Public to Vote on Pollution Measure

Proliferating algae that make it unsafe to even come in contact with the water in certain local ponds, pollution spikes or ongoing high levels of coliform and other bacteria that have caused the closing of bays and harbors to shellfishing and swimming, and threats to the drinking water aquifer have all been traced to phosphorous and nitrogen — or sewage.

To do something about the threats to ground and surface waters that are manifesting themselves ever more frequently, voters will be asked in November to authorize the use of a portion of the community preservation fund for water quality improvement projects. Nancylynn Thiele, a town attorney, presented a draft of a local law that would be adopted, should the referendum pass, to the town board on Tuesday.

“We have this legacy problem that’s going to continue to be there for generations to come. I mean . . . toxic algal blooms in Wainscott Pond, Fort Pond . . . polluted areas that have been closed — Coonsfoot Cove, Accabonac Harbor, the south end of Three Mile Harbor. . . . It’s here, folks,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said at the board meeting.

If approved, the referendum would authorize the use of 20 percent of the revenues coming in to the community preservation fund — money from the 2-percent tax on most real estate transactions that has until now been earmarked only for land and historic preservation — for water quality. It will be the subject of a town board hearing early next month before the Election Day referendum is finalized.

Clean waters and a healthy environment define this community, Mr. Cantwell said, and their degradation will affect residents’ lifestyles, recreation, and the economy. “We need to get started,” he said.

A water quality improvement plan for the town was drawn up by the Natural Resources Department and outlined for the board on Tuesday by Kim Shaw, the department’s director. It calls for a multi-pronged approach to water pollution in projects addressing septic waste, stormwater runoff, agricultural fertilizers, and aquatic habitat improvement.

Under the proposed plan, the allotted portion of the preservation fund could be used in part for a program to help property owners pay to repair septic systems or replace them with the best available technology and for rebates to farmers who implement practices that minimize or prevent the addition of nitrogen into the environment.

Kevin McDonald, the conservation projects manager of the Long Island Nature Conservancy, who also chairs a Peconic Estuary advisory group and the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund advisory board, said a “credit card bill” for waste management that was only “a step above Roman technology” is now coming due, in the form of “red tide, rust tide, brown tide” and their consequences.

“There is virtually no dispute that there’s a problem, and the problem is causing serious consequences,” he said. “All of this is solvable. The town has an opportunity, through an incentive program, to accelerate the means by which that occurs,” Mr. McDonald said. “Frankly, we’re behind,” he said. Kevin McAllister of Defend H2O and Zachary Cohen, the chair of the town’s Nature Preserve Committee, also endorsed the referendum.

More than 60 percent of the wastewater systems in the town are cesspools, Ms. Shaw said Tuesday. “It’s really no treatment at all.”

New septic systems, which the Suffolk County Department of Health Services is expected to approve soon, can remove up to 80 or 90 percent of the nitrogen from effluent before it is released into the environment.

“Many of the problems we have are going to be solved on a site-by-site basis,” Mr. Cantwell said. Particularly promising is technology being developed through which existing septic systems can be retrofitted and improved so that they “virtually eliminate nitrogen” at a reasonable cost, he said.

With grant money secured by the town, several pilot programs, such as a barrier at Pussy’s Pond in Springs, already have been implemented and proven effective, she said. But “we realize it’s just triage at this point. We’re really working from the edge of the water up,” versus dealing with the cause of the problem.

The town has completed studies of the Lake Montauk, Accabonac Harbor, and Three Mile Harbor watersheds, as well as a townwide comprehensive wastewater management plan, all of which provided recommendations for how problems could be addressed, but funding for the large-scale projects had not been found.

 “I think this is the single most important effort that we can make toward environmental protection in the town, since the adoption of the community preservation fund,” Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc said Tuesday. “We are in the position of having to deal with legacy issues. We will be able to do that in a very effective way, I think, if the community approves this — without burdening our taxpayers.”

In areas where there is no room on individual properties for improved septic treatment, community or neighborhood-based systems could be installed, according to the town water improvement plan. The plan suggests that the town lead the way by installing advanced systems at municipal facilities, as well as “permeable reactive barriers,” which  physically prevent contaminants from reaching ground or surface waters.

Along with each recommended action, Ms. Shaw said, the town’s plan will include a “rigorous water quality monitoring component” to measure its outcome.

Based on the income the town received from the community preservation fund last year, had 20 percent been available, as now proposed through a referendum, there would have been over $6 million available to address pollution problems, Ms. Shaw said.

Should voters approve extending the preservation fund tax through 2050, which will also be on the November ballot, the projected income would provide up to $152 million for water quality projects.

Besides providing money for water quality improvement, the vote in November is “valuable all by itself,” Mr. Cantwell said, in that an extension of the 2-percent real estate tax for another 20 years, through 2050, could bring in $1 billion for land preservation.

According to a draft law, the town board would be precluded from authorizing projects that “solely accommodate new or additional growth.”

The draft outlines five eligible categories for projects: wastewater treatment improvement, aquatic habitat restoration, pollution prevention, “non-point source abatement and control” programs, and participation in Peconic Bay National Estuary Program projects.

Each project must be included in the town’s action plan and be consistent with one or more regional water quality improvement plans, and meet other specific standards outlined in the law, including compliance with East Hampton’s zoning code and comprehensive plan, especially, Ms. Thiele said, regarding density or possible intensification of a property’s use.

Town Councilwoman Sylvia Overby raised concerns about the law, saying an unintended secondary result of better septic treatment might remove barriers to development. County health approvals based on septic system capacity can now act as a constraint on the development of certain properties, she said. Referring to neighborhood treatment systems, she said they “should be built for the capacity of that neighborhood, now” rather than in a way that would allow more development.

The town’s laws limiting house sizes and maximum lot coverage, would still apply, Mr. Cantwell said, “so I’m not sure that there’s an issue there. Zoning is going to be prevailing here. The same rights that someone has now isn’t going to change.”

If Health Department approval regarding septic treatment is the only impediment to growth, he said, and that growth is unwanted,  the town should reconsider zoning. “If we have areas that are inappropriately zoned, we should be looking at that, and not rely on the County Health Department,” Mr. Cantwell said.

Councilman Van Scoyoc, the sponsor of the law that would modify the C.P.F. program, said the result of any project undertaken with money from the preservation fund “has to be a net improvement to water quality,” and increased density or property use would nullify that.

The draft law calls for the creation of a water quality technical advisory committee to work with the town’s community preservation fund advisory board to review proposed projects and make recommendations to the town board, which would hold hearings on individual projects.

In addition, Mr. Cantwell suggested Tuesday, it is likely that the town would hire a qualified technical expert to oversee the program.

“No new development — you’ll hear that about a hundred times in here,” Ms. Thiele said in presenting the draft law. “But we want to make it absolutely clear that we are not looking to expand the density of development or the population out here.”