Village Board Backs C.P.F. Water Proposal

The East Hampton Village Board concluded most of its business for the fiscal year ending July 31 at an organizational meeting on Tuesday. Save for a July 29 public hearing regarding a proposed modification of a scenic easement granted to the village 40 years ago, the board is not scheduled to meet again until August.

The board unanimously adopted a community preservation fund water quality restoration initiative that would allow a portion of the fund, which has provided more than $1 billion for land preservation on the North and South Forks since its establishment in 1999, to be used for water quality improvement projects. The New York State Legislature approved a bill last year allowing the five East End towns to seek approval from voters for the fund’s revised use. Should voters approve the revision, up to 20 percent of the fund could be used to pay for projects such as wastewater treatment systems, pollution prevention and abatement, and aquatic habitat restoration.

The legislature requested each municipality to assemble a plan, which Billy Hajek, the village planner, discussed with the board prior to its vote. The plan will be sent to the East Hampton Town Board for incorporation into its water-quality remediation plan, said Becky Molinaro, the village administrator. “Hopefully, this will be part of the discussion in November when the C.P.F. amendment goes to referendum for each of the five towns,” she said.

Mr. Hajek addressed the initiative’s five categories. The Cove Hollow Road stormwater pipe transports stormwater runoff that discharges directly into Georgica Cove, a part of Georgica Pond that has poor water circulation and has suffered blooms of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). The pipe collects stormwater along its route, which begins near the Long Island Rail Road trestle at a drainage sump on Route 114. The initiative recommends an engineering study to determine contributing areas, quantity and quality of stormwater entering the pipe, installation of additional drywells within the watershed to reduce the quantity of stormwater entering the pipe, expanding the existing program to install filtering systems within stormwater drains to prevent sediment and debris from entering the pipe, and development of an end-of-pipe treatment system to remove sediment and debris and possibly treat stormwater before it enters the cove.

Additional drywells should also be installed in the Hook Pond watershed to reduce stormwater entering Town Pond and the duck pond at the Nature Trail, both of which feed Hook Pond. Filtering systems within stormwater drains are also recommended there to prevent sediment and debris from entering Town Pond.

Ms. Molinaro told the board that sediment in Town Pond would be sampled on Tuesday, weather permitting. The samples will be analyzed, she said, and the results shared with the State Department of Environmental Conservation. A discussion of remediation will follow. The village’s initiative incorporates recommendations by Lombardo Associates, a consultant hired by the village, and by Christopher Gobler of Stony Brook University, who has been monitoring town waterways since 2013. These include identification and upgrading of antiquated or substandard septic systems within the Georgica and Hook Pond watersheds; development of a rebate program to assist residents in upgrading such systems with advanced treatment technologies; evaluation and upgrade of septic systems at village-owned properties; and an analysis of the feasibility of a commercial-areas sewage district and assessment of connecting some or all of those districts to community treatment systems.

Both Lombardo Associates and Dr. Gobler have recommended dredging areas of Georgica, Hook, and Town Ponds; that suggestion is also incorporated in the village’s initiative. Eliminating sediment and mud is expected to remove 50 percent of the phosphorous and 20 percent of the nitrogen in Georgica Pond, which is believed to feed the algal blooms. Dredging all of Hook Pond, as recommended in the Lombardo study, may not be financially feasible, Mr. Hajek said.

The initiative recommends a data collection program for Hook Pond, including a submerged aquatic vegetation survey that would map vegetation coverage and monitor light penetration. Dissolved oxygen levels and oxygen demand by marine life should be monitored.

The board, Mayor Paul F. Rickenbach Jr. said, is committed to working with its partners on the town board. “Hopefully, as time unfolds we will see some tangible results,” he said.