional District, told The Star that he was confident that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s campaign arm for the House of Representatives, would soon add him to its Red to Blue list of top-tier candidates to which it provides funding and organizational support. “They’re aware of our race; they know it’s winnable,” he said at the time. 

His confidence was well founded: The campaign committee has added Mr. Gershon, who will face Representative Lee Zeldin in the Nov. 6 election, to the program. The race is one of 82 among the 435 House races to hold the designation. 

Representative Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, the committee’s chairman, said in a statement issued on Friday that Mr. Gershon “is bringing the same tireless work ethic and determination that made him successful in business to his campaign for New York’s First Congressional District, and because of that this race is competitive and winnable in November.”

Mr. Gershon, who bested four others in the Democratic primary election in June, has earned a place on the Red to Blue roster by “surpassing aggressive goals for grassroots engagement, local support, campaign organization, and fund-raising,” the statement said. 

“The Red to Blue races are the priority races,” Mr. Gershon said on Tuesday. His campaign’s designation in the program, he said, “makes a statement that it’s a race they believe has a strong chance of winning over an incumbent Republican. What they’re saying here is that they see us having the potential vote support and energy and volunteerism, the campaign organization and fund-raising ability in order to defeat Zeldin.” 

Chris Boyle, the communications director for Mr. Zeldin’s campaign, dismissed the move. “Being the 82nd pick of top targets by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is nothing to brag about,” he said in an email on Tuesday, noting former Southampton Town Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst’s 59-to-41-percent loss in her 2016 challenge to Mr. Zeldin despite being chosen for the Red to Blue program. 

“It’s worth noting that she was actually from the district, as opposed to Park Avenue Perry, who recently registered in our district just to run against Congressman Zeldin,” Mr. Boyle said. Mr. Gershon built a house in East Hampton in 1999 and became a year-round resident last year. 

The Cook Political Report and the political analyst Scott Rasmussen place the First District in their “likely Republican” columns, and the website Real Clear Politics says the race “leans Republican.” 

But Mr. Gershon has been upbeat throughout the campaign. A 76-percent increase in turnout over the Democratic congressional primary in 2016 means that Democrats are energized, he told The Star, while the candidates he bested have all pledged their support. Conditions were less favorable two years ago, he said, while President Trump, of whom Mr. Zeldin is a strong supporter, is divisive and unpopular, despite having won the First District by 12 points in 2016. 

Mr. Zeldin, a former state senator, is seeking a third term. He defeated Representative Tim Bishop, who served six terms, in 2014. 

Mr. Gershon’s campaign began airing television ads on Sept. 4, which he said are helping his name recognition in the district. From discussions with district residents, he said that “the big issues to people are health care, gun safety, the environment . . . and Zeldin’s absenteeism and lack of caring for the district, for people here. People feel like Lee has deserted them."

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has ruled that the Sand Land industrial mine in Noyac must stop its controversial mining operations and confine itself solely to remediation work on the 50-acre site, potentially ending a two-decades-long fight between the mine’s owner and local citizens, elected officials, and environmental groups who have contended the mine was polluting the region’s aquifer and should be shut down.

State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. and Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman had both publicly urged the D.E.C. not to renew the mine’s permit, which expires in November, let alone grant a request by the Sand Land owner John Tintle to expand mining operations at the site on Middle Line Highway or to continue accepting solid waste.

The Noyac Civic Council, Group for the East End, and Citizens Campaign for the Environment were among those that urged the D.E.C. to do the same after a study by the Suffolk County Health Department released on June 29 confirmed for the first time the presence of contaminants in groundwater beneath the site.

Mr. Thiele called the D.E.C.’s decision “a major step in the right direction” but emphasized, “This isn’t the end. It’s more like the beginning of the end. I think that’s the main thing to take away from this decision. What the D.E.C. decided is an intent to modify [Sand Land’s] permit. By that, they mean cease mining and remediate the property. Among the things we now have to make sure is the owner also cleans up the groundwater, so the pollution that is under the mine doesn’t spread to the community.”

The D.E.C. informed Mr. Tintle, in a letter dated Sept. 11, that he now has until Wednesday to contest the ruling and/or request a hearing. Mr. Tintle could also choose to return to court to fight the D.E.C’s proposed changes to Sand Land’s permit.

“We are prepared to do whatever we need to do,” Sand Land’s attorney, Brian Matthews of Matthews, Kirst & Cooley in East Hampton, said Monday, when asked if Mr. Tintle is contemplating court action. “For now, we’re focused on requesting the hearing. Obviously we disagree with the state’s intent to modify the permit. We’ll present our case on why [the permit] should not be modified.”

Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, nonetheless joined Mr. Thiele in hailing the D.E.C.’s ruling.

“After years of court cases, press conferences, research, groundwater testing — it was a lot of effort, it really was — we’re excited, and we’re relieved,” said Ms. Esposito, whose group joined the fight seven years ago. “It’s an amazing victory. It’s a new day for these property owners. This shows there’s a growing realization that we’re reaching a water crisis [on Long Island] between the various water pollution sites, and that we need to stop making excuses and start making changes. We must prioritize our drinking water over the interests of these polluters.”

Sand Land is located in a special groundwater protection area that is important to the South Fork’s long-term drinking water supply, not just that of nearby residents.

The Suffolk County Health Department’s study found that Sand Land’s mining and other operations such as processing vegetative waste, construction debris, compost, and mulch resulted in the release of iron, manganese, thallium, sodium, nitrate, ammonia, and gross alpha (radioactivity) into the aquifer and deep water recharge area beneath the site.

Iron was found in the deepest parts of the water table at concentrations over 200 times the drinking water standard and manganese was found at concentrations at almost 100 times the drinking water standard.

But even the county’s ability to conduct tests at the mine was a litigious, drawn-out process.

Sand Land officials initially agreed in 2015 to allow the county to do on-site well drilling and water testing, then rescinded permission. County officials ultimately went to court to gain access. That didn’t happen until 2017, and the wells were finally drilled last October.

The county’s lab completed testing of the samples in February 2018. In March, the county’s hydrogeologists finished quality control and validation processes and sent samples to the state D.E.C. and New York State Department of Health. About the same time, the Noyac citizens group and others hired their own expert to review the county’s raw data, which they obtained via a Freedom of Information request. The expert’s report came to the same general conclusions that the Suffolk County Health Department’s report did: The test results corroborated the citizen group’s long-held suspicion that the mine is a hazard.

Mr. Matthews, Sand Land’s attorney, responded by arguing the county’s findings were flawed.

But the D.E.C.’s latest ruling suggests the state was not persuaded by that argument.

Mr. Thiele defended the Suffolk County Health Department’s work when the negative report on Sand Land was first released in late July, saying, “When it comes to their lab, their water quality testing, Suffolk County is basically state of the art. Never have they been wrong in their technical work on water testing, to my knowledge. They are the envy of the state.”

As it had indicated earlier this month, Deepwater Wind has submitted an application to the New York State Public Service Commission for the portion of its proposed South Fork Wind Farm’s transmission cable that would lie in state waters and underground on a path from its landing to the Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton.

The application, submitted to the commission on Friday, includes Beach Lane in Wainscott as the transmission cable’s preferred route. The commission examines components of the project located in the state, which are the portions of the transmission cable within state waters and buried under roads or rights of way, as well as the interconnection facilities to be built at the LIPA substation. It will determine whether to issue a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need, as required under the review process known as Article VII, which covers applications to construct and operate a major electric transmission facility, allowing construction of the portion of the transmission cable under state jurisdiction. 

The application can be seen at the Public Service Commission’s website, dps.ny.gov, and a link to the application will be added to Deepwater Wind’s website, according to Meaghan Wims, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island company. Print copies are also to be made available at locations in East Hampton Town and Village. 

“We look forward to the next steps in that process and encourage people to review our submission on the Public Ser­vice Commission’s website,” Ms. Wims said in an email on Tuesday. “Over all, the South Fork Wind Farm is moving forward on multiple fronts, including working with people on the South Fork to help make this project a reality by 2022.”

Deepwater Wind submitted a construction and operations plan for the installation to the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in June, and an application to the Army Corps of Engineers is to be submitted in the coming weeks. Multiple other federal and state agencies must sign off on the project, a review process that may take up to two years. 

The East Hampton Town Board voted in July to support the granting of an access and utility easement allowing the company to land the wind farm’s transmission cable in Wainscott. It also voted to hire an attorney to serve as outside counsel to the town attorney’s office for issues relating to the wind farm. The town trustees have also retained an attorney to guide them in negotiating a land-use agreement and their participation in the Article VII process. As Ms. Wims indicated, the wind farm could be operational by the end of 2022, provided the process proceeds according to schedule. 

Deepwater Wind, which built and operates the nation’s first offshore wind farm, a five-turbine installation off Block Island, seeks to construct the 15-turbine South Fork Wind Farm approximately 30 miles from Montauk. The plan is controversial, with environmentalists and many elected officials calling it an essential component of the transition from fossil fuel-derived energy to renewable sources, and the commercial fishing industry almost universally opposed to it.

Many Wainscott residents also oppose Deepwater Wind’s preferred cable landing site, at the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane, and are circulating a petition that they will deliver to the town board.

A 90-day moratorium on installing deer fences was adopted by the Sagaponack Village Board following a public hearing on Monday. The moratorium will allow the board “breathing space to update our current code,” according to Mayor Donald Louchheim. 

Officials say the code, which permits eight-foot-high fencing only on agricultural property, is in need of revision. Two recent applications sparked a realization that the definition of agricultural production needed to be clarified to differentiate between bona fide farmers and property owners who grow fruits or vegetables in backyards. 

The mayor said the moratorium did not mean the board would not approve deer fencing in the future. “Nor are we going to restrict deer fencing solely to those currently in agricultural production,” he said. “We do not want to stifle new farms.” 

Under discussion, he said, was a possible condition requiring residents who start a farm to provide “specifics on what will be planned for the area where fencing is required, and, if those plans aren’t implemented within 12 months of approval, the fencing will have to be removed.” 

During the hearing, five residents, including David Schoenthal, who was in favor of the moratorium, and John Frawley, who was against it, spoke out. The discussion was muted compared to recent board meetings at which several neighbors vehemently opposed an application for deer fencing by the owners of a Parsonage Lane residential property. 

William Barbour, a village board member, referred to the animosity that had arisen over the issue in a statement he made at Monday’s hearing. “I find it very disheartening that the deer fence dilemma has turned into a Hatfields and McCoys scenario,” he said. He recommended that residents redirect their anger toward the 18-foot-high privet hedges that block sight lines on many Sagaponack properties. “Deer fence to protect someone’s crops is nowhere near as distasteful,” he said.

Affordable Houses

A lottery for 15 affordable houses at Southampton Pointe will be held next month. 

Southampton Pointe is a condominium townhouse complex on Village Green Drive off County Road 39. The affordable units feature two bedrooms and one-and-a-half baths. The development also has market price condominiums, which cost between $845,000 and $975,000, and a clubhouse. 

Those eligible for affordable housing must meet median 2018-19 household income levels established by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The sale price of a house for people earning 80 percent of the median income is $233,375 and for those earning 20 percent more than the median it is $350,125. 

Eighty percent of the median income is $93,350 for a family of four and $74,700 for a family of two, while 20 percent above the median income is $140,050 for a family of four or $112,050 for a family of two.

Applicants for affordable houses are to submit lottery intake applications to the Long Island Housing Partnership by Oct. 12 at 5 p.m., along with a $50 nonrefundable fee. Applications are available at lihp.org. 

The lottery will be held at Southampton Town Hall on Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. Applicants do not have to be there to be placed on a ranking list. After the list is complete, a formal application process for eligibility to purchase a house will begin.

Summer may be unofficially over, but the harmful algal blooms associated with the hottest months are proliferating across the South Fork and elsewhere on Long Island. 

Last Thursday, Concerned Citizens of Montauk announced that its sampling conducted on Sept. 5 confirmed a bloom of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, in the southern portion of Fort Pond in that hamlet. The northern end of Fort Pond showed elevated risk of a bloom, C.C.O.M. reported, so the entire pond should be avoided. Fort Pond also saw cyanobacteria blooms in 2015 and 2017. 

The East Hampton Town Trustees announced on Monday that cyanobacteria contamination in Georgica Pond in East Hampton, which has experienced blooms of the harmful algae in each of the last seven summers, exceeds the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s standards. The pond is closed to all recreational uses until further notice. 

In an email to Francis Bock, the trustees’ clerk, and Sara Davison, executive director of the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, wrote that levels of blue-green algae jumped after a sensor in the pond was replaced on Friday, more than doubling over the weekend and continuing to intensify.

“Even more troubling is that the levels of the blue-green algal toxin, microcystin, jumped by an order of magnitude during the past week to 5 micrograms per liter,” above the E.P.A.’s limit for recreation, Dr. Gobler wrote. Microcystins can cause serious damage to the liver if ingested, and may promote liver and colorectal cancers. 

Dr. Gobler monitors waterways under trustee jurisdiction and for the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation, a group of pondfront property owners who banded together to develop mitigation strategies after a dog died after ingesting the pond’s water in 2012. In May, he and C.C.O.M. announced a partnership to monitor Fort Pond. 

On Friday, the State Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed new blooms of cyanobacteria in Poxabogue Pond in Sagaponack and Old Town Pond in Southampton. On the South Fork, blue-green algae persist in Wainscott Pond, Sagg Pond in Sagaponack, Mill Pond in Water Mill, and Lake Agawam, Cooper’s Neck Pond, Wickapogue Pond, and Little Fresh Pond in Southampton.

Blue-green algae is naturally present in lakes and streams in low numbers, but can become abundant at times, forming blooms in shades of green, blue-green, yellow, brown, or red. They may produce floating scums on the surface of the water or cause the water to look like paint. 

Health officials urge residents not to use, swim, or wade in waters afflicted by cyanobacteria blooms and to keep pets and children away from the area. Contact with waters that appear scummy or discolored should be avoided. If contact does occur, one should rinse with clean water immediately, and seek medical attention if nausea, vomiting or diarrhea; skin, eye or throat irritation, or allergic reactions or breathing difficulties occur after contact.

Another algal bloom, of cochlodinium polykrikoides, or rust tide, appeared late last month in the southern portion of Three Mile Harbor in East Hampton. Rick Drew, a trustee, wrote to Dr. Gobler last Thursday that some residents described it as “the worst one ever seen.” Though not a threat to human health, rust tide is lethal to shellfish and finfish. 

Dr. Gobler’s lab at the university’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, according to an Aug. 29 press release, has monitored what has grown from an isolated rust tide event in eastern Shinnecock Bay to span Great South Bay, parts of Long Island Sound, and the Peconic Estuary. Last month, tens of thousands of caged oysters and fish in Old Fort Pond in Southampton were killed by rust tide, Dr. Gobler said. Late in August, bloom patches were also detected across Conscience Bay in Setauket and Port Jefferson Harbor. “Beyond large kills in Southampton this year, prior rust tides have brought kills of both natural and aquacultured populations of fish and shellfish on eastern Long Island,” Dr. Gobler said in the release. 

Dr. Gobler pointed to climate change “and specifically warm summer temperatures as a trigger for these large, widespread rust tides” in the Aug. 29 statement. Compared to the 20th century, summer water temperatures “are significantly warmer and it’s been a warmer than usual summer. When we have extended heat as we have seen this summer, intense rust tides often follow.” 

Excessive nitrogen is an equally important factor for rust tides, he said, and can make them more intense and toxic. “As nitrogen loading has increased in Suffolk County waters, these events have intensified,” he said in the Aug. 29 statement. 

Pointing to excessive nitrogen loading from aging septic systems and stormwater runoff, the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation and C.C.O.M. have encouraged replacement of septic systems with state-of-the-art systems that reduce nitrogen. This week, C.C.O.M., Group for the East End, and Citizens Campaign for the Environment announced a partnership to help raise public awareness about the need for such systems and available funding opportunities for system upgrades as part of the Suffolk County Septic and Nitrogen Awareness Outreach Campaign. The county’s Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program, which is administered by the Department of Economic Development and Planning, has awarded the partners $112,000 to implement the campaign.

It wasn’t long after the earthmoving equipment began digging a trench into Windsor Lane in Wainscott, commencing a months-long effort to install approximately 45,000 feet of water main in the hamlet, that reports of sticker shock began circulating. 

One homeowner, who asked not to be named, told The Star that the Suffolk County Water Authority informed him that connecting the house on his flag lot to public water would cost $93,775. Another property owner complained to East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc via email that authorizing the water authority’s contractor, Asplundh Construction, to connect his house would cost $14,800, while a local contractor quoted just $2,338. 

"The residents of Wainscott are paying attention," He wrote, "and virtually everyone I speak with is ready to vote the lot of you out of office." 

The Aug. 20 commencement of the water main extension followed the discovery of perfluorinated chemicals in more than 150 private wells in the hamlet to date, the declaration of a state of emergency, the establishment by the town board of a water supply district, and the board’s partnering with the water authority to develop the project. In the interim, the town provided free bottled water to affected residents and offered a rebate of up to $3,000 for those opting to install a point-of-entry water treatment system. 

The cost of extending the water mains throughout the hamlet will be covered through a bond issue, to be repaid in taxes assessed to all the town’s residents outside the villages. Property owners, however, are responsible for the expense of connecting the main to their residence, should they choose to do so. Should property owners use the water authority’s contractor, the town would pay the cost up front, and residents would repay it through a special assessment on their property tax bill, amortized over at least 20 years. 

That structure is behind the sticker shock: Publicly bid labor contracts are typically three to four times higher, or more, than private contracts because of public procurement rules including Wicks Law, a state law mandating the use of independent prime contractors — large companies that handle sizable and complex government undertakings — for most projects. 

The town board issued a statement on Monday encouraging Wainscott residents who plan to connect to public water to solicit estimates from both the water authority’s contractor and a private plumber. “The water authority must adhere to state law and bidding procedures,” according to the statement, “including selecting the lowest responsible bidder; winning bidders are required to meet certain Department of Labor and insurance requirements, which drives up costs.”

Hiring a private plumber, which residents are free to do, is likely to cost significantly less, the release said, but that cost would be the property owner’s responsibility. “Every property owner,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said at the town board’s meeting on Tuesday, “has to make that decision on their own.” 

The town has instructed the water authority to “make residents fully aware of their options before they are asked to make a choice,” according to Monday’s statement. At the board’s direction, the water authority has suspended Asplundh’s direct contact with potential customers. Residents who agreed to use Asplundh without the contractor’s having informed them as to the cost are to be reimbursed the difference between the public and private contractor costs, Mr. Van Scoyoc said. 

While residents are not required to connect to public water, the town board is strongly recommending it. The financing option, using the water authority’s contractor, will expire in July 2020. Under an emergency declaration in May, the town instituted a rebate program for the installation of point-of-entry treatment systems. That program expires once public water installation is completed.

The irate property owner who complained to Mr. Van Scoyoc softened his position following the supervisor’s reply, in which he explained the circumstances behind the cost of connecting to public water. “While I appreciate that government bids are higher because of the regulatory overhead, I’m still hard pressed to believe that they should be 4-plus times higher,” he wrote. And though the out-of-pocket cost of hiring a private plumber may be easily absorbed by most of the hamlet’s residents, for some it could be difficult or impossible. Those residents, he wrote, must choose among few options, none of them good.

To date, around 8,700 of the 45,000 feet of water main have been installed, Mr. Van Scoyoc said on Tuesday.