Dan's Papers - September 4, 2009 -

I found a plastic goat in the sand on the beach and it reminded me of how deeply immersed children become in the natural environment. They dig, splash, run and roll around in a way we adults don't-a good reason why it's important that we all pay close attention to the quality of the water in our bays and ponds.

In recent weeks, the waters off of Havens Beach in Sag Harbor have come into the spotlight for contamination spilling into the bay waters from a ditch that collects run off from about 300 upland acres. And on August 28, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services issued an advisory against bathing at 64 county beaches due to heavy rainfall. The only East End beach on the list was Havens. The advisory was based on "the potential that bacterial numbers in excess of New York State Standards resulting from the heavy rain" would impact the beach. The recommendation was to avoid bathing or playing in the water for 24 hours after the END of the rainfall-which would have brought us up to Monday afternoon.

This isn't the first time Havens came under advisory. Local scientists and tests by the Suffolk County Water Authority (SCWA) indicate that Enterococcus bacteria levels are high in the ditch after rainstorms, but get diluted once the water mixes into the bay water off the beach. Enterococcus, which exists in the human digestive tract, can cause ear and urinary tract infections and has become the new federal standard in determining water quality.

But is it enough to tell the kids not to splash around in the ditch after it rains, and will they listen? Beaches are closed all along the California coast after significant rain events because of pollution run off, but surfers still swim out and suffer the consequences. But the fact is, storm water contamination is one of the greatest threats to surface water quality today.

Various towns are trying various strategies. Southampton Village is trying to keep massive amounts of run off from flooding into Lake Agawam by using dry wells that will keep the roads from flooding and the lake from being polluted. A new driving range in the Bronx will actually be a roof top garden over a water treatment plant for the Croton reservoir water. Rain water run off will be siphoned off into a series of moats and natural environments like marshes that will cleanse the water by holding it for a longer period of time, allowing sunlight to break down contaminants and plants to take up nutrients that would otherwise flow too rapidly into surface waters. Even the new post office in Southampton seems to have a rainwater holding pond that could allow run off from the parking lot to be filtered before it re-enters the ground water.

So can we apply some of these cutting edge environmental planning concepts to Havens Beach and make it an even better place for families? Maybe turn it into a new duck pond, like the one that's so popular in East Hampton? The Baykeeper Kevin McAllister thinks so.

Years ago, the Peconic Bay Estuary program provided funding for a project that would redirect the run off that currently goes into the ditch that spills out in the middle of Havens Beach. The concept was to recreate a meandering biofilter that would reduce the bacteria and nitrogen that flow from residential areas into the bay. But the project languished and EPA funding through the DEC was withdrawn.

Recreating a marsh that was once there is a concept that deserves a second look if we want to keep the beaches clean. There's a lot of room to play around with an idea like this-as there's quite a bit of land available. New marsh and wildlife habitat could be created and a boardwalk could cross over it. McAllister thinks a project like this could make Sag Harbor village an environmental champion. By combining a family friendly nature complex with a wetlands biofilter, wildlife habitat would increase and kids could go back to playing in an area where they might find more frogs and local songbirds. And if the kids get muddy, they'll only need water to wash it off, not a dose of antibiotics.

For information on beach closures, call the County's Bathing Beach Hotline at 631-852-5822 or visit "2009 Bathing Beach Monitoring" site: suffolkcountyny.gov/health.