East Hampton Town, Concerned Citizens of Montauk, Geological Survey Will Partner To Identify Sources Of Lake Montauk Pollution

The U.S. Geological Survey will begin a two-year study of the water flowing into Lake Montauk from a variety of sources, seeking to identify the source of bacteria and other pathogens that have polluted the lake for years.

The study will cost some $75,000 and will be funded largely by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk, which has already been backing a battery of weekly water sampling in Montauk and other points in East Hampton for five years, in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation. East Hampton Town will contribute $13,000 to the project from its Natural Resources budget.

That sampling has shown elevated levels of various pathogens, including fecal bacteria, along the Lake Montauk shoreline.

“There’s a bit of a shortfall with our monitoring program,” CCOM President Laura Tooman told members of the East Hampton Town Board this month. “The problem is, it’s telling us there’s a problem, but it’s not telling us where the problem is coming from, or how it’s getting into the lake.”

To try to home in on the source, and direct efforts to stanching the flow of pathogens, the new study will tap Geological Survey laboratories to conduct microbial examinations of the water samples to determine the types of waste reaching the lake.

Ms. Tooman said that the organization believes that failing septic systems in the Ditch Plains area are the likely source of bacterial pollution at the southern end of the lake, which is fed by groundwater flowing north from that beach community. Confirming that the fecal bacteria is human-produced will help guide the next step—devising a plan to capture the waste before it gets into groundwater.

Horses and dogs have also been pegged as possible sources of bacterial and nutrient loading in the water, and identifying exactly which animals are contributing what amounts to the pollution will also allow for strategies for reduce levels of each.

The project planned for Montauk will piggyback on an islandwide study by the Geological Survey commissioned by the State Department of Environmental Conservation. By combining its sampling with that collected for the larger study, the Montauk effort will save costs on paperwork and the need to assign biologists to conduct the sample analysis, a Geological Survey staffer, Tristan Tagliaferri, told the Town Board.

The loads of bacteria and nutrients carried in groundwater polluted with human or other animal waste have had deleterious effects on the lake and other water bodies. Harvesting shellfish in much of Lake Montauk has been prohibited because of bacteria pollution, and swimming in it has been banned on several occasions because of high bacteria counts.

Last summer, after a potentially toxic algae bloom emerged in Fort Pond, the swimming portion of the Mighty Montauk Triathlon had to be canceled at the last minute.