Skip to main content

Water Unsafe After Heavy Rains

Thu, 08/22/2024 - 11:54
Durell Godfrey

After heavy rain and flash flooding on Sunday, Concerned Citizens of Montauk’s weekly tests of water samples collected at sites in Montauk, Napeague, Amagansett, Springs, and East Hampton the following day revealed high levels of enterococcus bacteria at nearly every spot the organization monitors.

“The only safe water bodies that we test are the Long Island Sound on Soundview Drive beach” and a spot on the east side of Napeague Harbor, Kay Tyler, C.C.O.M.’s executive director, wrote in her report. 

“All other tests revealed through-the-roof dangerous bacteria levels,” even sites on the ocean such as Ditch Plain and Surfside Place. “The overwhelming floods dumped water directly into these sampling sites.”

This week, C.C.O.M. urged people to avoid direct contact with the water through swimming, surfing, and other water sports. Enterococcus bacteria are found in human and animal intestines and are an indicator of contamination by fecal matter in particular. Contact with water that has high enterococcus levels can “significantly increase the risk of gastrointestinal illness, infections, and other health issues,” according to C.C.O.M.

The organization also noted a harmful bloom of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, in Montauk’s Fort Pond last week. Contact with or ingestion of water where these toxic blooms are detected can sicken people and pets, causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, skin or throat irritations, and even “allergic reactions or asthma-like breathing difficulties.”

Villages

First East Hampton, Then the World

In the summer of 2011, Alex Esposito and James Mirras addressed a specific need with Hamptons Free Ride, an electric shuttle service that ran in a fixed loop through East Hampton and from parking lots in town to Main Beach. Since then, a “hometown side project” has developed into Circuit, an all-electric, on-demand “micro-transit” solution in more than 40 cities and towns.

Jul 17, 2025

WordHampton Moves Downtown

The public relations firm WordHampton has long had its finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the East End business community. That comes with the job. And now, with a new office overlooking Park Place in East Hampton Village, it is part of that pulse in a way that was not quite as tangible from its former headquarters in Springs.

Jul 17, 2025

Sag Harbor Rejects Proposed Tree Settlement

The case of Augusta Ramsay Folks, an 81-year-old accused of cutting down two trees on Meadowlark Lane in Sag Harbor in June of last year — in violation of the village’s new tree-protection law — was back in court on July 8, when a settlement proposed by Ms. Folks was rejected by the village and then withdrawn by her attorney.

Jul 17, 2025

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.