Dollars Flow for Hook Pond

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced last week that he had introduced legislation to support a water quality protection project for Hook Pond in East Hampton. The $92,000 project will protect the pond from stormwater runoff and enhance water quality in the watershed.

The water quality of Hook Pond is poor, with dangerously low levels of dissolved oxygen, according to Pio Lombardo, principal of the firm that has conducted water quality studies for the town and village. Accumulated sediment, stormwater and wastewater discharge, and other sources including fertilizer, waterfowl waste, the deposit of pollutants from the atmosphere, and agricultural practices are responsible for elevated phosphorus and nitrogen, Mr. Lombardo told East Hampton Village officials in May. These conditions promote harmful algal growth, which in turn depletes dissolved oxygen.

Extensive stormwater runoff accumulates at the village green, which overflows into Town Pond and from there to a feeder stream of Hook Pond via a culvert.

The project calls for the excavation of approximately a quarter acre of land at the village green, to a depth of 12 to 18 inches, which would be replanted with turf grass in order to create micropools — shallow pools that remove pollutants from stormwater runoff — during wet and inclement weather. The design and implementation of a bioswale — a drainage course designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff — at the Hook Mill green is another component of the project. Both undertakings will address stormwater runoff into Hook and Town Ponds.

The village had applied for a $46,375 grant for the work under the county’s Water Quality Protection and Restoration Program. The funding was initially awarded in the spring, said Becky Molinaro, the village administrator, and is making its way through the County Legislature. The village included its 50-percent matching contribution in its 2015-16 budget.

“The village is extremely thankful for the support of the county executive, Legislator Jay Schneiderman, and the continuing work of our Hook Pond committee,” Ms. Molinaro said.