The arrival of relatively cool, dry weather translated into generally low levels of enterococcus bacteria at water-quality test sites around East Hampton Town for the week beginning Oct. 17, said Jaime LeDuc, program manager with Concerned Citizens of Montauk, which monitors for the harmful entero bacteria at nearly three dozen sites in Amagansett, East Hampton, Springs, and Montauk.
There were a few entero outliers that showed elevated bacteria levels, including the outfall pipe at Surfside Place in downtown Montauk, which once again registered an off-the-charts entero level of greater than 24,196. Anything above 104 is considered a possible health risk to humans.
Three other test sites on Lake Montauk showed levels at between 120 and 265, while the Northwest Creek ramp and culvert in East Hampton also had potentially harmful levels, at 228 and 183 respectively.
Half of all test sites monitored by C.C.O.M. showed low levels of bacteria while two at Fort Pond in Montauk showed medium levels -- 95 on Industrial Road and 52 at the boat ramp.
In conjunction with Gobler Laboratories at Stony Brook University, C.C.O.M. also tests for toxic blue-green algal, or cyanobacteria, blooms in Fort Pond.
The organization reported that the Industrial Road and boat ramp test sites both yielded results indicating the pond was at medium risk for a full-on toxic bloom. Ms. LeDuc reported that "blue-green algae levels have remained low at Fort Pond."
