A recent water-quality report from Concerned Citizens of Montauk identified dangerously high levels of the enterococcus bacteria at the East Creek area of Lake Montauk — but the cause remains a mystery.
The July 25 report noted that most of the 32 sites that C.C.O.M. tests registered low levels of the bacteria, which can cause serious illness in humans. However, the East Creek site, at the southern end of Lake Montauk, registered a 9,208 MPN/ml (most probable number per milliliter), which was more than three times the bacteria load from the previous week.
The next highest bacteria count was at Head of the Harbor at Three Mile Harbor, which came in at 428 MPN/ml — high, but nothing compared to the outsized number coming out of Montauk.
East Hampton Town says it will tackle the tainted water at East Creek once it finishes a water-quality improvement project at the nearby beach on South Lake Drive. That project is focused on limiting stormwater runoff, introducing new, native vegetation to the area, and upgrading the existing cesspool septic system at the comfort station.
The public beach at the end of South Lake Drive has been closed to swimming by order of the Suffolk County Health Department since 2005. According to a C.C.O.M. map of test sites, the East Creek site is located just east of that beach.
Mellissa Winslow, senior environmental analyst with the town’s Natural Resources Department, said the first step at East Creek would be a source-tracking study to identify where the contamination is originating. That won’t happen, she said, until after the South Lake Drive upgrades are completed, at which point the town will try to identify pollution sources at East (and West) Creeks, “and implement water quality improvement projects to address them.”
In June, Ms. Winslow’s department joined with C.C.O.M. for a public event at the beach and expressed hope that the South Lake Drive project would move forward this fall.
