It was an opinion piece, but the headline of David Leonhardt’s New York Times essay of Sunday sounded definitive: “The Story of 2018 Was Climate Change.” 

“Extreme weather in 2018 was a raging, howling signal of climate change,” The Washington Post wrote on Monday, citing record rainfall, flooding, temperatures, and wildfires around the world, as well as extreme storms. 

NBC’s “Meet the Press” devoted its entire program on Sunday to discussions about climate change, and pointedly did not include voices from the tiny minority of climate scientists who deny its existence. 

“The story of climate change in 2018 was complicated — overwhelmingly bad, yet with two reasons for hope,” Mr. Leonhardt wrote. “The bad and the good were connected, too: Thanks to the changing weather, more Americans seem to be waking up to the problem.” 

Two weeks before Mr. Leonhardt’s column was published, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc made the same observation. “The science on global warming was actually put to bed in 1979, just for people to understand how long it takes to get a concept to take hold,” he said. (“Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment,” published that year by the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere would cause warmer air temperature in the troposphere, and found “no reason to doubt that climate change will result” from that rising concentration, “and no reason to believe that those changes will be negligible.”)

Four decades later, the concept “is taking hold now,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “People are starting to understand it, and they’re also seeing the changes in their own neighborhoods.”

Though the South Fork has been spared a hurricane in recent years, the signs of a warming world are difficult to miss in East Hampton. “I see it every day,” the supervisor, who lives in Northwest Woods, said. “I see the devastation of the [southern] pine beetles on my property. I see the eroding beaches — and it’s not just Montauk; in fact, there’s probably too much focus on Montauk.” In Springs, “Gerard Drive is continually getting washed out, not even by large storms. You go along up in the bay and see beaches there that have basically disappeared now. The water’s coming up, and the storms are getting worse.” 

“I’ve noticed, inside Lake Montauk, the beaches are less wide, shorter,” Ed Michels, the town’s chief harbormaster, said last month. Among the myriad responsibilities of the Marine Patrol Department, which he leads, is maintenance of docks and launch ramps. “The pilings that, at high tide, used to still [have] plenty of pole left are now getting too short,” he said. “We’re going to have to start changing pilings” because of sea level rise. 

Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, was an extreme event. Today, however, “for regular northeasters, we have water over the dock at the head of the harbor,” Mr. Michels said of Three Mile Harbor. “The water level has been higher, absolutely. Higher tides are higher. That’s a bit of a concern for us,” not least the prospect of floating docks surging over pilings, he said, or seawater inundating the dock-mounted electricity supply pedestals common at boat slips. “It wreaks havoc.” 

“We have some big marine infrastructure projects going — the jetty at Three Mile Harbor, the jetty at the Sammy’s Beach breakwater,” and, in 2019, “a long stretch at head of the harbor,” Mr. Michels said. Some years ago, he recalled, a small length of bulkhead there was patched with sheathing to extend its life. “Now we’re ready to start working on that, but I’m being told by our engineers that it’s below grade now.” 

“We’ve made it part of our priorities, when we redo any bulkheads, to raise the level by at least a foot,” said Mark Mendelman, vice president of Seacoast Enterprises Associates, which operates four marinas and two boat yards on Three Mile Harbor. “If we can, we try to go higher. We’re definitely seeing more evidence” of sea level rise, he said, including “the frequency at which we get water in the parking lot, water coming up over the bulkheads.”

“We had four serious northeasters last year,” said Bill Taylor, the town’s waterways management supervisor and a town trustee. “We’re getting bigger rains. I think the commercial dock was under water once already. These things that happened every 15 years are happening every year now.” 

Fish species are migrating northward, Mr. Taylor said. “Yes, it’s really happening: Look at lobsters. They used to be all over here. They didn’t really die off, they just moved north. In Maine, Massachusetts, there’s a bounty on them. They’re moving up in Canada.” 

“Fish vote with their fins,” he said. “They swim to where the water temperature is right. As far as global change, we’re in the most premier fishing spot, practically, in the world. When you’re in the best spot, change is not your friend.”

There may be multiple factors in play, said Rebecca Young, a nurse at the Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, but a warmer climate means that ticks are more active during the winter. “I see more tick bites throughout the year than there used to be,” she said yesterday. Ms. Young fielded more than 1,000 calls about tick-borne illnesses last year, she said, and more people were admitted to the hospital, “not with Lyme disease necessarily, but maybe with co-infections,” as the deer tick can carry several diseases, including babesiosis. “It seems like it’s increasing: more tick bites, more antibiotics distributed . . . and more people admitted to the hospital with infections.”

“Tide gauge and satellite measures of water level document that global [sea level rise] acceleration is occurring and that the Atlantic Coast between Boston and Cape Hatteras is a ‘hot spot,’ ” according to “Anthropocene Survival of Southern New England’s Salt Marshes,” published in 2016. “While relative sea level has been rising since the Last Glacial Maximum,” around 20,000 years ago, “rates of [sea level rise] for the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region are accelerating significantly faster than rates for the U.S. Pacific and Gulf Coasts.” 

“At the height of glaciation, sea level was about 100 meters lower than today,” said Scott Warren, the Tempel professor of botany emeritus at Connecticut College in New London and a co-author of the study. Initially, as glaciers melted, it rose one-half to one centimeter per year on average, he said, slowing to around one millimeter per year around 4,000 years ago. “Probably in the mid-1800s it began to speed up again,” from around one millimeter to between 2 and 2.5 millimeters. Though causality is uncertain, “It certainly is coincident with the first stirrings of CO2-induced climate change,” he said. 

Then, “between 1980 and 1990 it began to accelerate. Let’s say the mid-1980s to now — 30 to 35 years — it’s been going up double again, about four to five millimeters per year, and shows no sign of going down. We know that at least part of the sea level rise is due to thermal expansion of the top 100 meters of the ocean. Warmer water is bigger water: Things expand when they get hot.” Melting of terrestrial glaciers is also responsible, he said, as is the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. 

Even if the steep reductions in CO2 emissions urged in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s October 2018 report were to begin immediately, “There’s a lot of global warming baked in to what we have done already,” Mr. Warren said. “There’s a lot more heat in the ocean than we thought. That’s probably going to accelerate the melting, or the movement, of some of the Antarctic glaciers. It certainly is accelerating the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. This is not going to slow down for a while.”

Inevitably, he said, as sea level rises, “salt water is going to push farther into brackish and freshwater marshes. Certainly in a place like Long Island, that has the potential to raise significant problems in groundwater.” 

Long Island, Mr. Warren predicted, will experience nuisance flooding such as that routinely occurring in Miami Beach. “I don’t know the exact topographic details of the roads, but some of them aren’t very high above sea level. Sound Avenue,” on the North Shore, “surely isn’t. I’d be concerned if I had a septic system close to the shore. . . . People with lawns right down to the edge of the water are going to find they’re mowing salt-marsh hay, or some wet stuff,” he said. “It’s not going to be so nice.”  

In October, President Trump reversed his position on climate change, to a point, acknowledging that the climate is changing but adding that “it’ll change back again.” In fact, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, present patterns will not change. “It’s going to be like this for years to come,” he said. Nonetheless, he is optimistic. “I do think we have the capacity as human beings to figure out how to solve some of these problems and adapt,” he said. “What kind of world do you want to have to adapt to, though? We have it pretty wonderful right now. We need to keep that perspective.”

The East Hampton Town Trustees elected a new deputy clerk at their organizational meeting on Monday. Jim Grimes, who was elected to the nine-member body in 2015 and re-elected two years later, was nominated to be one of the trustees’ two deputy clerks. Brian Byrnes made the nomination, which was seconded by Rick Drew, a deputy clerk who was also nominated. Bill Taylor, the other deputy clerk, was nominated for that role by Susan McGraw Keber. Susan Vorpahl nominated Mr. Drew. 

A vote by paper ballot followed. Mr. Grimes received seven votes, Mr. Taylor five, and Mr. Drew four. Mr. Grimes and Mr. Taylor will serve as deputies to Francis Bock, who was re-elected clerk, or presiding officer. The clerk’s annual salary is $23,201. Deputy clerks are paid $18,934. Each of the other six trustees is paid $8,060 per year. 

In other news from the meeting, the group set the annual lease for trustee-owned parcels at Lazy Point in Amagansett at $1,786 per year, representing a 2-percent increase over last year.

“Coastal erosion and sea level rise will continue to be a topic of focus for the coming year,” Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said at the first East Hampton Town Board meeting of 2019 last Thursday, noting the four northeasters last March and resulting erosion and damage to the Army Corps of Engineers’ beach stabilization project in downtown Montauk. “These weather events are predicted to continue to increase in frequency and severity, and will require innovative solutions and funding to minimize future losses,” he said. 

The establishment of an erosion control district for downtown Montauk is being studied. It would fund a sand-only beach replenishment project as an interim step while the town awaits the Fire Island to Montauk Point reformulation project. Later in the meeting, the board named 10 members to the Montauk Beach Preservation Committee, which was established last year to explore the creation of such a district and funding mechanisms. 

“Protecting and improving water quality was and continues to be a top priority,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said, referring to contamination in Wainscott and harmful algal blooms in multiple waterways. The Suffolk County Water Authority is completing installation of 45,000 feet of water main in Wainscott, potentially serving more than 520 residences, he said, and wastewater regulations and installation of low-nitrogen septic systems in 2018 represent initial efforts to address degraded waterways. 

Expanded shellfish production will result from the town’s acquisition of land adjacent to its aquaculture facility on Three Mile Harbor, at which operations will be consolidated, the supervisor said.

Mr. Van Scoyoc recounted the town’s progress toward achieving its energy needs through renewable sources, including the South Fork’s first megawatt-scale solar installation, which came online off Accabonac Road in East Hampton late last year, and ongoing negotiations with Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind for an easement to land the transmission cable for its proposed South Fork Wind Farm, to be situated some 35 miles off Montauk. 

“We are also working with the New York Power Authority to install rooftop solar panels on several municipally owned buildings,” he said, and the town has incentivized rooftop solar by offering reduced prices on purchase and installation.

The Energize East Hampton solar and energy savings program was launched last year, offering one-stop shopping for free or discounted solar and energy efficiency projects, including free smart thermostats, pool pump rebates, and free commercial lighting efficiency upgrades. The town is also adding electric vehicles and charging stations to further reduce the use of fossil fuels. 

The hamlet studies, for which public hearings were held in the fall, will be adopted early this year, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, and will help guide future development and redevelopment. 

Affordable housing remains in critically short supply, he said, but the 12-unit Manor House condominiums will be occupied early this year, and ground is expected to be broken on the 37-unit Gansett Meadows project at 531 Montauk Highway in Amagansett in April. The board will hold a public hearing next Thursday on the purchase of a four-acre parcel off Route 114 for another 20 to 30-unit project. 

“While I am pleased with the progress we have made this year, there is clearly more to do,” Mr. Van Scoyoc said. “So let us get on with it. And getting on with it means having David Lys sworn in, in the annual David Lys swearing-in process.” 

It was a joking reference to the councilman, who was appointed to the board to fill the seat Mr. Van Scoyoc vacated upon his election as supervisor last January, won election in November, and will have to stand for re-election this fall, should he seek to continue. 

Mr. Lys, who was elected with 71 percent of the vote, stood before Town Clerk Carole Brennan for the swearing-in. 

Three new members of the planning board were among the others sworn in at the meeting. Sam Kramer, who was vice chairman of the town’s zoning board of appeals, was appointed to the planning board for a seven-year term, and was also appointed its chairman. Louis Cortese was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Patti Leber, who had resigned, and Sharon McCobb was appointed to fill the unexpired term of Job Potter, who had also resigned. 

Mr. Cortese’s term expires on Dec. 31, 2022, and Ms. McCobb’s on Dec. 31, 2020. Kathy Cunningham is the planning board’s vice chairwoman. 

Nancy Keeshan, a Montauk resident who served on the planning board for eight years, was not reappointed. “I enjoyed looking out for Montauk, and wish the new board members a lot of luck,” she said on Monday. “They have someone representing Montauk,” she said of Mr. Cortese, who is a member of the hamlet’s citizens advisory committee, “so that’s good. Montauk being well looked after — that’s the idea.” 

John Whelan and Tim Brenneman were reappointed to the zoning board of appeals. Mr. Whelan is the chairman. Roy Dalene is its vice chairman.

The Town of Southampton could benefit from a community choice aggregation, or C.C.A., energy program like one Westchester County was first to establish in New York State. But any aggregation on Long Island would face some regulatory challenges that Westchester’s innovative program did not, according to an expert who helped Westchester launch its program in 2016. (New York is only the seventh state in the country to allow C.C.A.s.]

One major challenge is that the Long Island Power Authority, is exempt from the regulations governing C.C.A.s, which were established by the state’s Public Utilities Commission, said Glenn Weinberg, a consultant and former program director for Westchester Power, who spoke at a Sag Harbor forum on Saturday sponsored by the Southampton Democratic Club.

‘In the end, we need a reliable entity that’s capable of delivering enrgy that’s both greener and lower cost.’

— Bridget Fleming

Creating a C.C.A. would allow Southampton consumers to seek energy from sources or suppliers other than PSEG Long Island, which manages the grid on LIPA’s behalf — conceivably at better rates — and perhaps to also band together with consumers in neighboring towns, like East Hampton, to gain more leverage. LIPA would have to cooperate because energy is delivered over its transmission lines, regardless of who the supplier is.

John Bouvier, a Southampton Town councilman, has formally proposed a local law allowing the town to investigate a C.C.A., and Suffolk County Legislator Bridget Fleming, who was in attendance Saturday, agreed that where LIPA stands on the issue is one of the many details that need to be examined.

Both lawmakers strongly support studying whether a C.C.A. would work in this region. They also are seeking more public comment on the idea. The conversation about C.C.A.s is scheduled to continue at the Southampton Town Board meeting on Jan. 22 at the Hampton Bays Senior Center, starting at 6 p.m. 

Mr. Bouvier said one reason he advocates pursuing a C.C.A. is it could give Southampton “a seat at the negotiating table” and access to data it currently can’t get. As an example, he said the town believes it has reduced energy consumption through actions already  taken, but “LIPA is telling us we’re raising our energy consumption.”

“So how do we make decisions without access to even that kind of basic information?” Mr. Bouvier asked. “Right now what happens is, it becomes almost an adversarial relationship, particularly with LIPA. And that’s a problem. So how we are taken more seriously and dealt with, that is important.”

Mr. Weinberg said Westchester’s C.C.A. had indeed delivered that kind of clout because “the county was able to go to its energy suppliers and say, ‘This is what we want,’ rather than be told ‘like it or lump it,’ which is what the old model used to be.” 

Ms. Fleming said she supports C.C.A.s as a way for East End communities to have a greater say in pursuing alternative energy and confronting challenges like the effects of climate change and reducing their carbon footprint. 

“I think C.C.A.s are an extremely exciting idea, but we have to go into it  clear eyed and do our homework,” Ms. Fleming said. “In the end, we need a reliable entity that’s capable of delivering energy that’s both greener and lower cost. That’s the goal. And we have to figure out what recipe works here on Long Island, with the complicated regulatory structure and unique challenges we have. . . . But there’s got to be some savings just by having competition introduced.”

Westchester’s example suggests that is true, Mr. Weinberg and Lynn Arthur, a  consultant and energy chairwoman of Southampton Town’s sustainability committee, said. Millions of dollars in annual savings are indeed possible here, Ms. Arthur said, and the more towns and villages that joined Southampton in a C.C.A., the more negotiating leverage the new entity could conceivably have.  

Linda James of East Hampton Town’s energy sustainability committee said the town has been studying the Westchester model since it began and is now monitoring Southampton’s efforts. But, she said, no one on the East Hampton Town Board has formally proposed pursuing a C.C.A. “We’re proceeding a bit more deliberately for now,” Ms. James said Saturday after hearing Mr. Weinberg speak.

Once a decision is made to go forward with a C.C.A., Mr. Weinberg said the next step would be appointing a C.C.A. administrator to organize the effort, identify available suppliers, and then draw up a contract and solicit bids.

Mr. Bouvier noted that adopting the Southampton law he has proposed would not commit the town to launching a C.C.A. but would only trigger deeper exploration of the idea. “I firmly believe a C.C.A. has great potential,” he said.

Two Bridgehampton facilities that serve the needs of children, the Peconic Land Trust, a couple of local seafood facilities, and the Towns of East Hampton, Southampton, and Shelter Island were among those awarded grants last month by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo through the state’s Regional Economic Development Council.

More than $763 million in economic and community development funding was awarded statewide, with Long Island receiving $68.3 million for 103 projects across Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

The Peconic Land Trust will receive $3 million, one of the largest awards to a Long Island group, to help fund the second phase of its watershed protection program, which has prioritized land acquisition in the Towns of Shelter Island, Riverhead, and Southold. The goal is to safeguard groundwater recharge areas, watersheds, and drinking water for public supply wells.

The East Hampton Town shellfish hatchery won a $400,000 grant to consolidate its nursery and municipal facilities at one site on Three Mile Harbor, near the East Hampton Town Marine Patrol building. The grant will help with the town’s planned $4.75 million project to build a new aquaculture facility. As part of that plan, the town board had already approved in August spending up to $2.1 million to purchase a 1.1-acre property on Gann Road.

Manna Fish Farms in Southampton will receive $100,000 to upgrade the Shinnecock Fish Dock waterfront to provide better processing and packaging facilities for local fishermen. 

In Bridgehampton, the Children’s Museum of the East End won three grants totaling $527,400 and another Bridgehampton nonprofit, the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center, was awarded $300,000.

Bonnie Cannon, executive director of the Child Care and Recreational Center, said its new funding will be devoted to the center’s ongoing capital improvement campaign to raise approximately $2 million to expand and upgrade the center’s facility on the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike and add amenities such as meeting and tutoring areas, a computer lab, art room, a teen area, and storage space.

“It’s very exciting and much, much needed,” Ms. Cannon said. “We’re still raising money and taking donations. Among the other things we’ll have that we don’t have now is an area for teens to gather, more quiet space for study, a reception area. And we’ll have a common room where we’ll be able to do even more community-oriented things.”

Just down the street, CMEE is also planning a significant expansion in the Riverhead area. Two of its three grants — one for $302,400, and another  for $150,000 — will help pay for the construction of the Children’s Museum@Riverside, a new, 4,000-square-foot facility that will offer educational programs, interactive exhibits, and improved access to arts and culture for an area the museum identified as an “underserved” community. CMEE, which has been developing the project with help from the Town of Southampton and several community groups in Flanders and Riverside, plans to use its remaining $75,000 grant to train artists and educators to help deliver programs to the community.

The Spur Innovation Center, a workspace sharing and entrepreneur­ship group in Southampton, received $500,000. Ashley Heather, the founder of the Spur, has said the money will be used to add more staff, cover operational costs, and help pay for the new workspace-event hub that’s being built at 630 Hampton Road.

The East End Tourism Alliance plans to devote the $140,625 it received to support its Seasons of Reasons promotions, which are targeted at generating tourism in the nonpeak times of the year.

Other Regional Economic Development Council grants to local recipients included $5 million to Suffolk County to provide expanded public sewage connections on the south shore of the South Fork; $113,370 to the Town of Shelter Island to replace a restroom at Crescent Beach; $49,063 to Sag Harbor Industries to help existing employees obtain additional certification in soldering, and $410,000 to the Town of Southampton to rebuild a culvert under Noyac Road at North Sea Road to restore proper water flow through Alewife Creek, which will allow for the spawn migration of alewife, an important fish species to the local ecosystem.

A report completed in November by a consultant to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation identified “four distinct areas of concern” with respect to perfluorinated chemicals in groundwater around East Hampton Airport in Wainscott. 

The compounds, used in firefighting foam and other products, were discovered in 2017 to have contaminated residential wells in Wainscott, prompting the East Hampton Town Board to declare a state of emergency, form a water supply district, and join with the Suffolk County Water Authority to install 45,000 feet of water main to connect affected properties. 

The report from AECOM Technical Services Northeast stated that past use or storage of aqueous film-forming foam had impacted groundwater at the site, identifying concentrations above the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s lifetime health advisory level of .07 parts per billion. Drinking water collected from leased aircraft hangars on the property also tested positive for the compounds, as did soil samples, though in lower concentrations. 

The chemicals, perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, were detected at an area north of the airfield, “where firefighting foam was historically used for crash response and training,” the report states; at an area on the northeastern section of the approximately 610-acre site, where aqueous film-forming foam “was deployed during a mass casualty training exercise”; beneath an aircraft rescue and firefighting station, where the foam is stored but discharge could not be confirmed, and beneath a parcel occupied by the East Hampton Town Police Department. 

Of 25 locations at which groundwater was sampled in May and August, including 18 temporary wells, three piezometers — devices that measure groundwater pressure — a county monitoring well, and a storm drain, the E.P.A.’s health advisory level was exceeded at six. Low levels of PFOS and PFOA were recorded in several other locations. 

The report includes a recommendation for supplemental investigation of the areas of concern to delineate the nature and extent of impacts. That would include sampling to evaluate whether an ongoing source of perfluorinated chemical contamination to groundwater exists in soil at each area of concern, expansion of the on-site monitoring well network, a sampling program to complete horizontal and vertical delineation of effects on groundwater, and installation of off-site monitoring wells to determine whether impacted groundwater has migrated from the airport. 

“Since contamination was discovered in the East Hampton area, D.E.C. continues to be a constant presence in the community, and working aggressively to ensure public health and the environment are protected,” Mike Ryan, the director of the D.E.C.’s Division of Environmental Remediation, said in a statement provided to The Star. The agency’s site characterization for the airport “revealed four distinct areas of concern where additional study is needed to fully delineate the nature and extent of the identified contamination,” he said. “This study will help inform appropriate cleanup measures and further D.E.C. actions, and we will continue to keep the community informed as these investigations continue.” 

PFOS and PFOA are currently unregulated, but the E.P.A. issued the health advisory level to protect the most sensitive populations, including fetuses during pregnancy and breast-fed babies, against potential adverse health effects. According to the E.P.A., studies on animals indicate that exposure to the two compounds over certain levels may also negatively affect the thyroid, liver, and immune systems, and cause cancer, among other effects. 

Once discovery of the perfluorinated chemicals was announced in the fall of 2017, the town provided bottled water to affected residents and instituted a rebate program for those who opted to install a point-of-entry treatment system on their property. A Southampton lawyer filed a lawsuit against the town on behalf of a Wainscott resident in the spring, alleging that it was negligent in allowing polluting businesses to operate on leased land at the airport and on Industrial Road. 

Last month, Councilman Jeff Bragman, who is the town board’s liaison to both the airport and the Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee, announced that the town was suing multiple manufacturers of aqueous film-forming foam, including the 3M Company, Tyco Fire Products, and National Foam Inc., as well as the Bridgehampton Fire District and East Hampton Village. 

“This is a claim against other companies to contribute to the Town of East Hampton to help offset the costs that we’ve incurred to remediate these chemical contaminations,” he said on Dec. 20. 

The following day, the town announced that the last 1,000 feet of water main would be installed in the first week of January. Of approximately 520 residences in the water supply district, 124 have been connected to public water. 

Those seeking more information can contact Eric Obrecht, the D.E.C.’s site project manager, at 518-402-9625.

The East Hampton Town Trustees have put out a call for applicants to assist in next year’s mosquito larval sampling program in the 190 acres of marshland surrounding Accabonac Harbor. It is to be the third year of a pilot project jointly conducted by the trustees with the Suffolk County Department of Public Works’ vector control division, the Nature Conservancy, and the town’s Natural Resources and Planning Departments.

The program will start in June and continue through August. Participants will be compensated. Those interested in applying have been asked to send a brief bio and résumé with their contact information to Susan McGraw Keber at [email protected].

Last summer, Ms. McGraw Keber and John Aldred of the trustees oversaw some 6,000 samples taken over the county’s 11-week spraying season. Samplers sent data to the Nature Conservancy, which consolidated the information and forwarded it to the vector control division. Tom Iwanejko, the director of vector control, and his staff reviewed it and issued directives to the county’s helicopter pilots to alter spray patterns accordingly.

The program identified “hot spots” of mosquito breeding at the upper end of the marsh. Consequently, application of methoprene, a mosquito larvicide, was reduced from a 195-acre spray area that went right to surface waters to a 95-acre area, and the county saved an estimated $18,000 from the reduced application. On four weeks during the 11-week season, no spraying at all took place. 

The volunteers and trustees also discovered physical characteristics of the wetlands, such as a sunken boat that was harboring breeding larvae. The trustees dismantled and removed it, eliminating one breeding hot spot.

The 2019 effort will serve to identify and confirm such breeding spots and the altered marsh conditions that foster them. The eventual goal is to work toward returning these altered marsh areas to a more natural state that discourages larval mosquito development and furthers elimination of the use of pesticides. 

Mosquitoes can carry West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, and other diseases. There were no reported cases of such diseases in East Hampton this year. 

On Dec. 19, the county’s commissioner of health services, Dr. James Tomarken, reported three additional cases of West Nile virus, bringing the total to 11 in 2018. Each of the three is a resident of the Town of Brookhaven and each is over 50 years old. One had become ill in September, and the other two in October. The other reported cases this year were also in Brookhaven as well as the Towns of Southold, Islip, Huntington, Smithtown, and Babylon.

East Hampton Town

Committee Opposes Wind Cable

The Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee has taken a formal stand against Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind’s plan to land a cable from its proposed South Fork Wind Farm at the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in that hamlet. 

In a Dec. 24 letter to the East Hampton Town Board, Barry Frankel and Susan Macy of the committee cite “grave concerns among residents and property owners,” such as changes in Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind’s plan allowing an increase from 90 to 130 megawatts of electricity to travel underground through the hamlet to the Long Island Power Authority’s East Hampton substation; the size of the transition vault to be buried at the Beach Lane road end, and a “lack of convincing scientifically-based studies easing concerns with regard to beach erosion, cable damage and/or exposure,” and the electromagnetic frequency emanating from it. Orsted U.S. has previously been known as Deepwater Wind in The Star.

More than 1,000 residents, property owners, business owners, and renters have signed a petition objecting to the Beach Lane landing, the letter notes. Members of the C.A.C. also feel that Orsted “has not been straightforward about the scale of the project and its impacts on Beach Lane and throughout the local community,” the letter says. 

In its application to the New York State Public Service Commission, Orsted listed Beach Lane as the transmission cable’s preferred landing site, but included state-owned land at Hither Hills State Park on Napeague as an alternative. The Wainscott C.A.C.’s letter urges the town board to insist on the latter site. 

Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind has offered a community benefits package worth more than $8 million to the town in exchange for whatever easement and lease the town board and trustees deem necessary to grant for the company’s plans at Beach Lane

A statewide initiative has begun to encourage the use of electric vehicles and increase charging hubs. The initiative includes additional public fast-charger networks across the state,  regulatory actions to lower residential charging rates, and rebates of up to $2,000 for the purchase or lease of a new electric car from a participating dealer. 

High speed charging hubs will be installed along major traffic corridors as well as the John F. Kennedy Airport taxi-hold lot. Two fast chargers also will be installed in Islip and Freeport. The chargers will give travelers between Montauk and New York City the ability to charge their cars in fewer than 20 minutes. Construction of the fast chargers is to begin in the spring. 

The Public Service Commission has also acted to allow residents options to charge  vehicles during off-peak times for standard rates. 

Through its Drive Clean Rebate, over 40 different electric car models are available under the rebate program with more than $15 million already approved in rebates for New Yorkers. 

 State Assemblyman Michael Cusick, the chairman of the Committee on Energy, said in a release, “Less than 2 percent of cars sold in the United States last year were electric. It’s important for government to lay the foundation for future success in this sector in an effort to reduce pollution and spur investment.” 

The  initiative will help reach Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s clean energy and climate goals and the state’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.

The Suffolk County Legislature voted on Dec. 18 to amend the Residential Septic Incentive Program, a grant assistance program for the installation of innovative and alternative wastewater treatment systems, to expand the pool of those eligible to participate in it. 

The five-year, $75-million program was established in 2017 to encourage property owners to replace conventional septic systems with new models in order to reduce nitrogen seepage into waterways. Excessive nitrogen contamination is a primary culprit in the harmful algal blooms that have fouled several waterways on the South Fork and across Long Island. 

“The overall goal is to broaden the range of eligible properties to make sure those dollars get out the door,” Legislator Bridget Fleming said. “It’s very, very important.”

The East Hampton Town Board signed a letter of support for the program’s expansion, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc said last month. 

Accessory dwellings, whether part of a property’s primary residence or a detached structure, are now eligible, as are multifamily dwellings. Along with individuals, firms, partnerships, corporations, trusts, or other legal entities are also now eligible under the expansion. In addition to property owners, tenants are now eligible to take part. 

The maximum grant has also been increased. Applicants are now eligible for a grant of up to $15,000, up from $11,000, and up to $20,000 for applicants deemed low or moderate income, as determined by area median income according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

The county received and allocated just over $10 million in state funding for grants to eligible property owners, out of the $15 million for the program’s first year, “which indicates what a strong program it is,” Ms. Fleming said on Monday. “Kudos to East Hampton Town and Supervisor Van Scoyoc for their leadership, because I think 55 percent of grants that have been awarded to date have gone to my district,” which comprises the Towns of Southampton, East Hampton, and Shelter Island, as well as parts of Brookhaven. “All of East Hampton’s support for environmental issues, and certainly clean water issues, has been huge.”

Separately, the Town of East Hampton offers rebates, through the community preservation fund’s water quality improvement fund, to property owners who upgrade to an approved low-nitrogen septic system. Those with an annual income less than $500,000 are eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000, up to $16,000 if the property is within the water protection district.