Three fish kills in the Peconic River last summer were the result of rising water temperatures, elevated levels of nitrogen, and harmful algal blooms, according to a study by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services, and researchers at Stony Brook and Cornell Universities.

High levels of nitrogen suppress dissolved oxygen in water, which the study blames for the asphyxiation of some 300,000 Atlantic menhaden in the river. A large population of bluefish at the mouth of the river also served to trap the fish, also known as bunker, according to the study.

The kills occurred at different locations along the two-mile tidal portion of the river between May and June. The highest concentration was reported near the river’s mouth off Indian Island County Park in Riverhead and in the waters between County Route 105’s bridge and the Riverhead Yacht Club.

The Peconic River has a history of degraded water quality and fish kills. As many as 3 million fish died in September 1999; another 750,000 died the following August, while 100,000 died in separate events in May 2008 and May 2009. But the 2015 kill was unique in the algal blooms’ timing and intensity. Spring blooms and the consequent oxygen decline occurred much earlier than usual. The blooms and rising water temperatures combined to prolong periods of extremely low dissolved oxygen.

Secondary factors, including damage to the menhaden’s gills by exposure to the algal blooms, and resulting exposure to a virus, may have contributed to the fish kills, according to the study.

The Suffolk County Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan, released in May 2015, identified nitrogen, pesticides, fertilizers, and volatile organic compounds as the principal contributors to degraded water quality, and established a framework for addressing wastewater management. The county entered into an agreement with the Town of Riverhead for a pilot program to test facilities with sanitized wastewater discharges. The county also awarded Riverhead $8 million and the state has offered the town more than $18 million in financing to upgrade its advanced wastewater treatment facility, including construction of a new sewage treatment plant.

The D.E.C. also is to spend $1 million to develop a nitrogen reduction plan for the Peconic Estuary on top of the $5 million in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s budget to fund programs to develop such a plan for Long Island.

More than two months after the resignation of Brad Bender, the Southampton Town Board became whole again. Julie Lofstad was sworn in as a councilwoman at Tuesday’s meeting, having won a special election on Jan. 26.

The board had to wait until the election results were certified. Ms. Lofstad, who ran on the Democratic, Independence, and Conservative party lines, received 62 percent of the vote over Richard W. Yastrzemski, a Republican. Ms. Lofstad’s election gave Supervisor Jay Schneiderman the majority vote on the board.

“Not only does Hampton, Bays, where Julie comes from, have a voice, but I know she will be a voice for the whole community,” the supervisor said, adding she offers a voice “for small business, and particularly the commercial fishing industry, which often is concerned about how government impacts its industry.”

She has run a commercial fishing business with her husband for the past 15 years. “We haven’t had too many on the South Fork, elected town board members, who have come from that industry so I think it’s going to be an important voice, for our environment, and many other things,” he said.

Days after he was asked to co-sponsor a bill that would ban methoprene, the mosquito larvicide that is suspected of harming nontarget species including lobster and crabs, in coastal areas, State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle did just that.

On Tuesday, Mr. LaValle followed his State Assembly colleague, Fred W. Thiele Jr., introducing a Senate counterpart to Mr. Thiele’s bill that would prohibit the use of methoprene in any fish habitat in any municipality adjoining Long Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, along with their connecting water bodies, bays, harbors, shallows, and marshes.

Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O and Tyler Armstrong of the East Hampton Town Trustees attended Mr. LaValle’s annual environmental round table last Thursday in Riverhead. Though both asked the senator to consider co-sponsoring Mr. Thiele’s bill, Mr. LaValle was noncommittal. His office did not return calls on Monday and Tuesday seeking clarification of his intentions, but on Tuesday he demonstrated that he had listened to Mr. McAllister and Mr. Armstrong’s concerns.

Should the ban become law, methoprene could be applied only on an emergency basis as determined by the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.

The round table also featured discussion of nitrogen mitigation and management. Carrie Meek Gallagher, who heads the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Long Island regional office, sought an increase in funding for environmental protection. She told Mr. LaValle that the D.E.C., the Long Island Regional Planning Council, and Suffolk and Nassau Counties would seek comment from stakeholders on the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan at project scoping meetings held on Monday, Tuesday, and yesterday.

The State Legislature appropriated $5 million for the plan in its 2015-16 budget to assess conditions, determine nitrogen load reduction targets, and identify alternatives and strategies to meet the targets “so we can start taking action,” Ms. Meek Gallagher said.

Peter Scully, a former D.E.C. regional director who was named deputy county executive for administration last year, commended efforts to “elevate the challenges associated with wastewater treatment and nitrogen” but warned that implementing solutions will be challenging. On the East End of Long Island, excessive levels of nitrogen are blamed for the emergence of harmful algal blooms in waterways including Georgica Pond in East Hampton.

The $388 million in state and federal funding to expand sewer service to 8,075 parcels in the county that currently use onsite septic systems is “a starting point,” Mr. Scully said, but “not all of Suffolk County is suitable for sewering,” such as the more sparsely populated East End, where lot sizes tend to be larger and houses spaced widely apart.

“We in the eastern part of the county don’t see sewering as a solution to our problems,” said Bridget Fleming, a former Southampton Town councilwoman who was elected to the County Legislature in November. She asked Mr. LaValle for the state’s support in an effort to identify problem areas and implement unique solutions, be they state-of-the-art septic systems for single-family houses or permeable reactive barriers to intercept nitrogen before it enters waterways.

Pilot testing of new septic systems, which Mr. Scully said could be certified for use in the county by midyear, could address wastewater for such areas where treatment plants are not an option. Whether such systems would be mandatory for property owners in environmentally sensitive areas must be determined, he said, along with whether and how to provide incentives for their adoption and establishment of a work force to install and maintain them. Mr. LaValle said that Mr. Scully and County Executive Steve Bellone were aware that the East End of Long Island will require a different strategy than the more densely populated western portion.

Long Island’s wastewater problems “will take a long time to rectify and remediate,” Mr. Scully said. “It’s going to be a productive and exciting year in Suffolk County with wastewater issues.”

The East Hampton Town Planning Board discussed applications from three cellphone companies on Jan. 27, all at different stages of the site plan review process. Two of the proposals call for placing antennas on existing structures; the third involves erecting a new monopole tower.

The plan that received the most attention, and is likely to be scheduled for a public hearing in the near future, was an application by AT&T to place nine antenna units on the 120-foot-tall windmill lattice tower at Iacono Farm on Long Lane in East Hampton. The units would be sited between 75 and 95 feet above the ground.

The poultry and egg farm, a longtime local landmark, is zoned residential but is in an agricultural overlay district. It uses the power produced by the wind turbine for agricultural purposes.

The planning board first began discussing the project early last year. Since then, at the board’s request, the plan has evolved. The proposal now before the board, according to the memorandum prepared by Eric Schantz, senior town planner, also includes a 336-square-foot equipment shelter, which would be enclosed behind an eight-foot-tall chain- link fence.

The original application showed the antennas protruding from the tower on arms. In the current proposal, they are not only mounted flush to the tower, but painted blue, as suggested by Nancy Keeshan, to match the color of the wind tower and the sky above.

The big question before the board pertained to the town zoning code, which, Mr. Schantz explained, says that agricultural areas are to be avoided when putting up cell towers and antennas. However, John Huber, who frequently represents cellphone companies before the town, told board members that “avoidance areas are directory, not mandatory.”

Reed Jones, the board chairman, expressed support for the proposal, but cautioned that “this is a very slippery slope — this won’t be the last proposal we see on a windmill.”

“I look forward to hearing from the public,” Mr. Jones said, as other board members nodded.

One member is staunchly opposed to the project. “There is another turbine a quarter-mile down the road,” Job Potter said. He warned that once the board signs off on a cell tower in an avoidance area, similar applications from farmers nearby should be expected. Mr. Huber responded that such applications need to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Ian Calder-Piedmonte, himself a farmer, expressed qualified support for the plan. His main concern was that such towers on farms remain dedicated to agricultural use, first and foremost.

Patti Leber asked if the board could see what the finished product will look like. Mr. Huber did not have a rendering available, but will likely have to provide one when the architectural review board, which must also approve the project, weighs in.

Mr. Huber also represented AT&T in its application for a new, although temporary, tower to be erected at the town recycling center off Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, about halfway between the entrance booth and the weigh station.

Mr. Schantz’s memo on this proposal describes three antennas mounted atop a 150-foot-tall mobile monopole, otherwise known as a COW (cell on wheels.) This tower would be used until it can be replaced, at the same location, with a permanent one.

The reason the temporary pole is needed, Mr. Huber explained, is that Cablevision has refused to renew AT&T’s lease on its current tower, nearby at Springs-Fireplace Road and Abraham’s Path. “Verizon is affected as well,” he said.

According to a recent story in The New York Times, Cablevision has introduced a program called Freewheel, intended to compete with cellphone providers. The system relies on Wi-Fi connections rather than the standard cellphone connection.

There is yet another tower near the recycling center, in the Town Highway Department’s yard next door, but that one offers no relief, Mr. Huber said. He told the planning board it is at “211 percent capacity.”

“I’m alarmed to know that the existing tower is at 211 percent,” Kathleen Cunningham said.

“We are doing all this one at a time, without looking at the big picture,” Mr. Potter said.

The problem, Mr. Schantz said, is that the privately owned companies are in competition. “They don’t want to share.”

“The town of East Hampton has been underserved,” Mr. Huber insisted,  saying that cooperation between all sides was needed.

“Maybe the town should do some research and find out what may be coming,” Mr. Calder-Piedmonte said.

The board agreed to ask the town board to take steps to coordinate and consolidate the carriers at the recycling center.

The third cellphone matter before the board that night was non-controversial. It involves swapping out and replacing antennas by Cingular Wireless on the town government tower on Pantigo Road. This has already received a public hearing, and was scheduled to be voted on for final approval last night.

The time has arrived for Southampton Town voters to select a new member of the town board, and make it whole again after the abrupt departure of Brad Bender, who resigned amid drug charges in late November.

Richard W. Yastrzemski, a Republican, and Julie Lofstad, a Democrat, are vying for the seat in Tuesday’s special election. The outcome will determine whether the town’s new supervisor, Jay Schneiderman, will hold a political majority. As it stands, the board is split 2-2.

Both candidates ran unsuccessfully in the most recent regular election. Mr. Yastrzemski lost the supervisor’s seat to Mr. Schneiderman, who took office earlier this month, and Ms. Lofstad came in third for the two open seats on the town board. Mr. Bender had two years left on his four-year term.

Mr. Yastrzemski has served on the Southampton Village Board since 2008 and is the village’s deputy mayor. A professional financial planner and advisor with 30 years’ experience, he is a senior vice president with Rocco A. Carriero Wealth Partners in Southampton. He is a member of the Southampton Elks Lodge and volunteers with Boy Scout Troop 58.

Ms. Lofstad, a Hampton Bays resident, has run a commercial fishing business with her husband for the past 15 years. She had worked for 15 years before that in aeronautical services, designing runway and taxiway lighting systems for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and managed a multimillion-dollar grant program funding projects for the Port Authority. She is a co-founder of the Hampton Bays Mothers Association, a not-for-profit that raised money to build new parks, among other projects.

Voters can cast their ballots at their regular polling places between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

A pilot program sponsored by the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery that will get underway this spring will provide an opportunity to try one’s hand at growing oysters, with information and support provided by the hatchery staff. The program had been described as an oyster garden and approved by the East Hampton Town Trustees in early fall.

 The program, East Hampton Shellfish Education Enhancement Directive, was named to enable its acronym: ESEED. Barley Dunne, the hatchery’s director, spoke to the town board about it on Tuesday. It is modeled after SPAT — Southold Projects in Aquaculture Training — which is an “oyster gardening” program on the North Fork.

A maximum of 15 growers (individuals or families) will be able to join this year’s pilot program for a $250 fee. The hatchery staff will provide training and hands-on help at the oyster-growing site, in Three Mile Harbor. Each grower will be provided with 1,000 seed oysters as well as the gear to grow them. Information will be disseminated to the public in February, Mr. Dunne said, with   the growing season to start in April.

The oyster spat, Mr. Dunne said, are only about 4 or 5 millimeters at first and will grow to 10 or 15 times that size by the end of the season, ending up at 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches. From June through September, he said, oyster growers would be required to pull up oyster bags and gear for cleaning every couple of weeks to prevent fouling, a task he estimated would take an hour or two. In May and October, the cleaning can be done less often.

At the end of October, everything gets sunk to the harbor bottom for overwintering, and the hatchery will collect half the seed oysters from each patch. In the second year, oysters that reach the proper size can be harvested, and more spat will be issued for reseeding.

The program, Mr. Dunne said, will be both educational and a boon to the bay. One adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, he said, and the oyster farming gear provides a habitat for crabs, nursery fish, and other creatures.

“We appreciate the fact that you’re taking this initiative,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said. “I bet you’ll have a waiting list,” Town Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez added

A hearing will be held before the East Hampton Town Board tonight on a request to change the zoning on 4.2 acres of oceanfront property in Montauk — the East Deck motel site at Ditch Plain — from resort to half-acre residential zoning so that it may be subdivided into four house lots.

 The subdivision is under consideration by the town planning board, but cannot proceed without a zone change, which appears likely given the recent history of more extensive plans for the site and comments by Marguerite Wolffsohn, town planning director.

A limited liability company that bought the site in 2013 from Alice Houseknecht had at first proposed turning the old motel into an elaborate private club. That prompted opposition and a campaign to have the town purchase the property. Town officials turned that idea down, deciding it was not economically feasible.

The property owners have agreed, the planning director told the town board on Tuesday, to grant a large lot easement, which would prevent any further subdivision, and a scenic easement to protect the oceanfront dunes. In addition, she said, the shoreward property line extends well onto the beach but the owners have agreed to guarantee public access in front of the house lots by filing legal covenants and restrictions.

Under those conditions, Ms. Wolffsohn said, the division of the property into four separate lots and the construction of one house on each, is considered a better alternative than having a motel operate there. The residences will generate less septic waste and traffic, Ms. Wolffsohn said, and would be built farther back from the beach and away from a coastal hazard zone than the motel building.

The hearing on the zoning change begins at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

Protecting ground and surface waters, and repairing damage already done by pollution from things such as septic waste and road runoff, has risen to the top of East Hampton Town officials’ agenda.

A ballot initiative next fall, if approved by voters, could make millions available for water quality projects by authorizing the use of up to 20 percent of the money in the town’s community preservation fund for such projects, and a town committee is developing a list of prioritized projects.

A host of initiatives, from septic system upgrades to the installation of state-of-the art neighborhood waste treatment systems and barriers to prevent polluted runoff from reaching surface water bodies, is outlined in a townwide comprehensive wastewater management plan the town commissioned from Pio Lombardo, a consultant specializing in the area, and several pilot projects are under way.

But actions that don’t require a financial commitment from the town can be taken in the meantime, Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O, an environmental organization, told the town board at a meeting on Jan. 12.

Last winter, Mr. McAllister presented the board with information on a Brookhaven Town law requiring advanced septic treatment to remove a higher level of nitrogen before wastewater is released into the environment, and he has been pressing East Hampton to adopt one, too. He was pleased to be told last week that an East Hampton version will be drafted and set for public hearing and a town board vote.

The law would require the installation of advanced septic treatment systems — those that remove more nitrogen than standard systems — for all new development that would result in an “intermediate” level of sewage flow, measured in gallons per day.

The standard would set the bar for environmental protection higher than is currently set by the Suffolk Health Department.

Mr. McAllister said this week in an email that setting a higher standard in East Hampton Town is “a great opportunity for East Hampton to really shine as a leader in local action.” He said he hopes to persuade the Town of South­ampton to follow suit. 

Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at the board meeting earlier this month that while some water quality protection actions “might be dependent on a revenue source that might be available after November,” others “can be done on their own.”

“You’ve mentioned one of them,” he told Mr. McAllister.

“We look forward to having a more comprehensive plan of action,” Mr. Cantwell said, “but there’s no reason why we can’t move forward.”

Two Democratic hopefuls who will face off in a June primary to determine that party’s next Congressional candidate for eastern Long Island’s First District will discuss the issues at a forum in Amagansett on Wednesday. The East Hampton Town Democratic Committee is the sponsor.

The discussion between Anna Throne-Holst, a former South­ampton Town supervisor, and David Calone, the founder of Jove Equity Partners, who just recently stepped down as Suffolk County Planning Commission chairman, will be moderated by Charles Hitchcock, the town Democratic committee’s former chairman. The event will take place at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church beginning at 7 p.m.

Legal bills were on the town board’s agenda last Thursday night as the board resolved to hire outside lawyers as counsel in matters related to the East Hampton Airport.

The town is facing legal challenges to its airport use restrictions, including a nighttime curfew, instituted last spring as noise-reducing measures. An agreement with the firm of Kaplan, Kirsch & Rockwell, which has served as East Hampton’s counsel on aviation matters, was renewed for 2016, with an expenditure of up to $300,000 approved without further board review.

In addition, the board voted to extend its agreement with Kathleen M. Sullivan of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, who has been defending the town on airport matters in appellate court. Payment of up to $200,000 was approved. The legal fees will be paid by the airport fund.

The board also voted unanimously to appoint two new assistant town attorneys. NancyLynn Schurr Thiele will be paid an annual salary of $93,000, and Hope De Lauter will earn $75,000 a year.

A lawsuit over ownership and control of a stretch of oceanfront beach on Napeague has prompted the town to pursue an eminent domain procedure over the land, and the board also approved a $320,000 bond issue for that purpose. With another resolution, the board agreed to hire two firms, AKRF Inc. and Whiteman Osterman & Hanna, for a maximum of $165,000, to prepare a required environmental impact statement. The costs will be shared with the East Hampton Town Trustees, as will an $80,400 fee to have the Lawrence Indimine Consulting Corp. appraise the property in question.

Also at last Thursday’s meeting, the town board made a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, finding that the proposed rezoning of the former East Deck motel property in Montauk, from resort to residential zoning, would not have a significant environmental impact.

A limited liability company that purchased the site in 2013 is seeking to subdivide the 4.2 acres into four house lots, a plan that will be reviewed by the planning board should the zoning change be approved.

The negative declaration was conditioned on agreements with the L.L.C. that it would guarantee public access to the beach by filing legal covenants and restrictions, and that large-lot and scenic easements would be imposed. Although those provisions were not specifically outlined in the SEQRA declaration, they were implicit as part of the proposal by the L.L.C., Eric Schantz, a town planner, said this week.

Another condition raised in discussions with the property owners, that no revetments or other erosion-control structures would be built at the site, was brought up at the board meeting by Jeremy Samuelson, who as executive director of Concerned Citizens of Montauk, has been involved in the talks. That matter, said the lawyer for the L.L.C., Leonard Ackerman, would come under the planning board’s purview.

A prohibition on structures is included under the conservation easement to be enacted on the shore area, Mr. Schantz said Tuesday.

The town board did not vote on the zone change. The property owners had at first proposed turning the old motel into an elaborate private club, which did not sit well with the community. Town officials explored the possibility of purchasing the site with the community preservation fund, but found it impossible due to the asking price. The discussions with the landowners followed, resulting in the new residential subdivision plan, which is widely viewed as an acceptable use of the land.