Sag Harbor Gains Jurisdiction Beyond Breakwater

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has signed legislation granting the Village of Sag Harbor authority over waterways beyond the present 1,500-foot boundary, expanding its jurisdictional reach into an additional area in East Hampton Town waters. The legislation’s intent is to regulate moorings and anchored vessels in the area outside the breakwater.

The East Hampton Town Trustees, responding to a request from representatives of Sag Harbor Village’s harbor committee, gave their formal support to the bill in March after agreeing on wording to be inserted into it asserting the trustees’ continued ownership of waterways and bottomlands within the town’s boundaries while granting expanded jurisdiction to the village. State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle and Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. sponsored the legislation.

John Parker of the village’s waterways advisory committee had told the trustees that the area had become chaotic because of a large increase in the number and variety of transient vessels, with some sinking and washing up on the breakwater or Havens Beach and spilling debris, fuel, or other contaminants. Boats outside the harbormaster’s jurisdiction had also been improperly discharging sewage, Mr. Parker said.