Indian Wells Beach, Sunday, about 8 a.m., a man in a baseball cap gets out of a car with a small, tan dog. As the he stands near the water's edge, looking at his phone, the dog runs up the beach, poops, and then trots back. The man does not notice — or pretends not to. Later in the day, a poorly set umbrella lifts in the breeze and tumbles along the beach, nearly impaling a woman asleep on her towel. These and plenty more happen every day. Yet, as the number of beachgoers increases, town and village officials have kept their heads in the sand.
A simply staggering number jumped out at us in recent reporting about a very busy first weekend in August for ocean lifeguards. By his estimate, Thomas Brierley, the town's assistant chief lifeguard, said an estimated 6,300 people had been on the beach in Montauk alone. That figure adds to our growing view that beach regulations must be expanded.
Water quality should be at the top of a wish list for the beaches. The Concerned Citizens of Montauk and Surfrider Foundation Eastern Long Island deserve the highest praise for conducting regular testing — government has neglected this essential requirement, so these groups have had to step in. Dog waste and urine should never, ever be permitted within several hundred feet in either direction of lifeguard stands and road ends, even early in the morning or late in the day. Do we really want to dig our toes into sand that somebody's pet had peed in only a few hours before?
Similarly, there is no good reason why our lovely, pale beaches should be blacked with fire debris. Until officials find a safe way to accept half-burned logs and coals, all bonfires, even those in metal containers, should be banned.
It is also common sense that surfcasters should be required to stay some reasonable distance away from people in the water. Rules concerning amplified music must be enforced. Cigar smokers should just quit parking at beaches and stinking up the place. Lifeguards might be asked to help secure beach umbrellas when the wind comes up. Games involving balls or flying discs should be either behind where people are seated or outside of the lifeguarded areas. Food vendors need to provide additional garbage cans to help ease the huge volume that town and village pickup crews otherwise deal with.
Finally, the fundamental point: No single user group should be allowed to diminish others' enjoyment of the same public resource. In this regard, new limits on four-wheel-drives must be found. There are places, for example, Georgica Beach in East Hampton Village, that are so torn up with tire ruts that even the most agile among us have difficulty walking. There are too many vehicles with beach-driving permits now.
East Hampton and eastern Southampton have among the most attractive beaches in the United States, if not the world. It is time new rules are written to keep them that way.