Long Island’s coastal zones have hit an all-time low in water quality, with impairments that violate New York State and federal guidelines ubiquitous, according to a report released last week. East Hampton Town waterways, while benefiting from ocean tidal flushing, are not immune from such impairments.
Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences issued the report last Thursday. He has been conducting weekly surveys of Long Island waters for decades, including, for the last decade, for the town trustees, and more recently for the Friends of Georgica Pond Foundation.
Dr. Gobler established the Long Island Marine Monitoring Network in 2004, which during the summer reports on surface water quality from more than 30 locations spanning Montauk to the Queens border.
Last week and the week before, “water quality in Long Island’s bays, harbors, and estuaries reached an all-time low, with water bodies awash in fish kills, dead zones, toxic algal blooms, and fecal bacteria,” according to a media advisory. Current conditions threaten public health, economies, and ecosystems across Long Island, the advisory said.
“As we move through July, water temperatures have heated up and water quality has declined across Long Island,” the report states, with only six of 30 sites between East Hampton and Hempstead ranked good, “and only one site meeting all water quality guidelines.”
Only Great Peconic Bay, Little Peconic Bay, Mattituck Inlet, Shinnecock Inlet, Port Jefferson Harbor, and Stony Brook Harbor were ranked good. Twelve sites, including Three Mile Harbor, were ranked poor, and another 12, including Sag Harbor Bay, were ranked fair.
The report lists a litany of bad news. In East Hampton, Three Mile Harbor is impaired by fecal coliform, low dissolved oxygen, a harmful algal bloom, and poor water clarity. The same impairments are found in Sag Harbor Bay.
Climate change is warming the oceans and other water bodies, and “warmer water holds less oxygen, making our coastal waters more vulnerable to low oxygen conditions,” the report states. The epically heavy rainfall of July 16 “washed bacteria into our waters and, in some cases, stimulated the overgrowth of algae.”
On the East End, “water quality was good in the main stem of the Peconic Estuary where water temperatures are near 80 degrees,” Dr. Gobler reported. But “the more enclosed harbors and tributaries,” including the Peconic River, Meetinghouse Creek in Aquebogue, Sag Harbor Bay, and Three Mile Harbor, are beset with impairments, contributing to their fair or poor rankings.
